Frank Heath
In college basketball, how quickly paradigms can shift. As recently as two weeks ago, ESPN announcers had the UNC basketball team penciled in for a slot in the NCAA Elite Eight. Now, following early league losses to Clemson and Georgia Tech, the Tar Heels found themselves battling for their postseason lives Wednesday night, playing at the Smith Center against a dangerous Wake Forest team, and certainly not wanting to drop to 1-3 in the league.
Regardless of the outcome of the Wake game, there remains time for the Heels to right their ship. But with all of its remaining games to be played against conference opponents, Carolina will need to perform consistently better on the court if it hopes to win enough games to make it into the NCAA Tournament this spring.
And in that regard, there are many questions to be answered.
Can the Tar Heel guards – Larry Drew II, Dexter Strickland and, especially, Leslie McDonald – grow up quickly and begin to be a steadying influence and inspiration on the court? Will the Tar Heels find a way to end the devastating runs by opponents, fueled by Carolina turnovers, that have occurred in several of their losses?
Can Marcus GInyard get into shape and return to being the all-around force and team leader he has been in years past?
Will Carolina’s stable of big men begin to hold their own against the rugged post players they will continue to encounter throughout league play? (Travis Wear’s improved play against Georgia Tech gave hope for some progress in this area.)
Did junior Will Graves’ fantastic offensive outburst against Georgia Tech, and the Tar Heels’ subsequent inspired play in the second half of that game, signal a new dawn of understanding for the team – or was that positive stretch just another lost thread in a season marked by false starts?
One good reason for the Tar Heels to keep their heads up comes in the form of a reminder from recent history. It’s a fact that coach Roy Williams and his staff have a track record of steadying UNC squads that faltered early (at least by Carolina standards) and gotten them back to playing good “North Carolina basketball†by the second half of the conference schedule and/or tournament time.
In each of the past four seasons, in fact, Carolina had rough patches that resulted in similar questioning by fans and media as to whether the team would be “all right.â€
A 2-3 league start for the 2006 team – led by then-freshmen Tyler Hansbrough, Marcus Ginyard and company – brought on speculation that the youthful Heels had hit the freshman wall or that opposing coaches had figured out Hansbrough’s tendencies. All that team did to extinguish those doubts was to finish with a 10-1 run to end the ACC schedule, even winning at Duke on senior night for J.J. Redick and Shelden Williams.
The next year, Carolina lost three of five games midway through the league slate before winning seven straight in March on its run to the Elite Eight.
In 2008, the Heels came through the first half of the league schedule with a sub-par 6-2 record before winning 15 straight en route to the Final Four.
And who has forgotten last season’s 0-2 ACC start, which had everyone from Jay Bilas to the guy on the stoop at the gas station questioning whether the 2008-09 Tar Heels were just an overrated flop? At the time, not too many people paid attention to Coach Williams, who pointed out that the season would be a marathon – not a sprint – and that he still liked his team.
There’s little doubt that Williams, if asked privately, would say something similar today about his current team. The mantra is, “Get in the gym and do the work and believe in yourself and your teammates.†Most of Roy’s teams have followed that advice, and most of them have been rewarded; and until it’s proven otherwise, there’s little reason to believe this year will be different.
Each game from here out will provide an opportunity for the Tar Heels to play basketball a certain way. If they do it their coach’s way – playing with focus, intensity and intelligence – the season will most likely take an eventual upturn. One thing’s for certain: By the time anyone reads these words, with the Wake Forest game history, Carolina fans will either feel a lot better or a lot worse than they did Wednesday afternoon.