North Carolina needed the holiday weekend off. But the Tar Heels need a game like Indiana even more, especially if they can play well, and certainly if they can win the ACC/Big Ten Challenge game Wednesday night in Chapel Hill.

"We needed the practice time," said North Carolina coach Matt Doherty about the stunning two homecourt losses to Hampton and Davidson to start the season. "There's no question that we want to win this game badly, but we want to play better. Of course if we beat Indiana that means we're playing better."

"We need to settle on a rotation, have guys get better, make shots, handle the basketball and guard and do some of the basic stuff that we weren't doing well," Doherty added. "It's a challenge that I'm not afraid of."

Doherty said he's going to switch up the lineup for Wednesday's game, putting two freshmen and a seldom-used junior in the starting lineup. He's going with freshman Melvin Scott at the point, classmate Jackie Manuel at shooting guard, junior Will Johnson at small forward, senior Jason Capel at power forward and Kris Lang at center. He plans to bring freshman Jawad Williams off the bench to spell Capel or Johnson, and move Capel down to small forward and then come off the bench with sophomore point Adam Boone, sophomore wing Brian Morrison and junior point Jon Holmes.

Williams started against Hampton, Manuel and Scott started against Davidson.

"I've got to tighten the rotation a bit and get guys not to worry about impressing the coach but rather executing," Doherty said. "I need guys to accept their roles."

Doherty said he reeled the team in from shooting 3s after a 6-for-34 game against Hampton. The Tar Heels shot 14 fewer against Davidson, but still were off target, hitting just six of 20 from behind the arc.

"I really believed that we would be a good shooting team and that's one of the reasons that I wasn't as concerned with our zone offense," Doherty said. "I didn't think people would play as much zone against us. But we didn't make shots. We need to take good shots in the flow of the offense."

Doherty is hoping Capel doesn't fall into the "Albert Mouring Syndrome". Translation: A player who excelled as the third option one season, but isn't able to become the first option as a senior when thrusted into that position as the former Connecticut guard was last season. Capel got shots when teams collapsed on Joseph Forte or Brendan Haywood last season. But now he's got to create on his own and in the two losses, shooting 29.6 percent overall, 13.3 percent on 3s, isn't going to cut it.

"He's got to make the tough shot, not just the wide-open shot," Doherty said.

And he'll have to do it against one of the tougher defensive teams he'll face in Indiana, which will likely be without Jeffrey Newton (broken jaw). That means an 0-3 start isn't out of the question for the Tar Heels, even with all three games being played on its home court.

"When I took the job, I knew this would be a challenging year," said Doherty, who was put at ease when he got the signatures from prep stars Raymond Felton, Rashaad McCants and Sean May last week. "I'm disappointed, but I'm not shocked. I knew it would take some time. Jason and Kris are in different roles and they have to be go-to guys and we've got an adjustment to bring along the young guys. It's tough, but this is a neat little challenge."

The challenge for the Tar Heels might not be as tough as the one that faced Illinois or Iowa on Tuesday night. The Illini lost at Maryland 76-63 after spending a week on the road, while the No. 13 Hawkeyes dropped an 80-62 decision to No. 1 Duke at the United Center.

In Wednesday's other marquee matchup of ranked teams, forcing turnovers is a way of life for Virginia and it could cause major headaches for Michigan State in Richmond, Va.. The Cavs have blown through weak competition in Howard, Wagner and East Tennessee State, and need to get a win against a high-profile team -- similar to last season when they rocked Tennessee in their first "real" game last December.

"It's a little different because there is more preseason buzz," said Virginia assistant Tom Herrion. "Michigan State is coming off two tough losses to top 25 teams. It's our chance to have a shining moment on the national stage. This will give us an idea where we're at."

Where they're at is getting the ball to Roger Mason Jr. (21.7 ppg), Chris Williams (20.3 ppg) and Adam Hall (16.7 ppg) and let Travis Watson (11 rpg) grab the boards.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.