MILWAUKEE, WI – How long can North Carolina afford to dance on the edge of mediocrity before Carolina Basketball is truly no longer Carolina Basketball?

Certainly not what it was for nearly 50 years before a recent stretch that has UNC dangerously close to becoming UCLA in the post-John Wooden era or, even worse, Indiana in the post-Bobby Knight era.

On the surface, one can point to Carolina playing in the national championship game in 2022 and being a No. 1 seed in 2024 as signs things aren’t all that bad. Below the surface, however, a different reality emerges.

We explore Carolina Basketball using various time tables while fully laying out the program’s overall struggles of the last six years: