CHAPEL HILL – If there is such a thing as Basketball Gods, they certainly aren’t shining down on the North Carolina Tar Heels these days.
Carolina is snakebit. Like, really snakebit. Don’t think so, just ask the Tar Heels themselves.
“It definitely feels like that at some point,” junior guard Andrew Platek agreed some 25 minutes after it happened yet again.
The Heels had every reason to run off the Smith Center court Saturday night with the taste of victory in their mouths. They earned that feeling, but it didn’t occur.
Tomas Woldetensae made sure of it, satisfying the Tar Heels’ fears by draining a 3-pointer with .8 seconds left to lift the Cavaliers to a 64-62 win.
Snakebit? Oh, yeah.
“I just looked down the bench and everyone had this same expression as I did,” Platek said. “It’s not even disbelief – you just knew the shot was going in.”
Bad luck? Oh, yeah.
“We might be the most unlucky team you’ve ever seen,” freshman Cole Anthony said.
The Heels have allowed essential buzzer beaters in five games since the calendar turned to 2020. A quick refresher: Clemson (nobody will forget that one), Virginia Tech (double-OT), Boston College (the BRob foul call), Duke twice (won’t forget those, either) and on this night.
“I think we own the record for buzzer beaters against us,” said Christian Keeling.
And maybe it’s this recognition and sort-of acceptance why the Tar Heels were in a different mood following their fifth consecutive loss and 10th in the last 12 games.
It’s not that they are playing to lose, but it’s happened so many times and in such gruesome fashion human nature has rented a big space in their minds and filled it with some real live self-doubt.
And who can blame them?
Athletes are supposed to deflect bad plays and ugly losses as well as tough, stinging defeats, fans say. They’re robots, existing to be wound up and thrust out onto the court to quench the thirsts of their legion of supporters.
Only they aren’t inanimate objects.
Goodness knows these kids are trying to live up to the standards of the brand they represent, but goodness also knows the weight that comes with it can be supremely taxing, especially when every time the ball bounces it goes the other way.
So, it appears the emotional swings have finally subsided, perhaps exhausted from a season’s worth of wear and tear.
Just in the last week, the Heels went from tears after Duke, anger after Wake Forest to some kind of consent Saturday night that this is indeed their reality.
Yet, there was one Tar Heel who thought maybe the tide was about the turn.
“I think we’ve had so much unfortunate stuff happen this year, so I thought it wasn’t going to go in,” said Keeling, who hit three free throws to give UNC the lead with 10.3 seconds remaining.
“I said, ‘Okay, maybe we can catch a break. We made our free throws down the stretch, we did everything right,' so I thought 'okay he will miss it.’”
But he didn’t. Woldetensae drained his sixth three of the night – each of which the Wahoos needed – hammering home a new reality in these parts, one that nobody in this program has ever dealt with before. Until now.
“I’ve never been in this spot, coach has never been in this spot, it’s a new experience for us,” junior Garrison Brooks said.
You can point to the many suspect elements of this team and how it performs each night out, but even the most ardent ABCers would have to admit there’s some serious hoops cruelty going on with the Tar Heels.
They are, without question, snakebit. And they know it.
