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NEW YORK – Talk of “championship or bust” has moved on from the North Carolina Tar Heels’ lexicon, at least for now.

Humbling will do that to a basketball team that espoused such high aspirations before a surprising four-game losing streak forced the Heels to shake the tree hard, really hard. And perhaps it continues some, though few leaves and undesirable thoughts are falling off now.

Most already have, as the Tar Heels appear to have made it through the murky waters of uncertainty and are finding their form. The thing is, this isn’t the fashion they adorned last March during a miracle run to the national title game. It’s a new one, in the mold of what could be coming as 2023 nears.

“I think we are getting better and better as a group,” newcomer and former Northwestern star Pete Nance said following UNC’s overtime win over Ohio State on Saturday at Madison Square Garden.

“We know that we have such a long way to go, but as you can see in moments, we can be a really, really, really good team. I think it's just putting it together all at once and everybody firing on all cylinders, luckily, it's only December. We definitely have a lot of confidence right now. Having a win like this in the Garden is awesome for us, so it was great.”

The degrees of grit, focus, passion, and raw determination the Tar Heels displayed in their 89-84 victory over the Buckeyes was largely missing over the first five weeks of the season.

After a 5-0 start versus mid and low-major programs, the Heels hit the skids with consecutive losses to Iowa State, Alabama, Indiana, and Virginia Tech. They appeared disconnected in myriad ways, and didn’t have the necessary spunk to make clutch plays in those games, hence the losing streak.

But they revealed some of that in a solid win last week over Georgia Tech, backed it up in a rout of The Citadel, and dug deep to extract it from within versus Ohio State. Perhaps the 2023 version of the Tar Heels was being born over the last 10 days.

“I think it boosts our confidence to know that we can play with toughness and execute and do what the coaches ask us to do,” junior point guard RJ Davis said in MSG. “We can really build off this, but we have to understand that we have to do it from the first four minutes of the game and throughout the first half and second half as a complete 40 minutes…

“We have to keep building off the lead and keep building our foundation as Coach Davis says. Right now, we are in a good spot but we can continue to improve as we move forward.”

The win Saturday elicited memories of the environment and how UNC played in the regionals in Philadelphia last season, notably the Sweet 16 win over UCLA.

Carolina combined its high degree of finesse with a grit that night perfectly suited for advancing in the big dance. Saturday in the Big Apple, they displayed needed characteristics for a team that can withstand the long haul of a season priming itself for a March run.

And it wasn’t just how the Heels (8-4) overcame an 11-point deficit with 7:18 remaining in regulation, or that the new guy Nance was the one for whom the last-second shot was drawn up, but that he converted. And it wasn’t the simple fact that the team was infused by the electric atmosphere.

It was the third game in a rebounding process in this team’s rebirth. Now, they have to move it to the next page, which is a date versus Michigan on Wednesday night in Charlotte. It’s Carolina’s last nonconference tilt before diving into ACC play until the NCAA Tournament.

“Yeah, I mean we still got one more,” senior forward Armando Bacot said, acknowledging the recent growth, but not accepting things have completely changed. “I told the guys, ‘Let's take a deep breath.’ I felt like we were supposed to beat that team.

“They are a great team but we are a great team, too. We’re still trying to put everything together, we can’t relax, we have seen success at a high level, we just need to stay locked in and not worry about anything, we haven't done anything yet.”

They have, given the disconnected nature of the first nine games.

The Tar Heels haven’t always been sharp in their three-game win streak, but they have broken through the malaise of the first nine. They are currently in the midst of their 2023 launching. The locker room vibes greatly reflect that.

Confident and optimistic? Yes, but cautiously.

“We still got a lot to work on,” junior guard Caleb Love said. “But we are moving in the right direction”