Carolina Rising

Brian highlighted them as a potential sleeper come March, so let's take a closer look at the under-the-radar Tar Heels.

At 16-5 (6-1), Carolina finds itself in position to challenge for an ACC regular season title. On Sunday, they play Florida State at home and go to Duke on Tuesday. Their RPI is 16 and the SOS is 16. Non-conference wasn't very kind to the Tar Heels. They lost a close home game to Texas (Hardly a bad loss at this moment) and on the road to Illinois. Neutral court losses were to Vanderbilt and Minnesota (Both should make the dance). The only conference loss is an inexplicable one to a terrible Georgia Tech team. They have only one significant win, a win over a Kentucky team who is similar to UNC in some ways.

KenPom likes them offensively, 6th in the land but they have issues on the other end, 51st in AdjD. I think the last number bares watching as we move through the remainder of the ACC schedule.

On defense, Carolina boards well (25th), blocks shots (14th) and committs few(er) fouls (35th). Scoring defense is middle of the pack (153rd) but FG% is a very respectable 46th (40.3%). Surprisingly, the FG defense is better than the scoring % which is 96th. They score plenty (33rd) but have issues. Long ball ranks are 277th in makes, a paltry 5.1 ppg and 210th in % made. Coupled with bad FT%, 64.5% (278th) and we can see why they can lay a Georgia Tech stinker.

The hype was Harrison Barnes to begin the season but the glue has been John enson and Tyler Zeller. Henson has been an inside menace, grabbing 8.5 RPG, blocking 3.1 SPG and scoring 11 ppg. His one LARGE flaw is a 39% FT. That'll bring that team number down. Zeller continues to steadily improve, averaging 14 & 7 while adding a block pg as well. Barnes is coming off two dynamic games after a so-so start. Interestingly enough, his numbers have improved with Kendall Marshall starting at PG instead of Larry Drew II. Sound familiar, Duke fans?

Carolina looks to be a on the right track and with a mediocore ACC, they'll probably make some noise heading into March Madness. But there are red flags everywhere at this point. They'll need to clean those up before March but if Huckleberry Roy has found something pairing Marshall and Barnes, maybe they can correct those issues and make some noise in March.