Feb. 11, 2010

Tar Heels miss U-turn, continue on steep path to NIT

By Gary Parrish | CBSSports.com Senior Writer
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CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- They filled the place, every single seat, North Carolina blue from the bottom all the way to the top. Tyler Hansbrough was trotted out, his No. 50 spotlighted in the rafters. And yet it all mattered little in the grand scheme of things, because in the end these Tar Heels looked a lot like the same Tar Heels that have spent the past month descending into the ACC basement.

Sorry, Roy Williams, but Tyler Hansbrough has no eligibility remaining. (AP)

Especially when you can't run a break.

Or rebound.

Or sink 3-pointers.

Or make layups.

"There's no question that when I came to Carolina, I didn't think we'd be fighting from the bottom like this," UNC senior Marcus Ginyard said after the Tar Heels lost their fourth in a row -- and for the seventh time in eight outings -- Wednesday night here at the Dean Smith Center.

Final score: Duke 64, UNC 54.

So the Tar Heels are 13-11 overall, 2-7 in the ACC. They've taken home losses in the past month to Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Virginia and now Duke. Consequently, they'll play North Carolina State this weekend with last place -- last place! -- in the ACC standings on the line.

"It hurts," North Carolina point guard Larry Drew II said. "I've never lost this much in my life."

Same goes for Deon Thompson.

And Will Graves.

And Roy Williams himself.

It's a big old mystery how the Tar Heels have gone from there to here, and by there I'm not talking about last season's national title game. Lose Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green and Hansbrough, and you're probably going to slip; that's not a surprise.

But what people tend to forget is this same bunch of Tar Heels started this season 7-1 with victories against the teams currently ranked 10th (Michigan State) and 13th (Ohio State) nationally. That's what makes this confusing -- that North Carolina went from 7-1 with wins over Michigan State and Ohio State to 13-11 with a 19-point loss to Clemson, a 13-point loss to Wake Forest, a 15-point loss to Virginia, a 21-point loss to Maryland, and a 10-point loss to Duke on the night Hansbrough's number was retired.

How'd that happen?

"That's a good question," Drew said. "Somewhere along the road, we just got a little too full of ourselves. We stepped out on the court and kind of thought teams were just going to lay down for us. But the exact opposite happened."

Did it ever.

The slide started with an overtime loss at Charleston, but most everybody discounted that mess because Ginyard and Graves didn't participate. Then the Tar Heels backed it with a convincing win over Virginia Tech to move to 12-4 overall and 1-0 in the ACC, and everything seemed OK.

That was Jan. 10.

Now it's Feb. 11.

The Tar Heels won only once between those dates while losing seven times. Drew has been dreadful, but it would be inaccurate to put it all on him, particularly on a night when UNC's frontcourt -- once considered among the country's best -- was outrebounded by a 51-42 margin. Yes, Drew was 4 for 15 from the field and 1 for 8 from 3-point range, but he's not the only reason the Tar Heels scored the fewest points ever by a Williams-coached UNC team, not the only reason they shot a season-low 34.5 percent, not the only reason they recorded a season-low eight assists, and he's far from the only reason Williams will miss the NCAA tournament for the first time in 21 seasons.

The issues are deeper and more complex.

They've snowballed to a point of no return.

If North Carolina were going to turn things around, the U-Turn had to start here, on this night, on this stage, against this rival, and it looked like it might happen when the Tar Heels took a 43-39 lead with 11:52 to play. But then Mike Krzyzewski called a timeout, ran a play for Kyle Singler, and what followed was a 22-7 run that took Duke from down four points to up 11 points in a span of 10 minutes.

Game. Set. Season.

Understand that four of UNC's final six games are on the road, and three of those are against teams (Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Duke) that have already topped the Tar Heels in Chapel Hill. Thus, not even an optimist could figure out a way for them to enter the ACC tournament with anything better than a 17-14 record featuring a 6-10 league mark.

So the big question going forward isn't whether the Tar Heels will hear their name called on Selection Sunday, but whether they'll do enough to deserve an NIT bid.

Crazy as that sounds, it's true.

And it's strange.

"One thing you have to have is pride wearing these colors," North Carolina freshman John Henson said. "Things might not be going our way, but we aren't going to give up until the end."

Officially, the end is still a month away.

But in a lot of ways, Wednesday night's buzzer seemed to represent it.