Virginia (16-7, 8-5) at North Carolina (10-14, 3-11)

8 p.m., ESPN

After a narrow escape against Notre Dame on Tuesday, the Wahoos are back on the road, this time headed to Chapel Hill for a Saturday night tip-off against the Tar Heels.

Virginia now finds itself in a decent spot to make the NCAA Tournament, if the Cavaliers can avoid a few upcoming pitfalls, starting at the Dean Smith Center tomorrow night.

While UVa comes in off of a hard-fought overtime victory, the Heels enter Saturday’s game reeling. Losers of its last four and nine of its last 11, North Carolina currently sits dead last in the conference. Injuries and a lack of cohesion have undone Carolina’s season, and Roy Williams has lamented that this particular team is not among his most gifted since coming back to Chapel Hill.

It seems very long ago but Virginia and North Carolina did meet already this season, back in early December. The day after the football team lost the ACC Championship Game to Clemson, Virginia handed UNC their third loss of the season, leading virtually throughout on their way to a pretty comfortable 56-47 win at home. Now, with their NCAA hopes on the line, the Hoos need to complete the sweep of Carolina to avoid adding another bad loss to their resume.

North Carolina ranks 96th in the current KenPom rankings, ahead of Virginia Tech, Boston College, and Miami in the ACC. And despite that disappointing rating, KenPom has the Tar Heels as a slight favorite in this matchup.

Like Virginia, UNC’s offense has struggled all season and has had trouble consistently finding the bottom of the net. Carolina shoots just 28.7 percent from 3 and 46.1 percent on twos, ranking near the bottom nationally in both categories. UNC also struggles at the free-throw line, an area that came back to haunt the Heels in their last-second overtime loss to Duke last weekend. They don’t live and die by the 3 like many teams do, with only 22 percent of their points coming on made three pointers. Their struggling offense also differs from Virginia in pace: While the Cavaliers are dead last in tempo, UNC plays at the 59th-fastest pace. Carolina does do a good job on the offensive glass as always and its turnover rate isn’t terrible.

On defense, the Tar Heels rank 74th nationally in efficiency and do a decent job overall. While they excel at crashing the glass, opponents do not have success in that area when they have the ball. Carolina’s opponents have attacked the paint more than shooting over the defense, with only 41 percent of opponent attempts coming from beyond the arc. In the first meeting between the two teams, UVa struggled around the rim, going 10-of-32 on two-point tries, but made six of 17 attempts from deep, which was enough against a UNC team that went just 1-for-14 from long range.

UNC was without freshman point guard Cole Anthony for a big portion of the ACC schedule but he did play in the first meeting against UVa, scoring a team-high 12 points in 15 minutes. While getting Anthony back a couple of weeks ago hasn’t resulted in wins, he does make the Tar Heels a more formidable opponent. In his 13 games played, Anthony leads the team in scoring at 19.5 points per game and assists with 3.5. While he isn’t the most efficient player, Anthony is talented enough to will Carolina to a win or two, it just hasn’t happened since his return. And he may have to do the heavy lifting in the backcourt on Saturday, as fellow guard Brandon Robinson hasn’t played since February 1st as he recovers from an ankle sprain. His status for the Virginia game is unknown.

In the frontcourt, UNC always seems to have solid scoring options with athletic big men who can score around the rim and make plays on the break. This year, Garrison Brooks is the top option at forward along with freshman Armando Bacot. Brooks is second to Anthony in points per game at 14.7, and is the team’s top rebounder with 8.7 per contest. Bacot, who was not expected to play against UVa in December but did, scoring 11 points, is having a solid freshman year despite UNC’s struggles. With 10.5 points and eight boards per game, the Richmond native has the makings of a player that could develop into a star in Chapel Hill, assuming he sticks around for a few more years.