The UNC Tar Heels (18-5) are trying to rebound from a loss, but that will not prove to be easy against the Louisville Cardinals (5).

The ACC is shaping up to be one of the better basketball conferences this season, with UNC, Louisville, Duke, Notre Dame and Virginia all currently ranking in the top 25. While UNC boasts a talented frontcourt, it is the backcourt that will need to step up if they want to break through against Louisville's tough defense.

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"We just need to focus on not taking plays off," UNC sophomore forward Kennedy Meeks said in a pregame press conference, according to ESPN, "because clearly in the film you can see us sometimes walking around, which is pretty embarrassing from a player standpoint - just seeing that we really didn't give enough effort as we should have."

Two of Louisville's players are averaging at least 12 points per game - Chris Jones and Wayne Blackshear - while two are averaging 16 and 17 - Montrezl Harrell and Terry Rozier, respectively. But no one else on the Cardinals tops 3.8 points per game.

Louisville likely cannot afford to see more than one of their offensive leaders have bad games, so they will need to focus on playing their game.

"Our guys have to understand what the ACC's all about," Louisville coach Rick Pitino said ahead of the game. "You want to run, North Carolina will be more than happy to accommodate you... Certain teams are not going to do that and you're going to have to win with defense and that's what we had to do (Wednesday) - win with defense."