Because of North Carolina’s sustained period of excellence from 2004 to 2009, we have a tendency to assume that they never have to rebuild, even when they suffer heavy graduation losses. The last time the Tar Heels won a championship and lost every key player was in 2005, and they ended up surprising everyone and earning a three seed in the NCAA Tournament the next year.
North Carolina: Just Another Young Team With Typical Growing Pains
Similar things were expected from this year’s bunch. They were a top-10 team in the preseason and loaded up their non-conference schedule with tough games as if they were already an experienced bunch. Ed Davis and Deon Thompson were supposed to take the next step and properly replace Tyler Hansbrough, while Larry Drew was supposed to be the answer at point guard to replace Ty Lawson.
Well, so much for having a season without growing pains. Last night’s loss to Clemson was North Carolina’s fifth already this season. This loss in particular was jarring. Whenever Clemson unleashed their full-court press, the Tar Heels had that deer-in-the-headlights look that a young, overwhelmed team normally has. The end result was 25 turnovers, ten of which came from starting guards Drew and Marcus Ginyard.
As Carolina March, SB Nation’s North Carolina blog, writes, it’s all beginning to sound like a broken record.
I feel at this point I could cut-and-paste the conclusion from any of the last fifteen recaps here. Young team, lots of talent, too many turnovers, no drive, wake up call, maybe they’ll get better. I don’t envy Roy Williams right now; I have no idea what I would do in his situation. (Although bench the starters is the first thing to come to mind.) I think it was the exact play pictured above where I just burst out laughing. At lest if UNC is going to lose, they’ll lose with entertaining futility. I still believe they’ll be good at some point, I’m just no longer certain it’ll be this season.
North Carolina could and probably will pick up their play, but they’re also trending in the wrong direction right now. Hey, even the best programs have to go through some rebuilding years sometimes.
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