CHAPEL HILL – Four. Five. Seven.

Those numbers reflect a trio of losing streaks that have marred North Carolina’s season like few others in the program’s fabled past.

Seventeen.

That’s the total number of times the Tar Heels have failed to score as many points as their opponents this season. Thirteen represents their win total.

At 13-17 overall, including 6-13 in the ACC, the Heels have gone through a ride that is unfamiliar to most every hoopster that has ever donned Carolina blue. Maddening at times, frustrating and even seemingly depressing, Roy Williams’ team has run the gamut of emotions.

But through it all, the Hall of Fame coach, who had zero experience operating under these conditions prior to a few months ago, has managed to keep his team focused on the task at hand. And sometimes, that mission has been rather simple, but it appears to have worked.

“What he’s been talking about is that, even when we’ve had these good games that we’ve played well when we’ve got these wins the last couple of games, is that we can still get better,” freshman point guard Cole Anthony said Thursday afternoon at the Smith Center, as the Tar Heels prepare to take a three-game win streak to No. 12 Duke on Saturday evening.

“We’ve all just been focused on each day taking that day trying to get the most out of that day and trying to get better. We’re not focusing on a game two games from now… It’s just a matter of staying in the moment and focusing on the task at hand.”

The task? Get better each day no, each drill. Just get better.

Forget the stuff others were writing and saying about historic defeats in the midst of a near-historic season, just get better. And they have.

“It’s basically been that way the whole year but has received more emphasis when everybody said, ‘your season’s over, you’re not going to do anything,’” Williams said. “They’re hearing all the chatter around… So, you have to make sure that they understand we are playing for something, we’re trying to get better.”

Improving each day isn’t exactly a new approach for Williams and Carolina. That has always been a part of the mantra ever since he returned to his alma mater 17 years ago. But sometimes, narrowing that focus a little and deflecting outside distractions can be a bit comforting for a team.

Once Clemson ended its winless streak in Chapel Hill, beating the Heels in January to improve to 1-59 on Carolina’s home hardwood, there wasn’t anything the current team could do about it. Game over. In the books. Get better.

The blown second half leads, the buzzer-beating misery and losing piling up could have derailed many teams, but not the Tar Heels. The message from Ol’ Roy resonated, even if it didn’t always reveal itself on the court.

“I preached that stuff the first practice of the year – we want to be better today than (day before),” Williams said. “But I think I emphasized it more when all the chatter was going on around them. You lose seven in a row and guys tend to think, ‘Well, there’s nothing we can do.’ Well, there is something you can do.”

UNC has won three consecutive games because it’s made a much higher percentage of shots than it was before the streak commenced. But there’s far more to it.

Williams decided to tighten his message even more after perhaps the most disappointing effort of the season. It came three days after the Tar Heels lost 98-96 in overtime at home to Duke, an emotionally devastating defeat for a team that appeared headed toward a basketball cliff.

“After that game, we go up to Wake (Forest) and laid a rotten egg and that’s really when I started pushing it even more, ‘we’ve got to get better each day,’” the coach said.

The Heels lost their next three contests moving the skid to seven straight games, the longest under Williams during his UNC run. But they eventually came out of it, and when they did, the Tar Heels have looked a lot like many previous Tar Heels’ teams.

Carolina was starting to look like Carolina in part because Williams led his team through the darkness of seemingly endless misery to a place where reaping the reward of hard work and a narrowed focus was starting to show itself.

“He’s been the guy who’s been able to give us all confidence,” Anthony said about his coach. “It’s hard to go on the losing streaks that we’ve gone on and maintain confidence, so I think coach Williams has done a great job of keeping everyone’s confidence and letting us know that our season’s not over yet, that we still have a lot to get accomplished.”

UNC is still four games under .500 and will play on Tuesday of the ACC Tournament next week for the first time in program history. But most teams would rather not see Carolina in their bracket because Williams has the Heels still breathing and actually surging.

No rocket science, just a simple focus on getting better.

That was the mantra, that was and is the mission, and it’s working.