CHAPEL HILL – A trip around the interview room following North Carolina’s loss to Miami on Monday night at the Smith Center revealed a deep disappointment among the Tar Heels about that loss and how this season has played out thus far.
Numbness might be an apt description, as the three main players – Armando Bacot, Caleb Love, and RJ Davis – seemingly had no answers for why the Tar Heels lost yet again, and offered minimal suggestions on how to right their sinking ship.
Perhaps more than any time this season, the Heels are shocked at how the season has gone, as they dropped to 16-10 overall and 8-7 in the ACC, and are now 0-9 in Quad 1 games. An NCAA Tournament invitation is no longer a given, of which the players are keenly aware.
In fact, the 80-72 loss to the No. 15 Hurricanes came on a night the Heels shot 16.1 percent from the perimeter, assisted on only 20.7 percent of their buckets, got just six field goal attempts from Bacot, snared only 24.3 percent of their missed shots, had two fast break points, and the bench was 1-for-9 shooting in 26 minutes.
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This was a mere 48 hours after the team’s most spirited performance and best outing of the season in a 20-poimt romp over Clemson after a few days of self-reflection, hugging, psychological tactics by UNC Coach Hubert Davis, and a “backs against the wall” recognition by some Heels. A pin wasn’t stuck in the Heels’ balloon Monday night, it was a missile.
“Right now, we are just all disappointed,” junior guard RJ Davis said. “This is a game we should have won. Just going from excitement from Saturday, to not a great performance on our end. We've just got to regroup, keep our guys up, and stay positive right now.”
That might be easier said than done given this team has been forced to pick itself up off the mat multiple times this season. Once would have been too much considering their stated mission of “championship or bust” back in the fall, a justifiable claim considering the core group had a 15-point lead at halftime of the national championship last April. Hubert Davis said in October he was okay with the players saying that, though he wasn’t expressing any sort of motto.
Now, the Tar Heels aren’t sure what to say. Was the loss to the Canes just one game, like the win over Clemson was? Or was this something else?
“I don’t really know,” senior forward Armando Bacot replied. “I don’t know.”
Hubert Davis used a tactic of having some players wear 15-pound weighted vests during practice last Friday, as taking them off would symbolize removing the added weight with which they’d been playing.
As genius as that was, it lasted only one game. The weight was back on Monday night. It’s undeniable.
“It's just tough; that's how it's been all year,” Bacot said. “That's not how any of us wanted it to go, but we can't feel sorry for ourselves, and we've got to figure something out.”
Figuring it out may require some literal tweaks and pivots, as UNC’s second-year coach likes to say, especially with this team’s season essentially hanging in the balance. There is zero room for error left.
The Heels head to No. 23 NC State on Sunday, plus two other road games and home dates versus Virginia and Duke make the last five games of the regular season a rather daunting task for a team that is 11-10 since winning its first five games, all of which over non-power conference opponents.
“It’s tough, but we’re playing for something bigger,” said junior guard Caleb Love, who expressed more optimism than his other teammates Monday night. “Hanging our heads will not help anything right now. We’ve just got to step up and own what we did and what we didn’t do on the court.”
That is an endeavor this club knows all too well this season. The looks on their faces and tones in their voices Monday night reflected that, too.
