This was the first time in 13 appearances that the Tar Heels reached the National Championship game as anything other than a top seed.
Getting back to the Final Four in Houston come April would be a complete 180-degree turn from where Hubert Davis’ squad is as the calendar flipped to December.
The Tar Heels were the preseason number one in both the AP and Coaches Polls, rattling off five straight wins to open the year. However, as is the case with most major programs, the competition certainly was not on the level of the last time the squad took the floor. North Carolina only put down UNC Wilmington by 13 in their opener, six over Gardner Webb and eight over Portland…all in Chapel Hill.
Then came last weekend where Iowa State toppled North Carolina 70-65, where the Cyclones outscored the Tar Heels 38-31 in the second half, capped off by a 17-5 run over the final four minutes.
North Carolina followed up with a loss to 18th-ranked Alabama in four overtimes (103-101) and 10th-ranked Indiana (77-65) earlier this week. This means the top team in the nation lost their last three games against ranked opponents. Iowa State was unranked at the time, but sits currently at 23 in both polls.
The three straight losses dropped North Carolina to 18th in the AP poll, one behind their arch nemesis, the Duke Blue Devils. The Coaches poll has them at 15, one spot ahead of the Dukies. That’s a 17-spot drop in one week in one poll, and 14 in the other. Meanwhile on the other end of success, Purdue jumped 19 spots in the AP poll to fourth, and 18 in the Coaches to fifth, earning first-place votes in both.
Davis better figure out how to right his ship and fast. North Carolina is one of the worst teams in Division I in assists (11.1 per game), while only two players are among the team leaders in all major offensive and defensive categories.
Junior guard Caleb Love is playing just shy of 38 minutes a game, scoring 19.1 points and dishing out 3.1 assists per game. On defense, North Carolina is led by Senior Armando Bacot’s 11.1 rebounds and 1.5 points per game, over almost 34 minutes a night himself. A strong suit of North Carolina has always been their bench depth, which right now is a bit of an Achillies heel with the minutes being eaten up by starters.
The Tar Heels were held to just 33.9 percent from the floor in their loss to the Hoosiers in Bloomington on Wednesday night. If nothing else, the loss is going to hurt Indiana for beating a powerhouse in the middle of a dramatic reversal of fortune. The Hoosiers took the lead at 21-20 with just under eight minutes left in the first half, then never trailed again.
North Carolina has a pair of ACC conference games over the next week (at Virginia Tech; home to Georgia Tech), before embarking on another difficult non-conference stretch. The Tar Heels will have to play both Ohio State and Michigan the week before Christmas in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge, before going into the heart of conference play the rest of the season.
Duke has a new coach for the first time in 42 years after the retirement of Mike Krzyzewski. At the outset of the season, you would have thought North Carolina would be able to dominate their hated rivals. However, the Tobacco Road Showdown is gearing up to be more passer-by than history books.
-JC24