No. 11 North Carolina (19-4, 7-3 ACC) vs. Miami (18-5, 7-3 ACC)
Coral Gables, Fla. — Watsco Center
Tuesday, Feb. 10 — 7 p.m.
ESPN (Wes Durham, Dennis Scott and Debbie Antonelli)

Quotables 
“Saturday was Saturday. We had practice yesterday, our focus was on our preparation for Miami and we understand the challenge tomorrow night against a really good Miami team and how important our practices are and our preparation and just how well we’re going to have to play on the road” — head coach Hubert Davis during Monday’s ACC availability

“(UNC having) both the four and five who are capable shooters, it just makes you have to stretch your defense out and it just opens up driving opportunities, opens up a lot of stuff… It may be a different team, but we’ve dealt with shooting bigs, pick-and pop-bigs. So, it’s something we’re accustomed to and we’ve just got to adjust to it.” — Miami head coach Jai Lucas on Monday morning

Pregame Notes

Trimble Etches His Name in UNC-Duke History: Seth Trimble’s 3-pointer from the left corner capped off a 13-point North Carolina comeback to beat No. 4 Duke with 0.4 seconds remaining. Caleb Wilson led the Tar Heels in scoring with 23 points, while Henri Veesaar supplied 13 points and nine rebounds in the second half alone to power UNC to victory. 

With the win — its fifth in a row — North Carolina moved up in the NET Rankings to No. 24, in KenPom to No. 27 and the AP Top 25 to No. 11. The Tar Heels are now 7-3 in conference play and sit in fifth place in the ACC standings, 2.5 games behind Duke and Clemson.

Looking at the Hurricanes: Tied with UNC at 7-3 and fifth in the conference standings, Miami has rebounded from last season’s 7-24 disaster, two years removed from a Final Four appearance in 2023. 

The Hurricanes are ranked No. 37 in the NET this season with a 2-3 Quad 1 record. Miami lost both of its marquee non-conference matchups, falling to No. 10 Florida (82-62) and No. 9 BYU (72-62). In ACC play, the Hurricanes picked up their two Quad 1 wins over Wake Forest (81-77) and Syracuse (85-76) on the road, but have lost to No. 22 Clemson (69-59), California (86-85) and in-state rival Florida State (65-63). 

Though Miami doesn’t face No. 4 Duke this season, the Hurricanes are slated to face three ranked opponents in No. 11 North Carolina, No. 15 Virginia and No. 24 Louisville to close out their season. 

Jai Lucas is in his first season as head coach of Miami after serving as an assistant coach for the last nine years, including stops at Texas, Kentucky and most recently Duke from 2022-25. Lucas serves as the first head coach for the Hurricanes since Jim Laranaga’s abrupt retirement after starting the year with a 4-8 record last season and Bill Courtney finishing out the season as interim head coach.

Top Heavy Scoring, Poor 3-Point Defense: Playing an eight-man rotation on a nightly basis, Miami’s offense is run through four main scorers — Malik Reneau, Shelton Henderson, Tre Donaldson and Tru Washington — who tally 74 percent (62.3 ppg) of the team’s average point total. Washington, regarded as a defensive stopper, has missed Miami’s last two games and is “day to day” with “personal stuff” according to Lucas.

Of the quartet, Reneau attracts most of the defensive attention with his 20 points per game. However, the senior forward does so with little outside shooting, but instead with high volume and high efficiency inside the arc. Reneau has a similar shot selection to Wilson, but tends to use the physicality of his filled-out 6-foot-9, 238-pound frame more so than the Tar Heel. This goes for the rest of the Hurricane offense as well, since Miami makes the least amount of 3-pointers in the ACC at 6.7 per game. 

Instead, the Hurricanes pound the paint with great success, totaling 59.4 percent on 2-point field goals, the 14th-best mark in the country. Miami is physical on the boards and one of the best rebounding teams in the country, generating 12 offensive rebounds per game to fuel second-chance scoring while ranking first in conference play in limiting opponents on the offensive glass.

Similar to on the offensive end, Miami’s weakness on defense is on defending perimeter shots, allowing opposing teams to shoot 35.3 percent from beyond the arc (37.6% in conference play) — the worst rate in the ACC. 

A counterpoint to that effect, Miami has done well to protect the paint defensively and defend without fouling, as Davis pointed out during his Monday ACC availability. The Hurricanes’ interior defense has held opponents to 48 percent shooting from inside the 3-point line.

Last Meeting: North Carolina is 29-10 all-time against Miami and 11-4 in games played at the Watsco Center. The Tar Heels defeated the Hurricanes in the Smith Center last season, 92-73, as Ven-Allen Lubin led UNC in scoring with 19 points on 9-of-10 shooting. 

Last season, Jaydon Young also had his career high in scoring when Virginia Tech played against Miami, when he drilled five 3-pointers and tallied 27 points in the Hokies’ win. 

Projected UNC Starters: 
3 Derek Dixon (Fr., 6-5, 200) — 5.9 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 2.4 apg, 41.1% 3pt
7 Seth Trimble (Sr., 6-3, 200) — 14.2 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 2.0 apg
8 Caleb Wilson (Fr., 6-10, 215) — 20.2 ppg, 9.6 rpg, 2.8 apg, 1.3 bpg
15 Jarin Stevenson (Jr., 6-10, 215) — 6.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 0.9 apg
13 Henri Veesaar (Jr., 7-0, 225) — 16.6 ppg, 9.1 rpg, 2.0 apg, 46% 3pt

Projected Miami Starters:
3 Tre Donaldson (Sr., 6-3, 198) — 15.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 6.2 apg
5 Malik Reneau (Sr., 6-9, 238) — 20 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 2.1 apg
7 Shelton Henderson (Fr., 6-6, 240) — 14.5 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 2.1 apg
8 Ernest Udeh Jr. (Sr., 6-11, 266) — 6.9 ppg, 9.6 rpg, 1.3 bpg, 72.5% FG
35 Dante Allen (Fr., 6-4, 220) — 6.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.3 apg

Top Hurricane Reserves: 
10 Tru Washington (Jr., 6-4, 204) — 11.9 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.9 spg
11 Salih Altuntas (Fr., 6-10, 274) — 2.2 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 64.7% FG
88 Timo Malovec (Fr., 6-8, 214) — 5.2 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 1.0 apg

UNC Info:
Schedule/Results
Roster & Bios
Stats

Miami Info:
Schedule/Results
Roster & Bios
Stats