What to watch for as No. 12 North Carolina men's basketball takes on No. 20 Notre Dame

The No. 12 North Carolina men’s basketball team faces off against No. 20 Notre Dame in the Smith Center at 6 p.m. on Saturday. While the Fighting Irish have lost their last three contests, they still pose a genuine threat to a Tar Heel side that’s having their own issues with consistency.

How do they play?

Notre Dame’s success this season has been predicated on its offense, and the Fighting Irish have several scoring threats both in the post and on the perimeter.

Notre Dame particularly excels from behind the arc. The Fighting Irish rank 17th in the country in 3-point percentage, and all three Notre Dame players that have taken over 100 3-pointers this season have hit over 38 percent of their attempts.

Who stands out?

The Fighting Irish have a number of players that can do damage, but arguably their most valuable player this season has been junior forward Bonzie Colson.

Colson currently leads the ACC in rebounds per game (10.6) — a pretty remarkable accomplishment considering he stands at just 6-foot-5. He also leads Notre Dame in scoring, tallying 15.6 points per game, and he’s eighth in the conference in field-goal percentage (49.4 percent).

What’s their weakness?

The Fighting Irish allow their opponents to grab almost 30.8 percent of their own misses, good for 227th in the country. In its six losses, Notre Dame has allowed each opponent to bring in at least nine offensive boards.

On the other side, UNC ranks first in the country in offensive rebounding percentage, hauling in 42.6 percent of the shots it misses.

Couple that with the fact one of Notre Dame’s most used lineups has 6-foot-5 Colson at the center spot, and things could get ugly on the glass for the Fighting Irish.

How could they win?

While it hasn’t hurt them terribly, the Tar Heels have been giving their opponents plenty of good looks from 3-point range. UNC’s opponents attempt almost 39 percent of their shots from beyond the arc.

Forcing an opponent to shoot such a high percentage of its shots from so far away would seemingly benefit North Carolina, but Notre Dame has the players to exploit this.

Steve Vasturia, Matt Farrell and V.J. Beachem are the Fighting Irish’s volume 3-point shooters, and the three have knocked down a combined 40.6 of their attempts. If the trio can each knock down a few threes, it could be the recipe for an upset Saturday.

@jbo_vernon

sports@dailytarheel.com