North Carolina’s hot start to the 2023-24 season has been dampened a little bit. After losing on Tuesday at Syracuse, the Tar Heels are now 2-3 in their last 5 games and 11-3 in Atlantic Coast Conference play.

The run started with a road loss at Georgia Tech, followed by a big home win over Duke. But a few days later, the Tar Heels dropped a home game against Clemson before rebounding to beat Miami on the road. Still, even with two good wins, there is a bad loss on the road to the Yellow Jackets and two disappointing losses as well.

During this stretch, there has been one noticeable thing that should catch everyone’s attention and it’s something that reared its ugly head last season with this program.

The usage of the bench.

As of Wednesday, North Carolina’s bench averages 10 minutes per game which is 314th out of 362 in the country. The bench is averaging 17.7 points per game which is tied for 238th in the country.

Early on this season, it felt like head coach Hubert Davis had figured out his bench, with Jalen Washington, Seth Trimble, Jae’Lyn Withers, and Zayden High giving him minutes. More recently, that rotation has apparently shrunk as both Withers and Washington have seen their minutes decrease and High is still developing as a freshman, going through some struggles.

Outside of Trimble, there really hasn’t been a consistent contributor off the bench. Now, Washington and Withers haven’t really done anything noticeable to see a decrease in minutes. I’m sure Davis has his reasons for it.

But going into the stretch run, the Tar Heels are going to need more from the bench as going back to the Iron Five may not be feasible at this point. And the last thing UNC needs is RJ Davis, Armando Bacot and Harrison Ingram wearing down.

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Story originally appeared on Tarheels Wire