North Carolina guard Seth Trimble (7) dribbles during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against SMU Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo/LM Otero)
No. 22 North Carolina faces its toughest road test of the season Saturday when it travels to play the No. 14 Virginia Cavaliers.
North Carolina (15-4, 3-3 ACC) rides a 90-69 win over Notre Dame that snapped a two-game skid, highlighted by its best defensive effort in weeks. The Irish shot just 36% from the field and 32% from 3, finishing with 69 points, UNC’s stingiest outing since the opener. Offensively, Caleb Wilson, Henri Veesaar and Derek Dixon paced a balanced Tar Heels attack.
Virginia (16-2, 5-1 ACC) presents a far stiffer challenge than Notre Dame. The Cavaliers are highly efficient on offense, averaging 84.0 points per game, and, in typical Tony Bennett fashion, they remain defined by their defense. Virginia leads the ACC in field goal percentage defense (38.1%), 3-point field goal percentage defense (28.9%), effective field goal defense (43.5%) and blocks per game (6.4). The Cavaliers also rank third in the league in scoring defense, allowing 67.5 points per game.
Control the Paint
Carolina is also facing the best frontcourt it will see all season: power forward Thijs De Ridder (16.1 points, 6.2 rebounds) and two 7-footers, Johann Grunloh (8.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 2.5 blocks) and Ugonna Onyenso (6.5 points, 4.6 rebounds, 2.5 blocks off the bench).
That group is a major reason Virginia leads the ACC in rebound margin (plus-9.0), offensive rebounds (14.2) and total rebounds (41.9) per game.
Virginia’s calling card is still defense, but this group can really score, too. The Cavaliers put up 84.0 points a night, good for 53rd nationally among more than 360 Division I teams. They share it and value the ball, ranking 27th in assists per game (17.4), 36th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.61) and 40th in effective field goal percentage (56.0).
They also lean hard into the 3-ball. Virginia launches 28.4 threes per game overall — third most in the ACC and 37th in the country — and that volume climbs to 32.3 attempts per game in league play, the highest mark in the conference.
For North Carolina, that’s a troubling combination. The Tar Heels sit at the bottom of the ACC in 3-point defense and have been burned from deep all season. Now they get a Virginia team that hits 37.1% from long range, third in the conference and 37th nationally.
If UNC can bottle up the defensive effort it showed against Notre Dame, there’s at least a path to making this interesting. But Notre Dame isn’t Virginia — and neither were SMU, Stanford or Cal. This is a different level of challenge.
