For the first time since losing in the ACC Championship Game in March, the Tar Heels will take on Notre Dame.

Head coach Roy Williams said he expects his team to come out with more intensity when they travel to South Bend Saturday.

“Well you know we got our tails beat last game,” he said. “If you don’t step up right now there’s something wrong with you.”

Once again the Tar Heels look to break out of shooting slump that has plagued them for the past five games.

After shooting over 50 percent from the field in the majority of games before this stretch, the Tar Heels have shot under 40 percent in each of the past five games.

Point guard Marcus Paige is just 4-30 from three during this stretch.

Williams said he hasn’t seen anything like this slump since his first year at Kansas in 1988, when current Minnesota Timberwolves general manager Milt Newton had a rough shooting stretch.

“I just know at the end of the year at Oklahoma State, they had not lost a game at home,” Williams said. “we’re down two and we’ve got the  basketball and I said ‘let’s take this Milt, knock this sucker in and get the crap out of town.’ We went for three to win the game, he made the three and we got the crap out of town. That’s the only time I can remember something like this.”

Even forward Isaiah Hicks, who leads the team in field goal percentage, is coming off a 2-8 game in which he scored 8 points.

“Everybody would like to make every shot they shoot, but it don’t work like that,” Hicks said. “Even me I missed a lot of layups and stuff. Sometimes it goes in, sometimes it don’t.”

Hicks said the Tar Heels need to be patient and the shots will start falling again.

“We were kind of thinking about it too much,” he said. “Trying to force us to make shots but it doesn’t work like that. It’s going to fall sometime.”

Tip off on Saturday is at 7 p.m. Make sure to tune into WCHL starting at 5:30 for all of your pregame coverage. Joey DeVito 97.9 FM WCHL.

Related Stories
‹
Chansky's Notebook: No Guarantees
College athletics has become a world of agents who enter into bidding wars. How will that complicate Michael Malone's first UNC roster?
Tracking Which UNC Men's Basketball Players Have Entered the 2026 Transfer Portal
The NCAA men’s basketball transfer portal opened Tuesday, April 7, the day after the national championship game. Following UNC head coach Hubert Davis’ dismissal on March 24, several Tar Heels have entered their names into the portal and pursue other opportunities. Here’s a list of which players have either made announcements or are reported to […]
5-Star Commit Dylan Mingo Will Not Join UNC Men's Basketball
Five-star guard prospect Dylan Mingo, who pledged to join the UNC men’s basketball program for the 2026-27 season, will not come to Chapel Hill after all. Mingo, a 6-foot-5 guard from Long Island who ESPN rated as the No. 9 overall player in his recruiting class, originally committed to UNC on Feb. 17, less than […]
Jarin Stevenson to Return to UNC Men's Basketball for Senior Season
Jarin Stevenson will return to the UNC men’s basketball season and play his senior season in Chapel Hill for head coach Michael Malone. Stevenson made the announcement on social media Monday. View this post on Instagram The 6-foot-10 wing never formally entered his name to the NCAA transfer portal following the end of the men’s […]
Report: UNC Men's Basketball Hiring Former Providence Head Coach Kim English as Assistant
According to reports by both Inside Carolina and ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the UNC men’s basketball program is hiring former Providence head coach Kim English to Michael Malone’s staff in Chapel Hill. English spent the past three seasons with the Friars, though Providence finished with losing record in both the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, leading to […]
Virginia Tech Transfer Neoklis Avdalas Commits to UNC Men's Basketball
Neoklis Avdalas, who spent his first season in college basketball playing at Virginia Tech, reportedly committed to head coach Michael Malone and UNC out of the transfer portal Monday. Originally from Athens, Greece, Avdalas played professionally in the Greek HEBA A1 league for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, averaging 7.7 points per game. The 6-foot-9 […]
UNC's Luka Bogavac to Enter Transfer Portal After 1 Season
After one season in Chapel Hill, UNC wing Luka Bogavac is entering his name into the transfer portal. Bogavac’s journey to Carolina was a long one. After committing to the Tar Heels during the summer, the Montenegrin national dealt with eligibility issues which kept him out of UNC’s two exhibition contests. He was eventually cleared […]
Will UNC's Michael Malone and His Tough Coaching Work in Modern College Ball? – Stroman on Sports (Apr. 10, 2026)
The Hill's Deborah Stroman joins News Director Brighton McConnell for her weekly segment on Friday, Apr. 10.
Art's Angle: Extended Family
Michael Malone admitted he is an “outsider” hired to lead the UNC men’s basketball program. But there are some old-school ties to the program. 
Chansky's Notebook: Past and Present
Michael Malone may not come from the “Carolina Family,” but Hubert Davis made him feel like an adopted son.
›