Both Virginia and North Carolina escaped close classes to reach the semifinals in the ACC conference tournament. The Cavaliers have the No. 1 seed in the back of their minds for the NCAA tournament, but they likely will have to make it to the ACC tournament finals in order to get it. The Tar Heels are hoping to come on strong with a final push for a good seeding as these two teams meet on Friday.
Virginia should start to benefit from the return of Justin Anderson. The second-leading scorer only played 12 minutes in Thursday's win over Florida State, but has is improving and should be more of a threat against the Tar Heels. After averaging 12.8 points per game in his previous eight games, he was sidelined by an appendectomy that kept him off the court. The Cavaliers were able to make a late run on the Seminoles in order to improve in the tournament. Malcom Brogdon, Evan Nolte an Landon Perrantes all contributed to a second-half turnaround for the team that cannot afford to happen against North Carolina.
Meanwhile, the Tar Heels needed their own second-half comeback to beat Louisville on Thursday. The team got a 70-60 win thanks to Brice Johnson who scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half. The Tar Heels put up a strong defensive showing by limited the Cardinals to missing 15 of their last 17 shots. The team shot just 22.2 percent in the final 20 minutes, ending the conference tournament run. Can the Tar Heels do the same against a Virginia team who has made very few mistakes all season?
North Carolina fell to Virginia last month while head coach Roy Williams was unhappy with the lack of urgency and defensive push from the team. Johnson led the way with 14 points and eight rebounds, but got nothing else from his teammates while Virginia shot 51.8 percent overall. North Carolina is only 1-5 against top 10 teams right now which is good news for Virginia. If the Cavaliers slip up in this game, they can say goodbye to a No. 1 seed in the tournament.