North Carolina @ Georgia Tech preview

North Carolina at Georgia Tech

Last Meeting ( Jan 4, 2020 ) Georgia Tech 96, North Carolina 83

North Carolina has fallen into holes throughout the season. The Tar Heels don't want that to be the case in Atlantic Coast Conference play after a rough start to league competition.

North Carolina plays its second straight ACC road game with Wednesday night's assignment against Georgia Tech in Atlanta.

The Tar Heels, who dropped out of the Top 25 this week for the first time this season, have faced double-digit deficits in six games, unable to dig out of three of them.

"I really don't even know where to pinpoint it," forward Armando Bacot said. "It's definitely something we're going to have to put an emphasis on. We're going to have to figure it out."

North Carolina (5-3, 0-1 ACC) last played when it fell 79-76 in its ACC opener on Dec. 22 at North Carolina State. It couldn't quite recover from a 17-point first-half deficit.

Georgia Tech (4-3, 0-1) won two games since falling Dec. 15 in its ACC opener at Florida State.

"I knew there was danger with us going into the season with how we handled the practice situations," Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner said of his team trying to find good traction going into the bulk of ACC play. "I don't think going into this year you can have predictions, projections."

The Yellow Jackets' 97-69 rout of Delaware State in their last outing marked their most points in a regulation game under Pastner. A chunk of those points came with senior guard Jose Alvarado, who matched his career-high total with 29.

"I know every game is not going to be like that," Alvarado said. "... ACC basketball is hard, so we have to keep playing together."

The Tar Heels, on the other hand, are trying to piece together newcomers with a small core of veteran players. That might be a factor in some uneven performances.

Still, there could be issues surfacing with generating energy.

"I think we just need to play with more fire, more intensity," North Carolina freshman guard RJ Davis said. "Stop letting players outhustle us."

Pastner said it's important to get court time for players such as guard Kyle Sturdivant, a sophomore who played as a freshman for Southern California. He's averaging 15 minutes per game for the seventh-most playing time on the team.

"Kyle is in our rotation," Pastner said. "He has been a main, key guy for us."

Still, the guard-oriented Yellow Jackets figure to face certain challenges in ACC play.

"We're going to need to play big at some point," Pastner said, perhaps figuring that will be the case when facing North Carolina's tall front line.

Pastner said he's pleased that the Yellow Jackets have three games with single-digit turnovers, something that might be stemming from playing lineups with three small guards at times.

So far, it has worked for stretches.

"I think our team is really, really good," Alvarado said. "North Carolina, we know the history with them."

Georgia Tech had a final non-conference game cancelled last week when a game at the University of Alabama-Birmingham was called off because of positive coronavirus results within the UAB program.

Georgia Tech and North Carolina each own a victory against Kentucky.

--Field Level Media