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CHAPEL HILL – Where exactly is this North Carolina basketball team, and where is it headed?

We should be much closer to knowing the answers to those questions after the Tar Heels host NC State on Saturday and visit Syracuse on Tuesday.

Those are very losable games for a team that has played well at times, but is nowhere close to finding its ultimate grounding, assuming it does. Carolina is off for a week following the trip to Central New York, and will have a chance to sit back, exhale, and take a big-picture view of things.

It won’t be a full-scale outlook, because the Heels (13-6, 5-3 ACC) are still a scattered group of parts inching closer to one another as each game passes. It's still going to take some time. Injuries and key players missing games have affected this process in two crucial ways: No doubt it has contributed to a loss or two, both in the state of Virginia; but it also allowed the bench opportunities to get time and flourish.