It’s been mass chaos amongst Carolina faithful after the Tar Heels dropped another ACC contest on Tuesday night to the hungrier Clemson Tigers. This was North Carolina’s first home loss of the season and second defeat in seven days. The murmur from those who follow the Tar Heels intently seems to be that “North Carolina is fine, but if some signs we have seen in the last two weeks continue, they may not be.”
No one is discrediting the Tar Heels and how good they have been. That said, it may be time to be objective about where they’ve struggled of late. I’ve taken nearly twenty-four hours and tried to digest the hundreds of opinions and takes I’ve come across, and here are the thoughts I’m left with. Maybe you’ll agree, perhaps you won’t, but let’s not act like Hubert Davis and North Carolina were immune to adversity.
Complementary basketball is critical to this team’s success. North Carolina has given up 80 or more in every loss. When the defense isn’t as sharp as we know it can be, the offense goes into what seems like panic mode. The amount of one-on-one offense the Tar Heels tried to play when trailing against Clemson was painful. It felt like certain guys were trying to scratch the deficit with one shot. Zayden High and Jalen Washington three-pointers? RJ double-team stepbacks? Acrobatic layups? Countless times, North Carolina would have the ball in a crucial situation, and I’d say to myself, “Why?”
