DURHAM, NC – As we continue learning about the 2020 North Carolina Tar Heels and Mack Brown’s program, one attribute that’s becoming clear is they respond well to poor performances.
For the current club, this is twice in the last three games they’ve blown the doors off of a rival a week after a self-destructive road loss against an inferior opponent. That happened when the Tar Heels routed NC State seven days after a baffling loss at Florida State, and here Saturday at Wallace Wade Stadium, Carolina exploded on Duke, 56-24, a week after a perplexing defeat at Virginia.
Twenty games into Brown’s second run at the helm in Chapel Hill, some of the picture is coming into focus. While his team is still very much in the massaging mode, looking to fortify numerous parts, it obviously bounces back well. And that’s a culture thing.
Wanna be good, learn how to respond well to negatives. Don’t let a bad loss beat you twice, right?
So, what we’ve seen in the last few weeks is a team that was riding high at No. 5 in the nation not yet a month ago, was twice humbled and fell out of the AP rankings. But, instead of second-guessing itself, the Heels have been at their absolute best in the response wins.
"You can't let a loss beat you twice,” Brown said, following with win at Duke. “We have to go back to work. And it's really, really important, as hard as losses are on all of us that we figure out what we need to fix, we correct it and we go right back to work to make sure that we don't have that bad feeling again the next week.
“You can't ever let one loss beat you and a lot of people do because they just let the negatives be out there so much that it beats you down another week. So, I applaud the staff and these players.”
The defense was fantastic versus the Wolfpack and was early on here that combined with a near-flawless offensive effort, the Tar Heels simply ran away from the Blue Devils seemingly without breaking much of a sweat in the 75-degree November heat. Carolina led State 38-7 at one point and was ahead 42-7 on Duke late in the first half.
That’s awfully impressive stuff, and it may be the next phase from what we saw some of a year ago.
The seeds to overcoming tough losses can be traced to last fall, even as the Tar Heels were still trying to figure things out in year one of Brown Part II.
A week after an embarrassing home loss to Appalachian State, UNC was a two-point conversion away from leading Clemson with a minute left in that thrilling game. The Heels ultimately lost because the conversion didn’t work.
A week after an emotional six-overtime loss at Virginia Tech, all Carolina did was defend its goal line when Chazz Surratt made one of the most memorable interceptions in UNC history stopping Duke with mere seconds left, preserving a victory.
And then, after falling in overtime at Pittsburgh, Carolina responded by Blitzkrieging its last three opponents by a combined score of 152-30 to finish the season 7-6.
UNC is now beyond the mid-point of Brown’s second season and some clarity about what makes the program tick is coming to light. Recruiting is going well, so the coffers will be fuller as Brown gets into years three, four and more. That will be reflected by improved and more consistent defensive play, special teams and an even more potent offense.
And when those kids arrive in January of 2021 and beyond, they will be greeted by a program that responds well to negatives. It might seem like a smallish kind of thing to some, but as UNC basketball fans know all too well, culture matters.
“It’s really, really important – it’s one of the most important things,” Brown said.
And inside the Kenan Football Center, one of the accruing qualities of the program is this part of its culture.
