Report: Seth Trimble to miss North Carolina game vs. Miami

Barkley-Truaxby:Barkley Truax•02/10/24•

BarkleyTruax

North Carolina guard Seth Trimble is out for today’s game against Miami, per reports. He is dealing with an upper-body injury and has not played since Feb. 3.

Trimble, a sophomore, averages 5.6 points per game for the Tar Heels this season. He last scored 10 points in a winning effort against Duke, his first double-digit performance since the ACC opener against Pitt.

He was a four-star recruit in the 2022 class out of Menomonee Fall and was the No. 5 point guard in the class, per the On3 Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services.

North Carolina heads into Saturday’s matchup in sole possession of first place in the current ACC standings. At 10-2, they sit four games ahead of the 6-6 Miami Hurricanes, who would be a seven-seed in the ACC Tournament if the regular season ended today.

Despite the ‘Canes recent struggles, playing Miami on the road as the No. 3 team in the country puts a massive target on North Carolina’s back.

UNC tips off against the Hurricanes in Coral Gables at 4 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN. Carolina is a 3.5-point betting favorite, per FanDuel Sportsbook. ESPN Analytics gives Miami a 36.9 percent chance to defeat the Tar Heels at home.

ESPN’s College GameDay panel opined on North Carolina, which has lost two of its last three games. There wasn’t a clear consensus on whether North Carolina is trending down or simply going through a rough patch.

“I’m really concerned about UNC, their showing against Clemson,” analyst Andraya Carter said. “And the reason why is because coach Hubert Davis is talking about, ‘I didn’t like our practice, I didn’t like our shootaround.’ Armando Bacot‘s saying they’re coming into warmups late. I think it’s a trip more than a trend because it’s right after the Duke game.”

If North Carolina’s going to prove it’s not a trend, it’ll have to put together some difficult road wins. Three of the next four games are away from home, against teams currently in the top half of the ACC standings.

The good news is that there isn’t the dreaded Saturday-Monday turnaround in that four-game stretch. And they know first-hand that turning things around after a big win can be tricky for No. 3 UNC.