Does UNC Basketball Need “The Voice”?

“Welcome, folks, to our live finale! The time has finally come to find your voice, Chapel Hill! And again I have got to mention WE ARE LIVE!!!”

The host, a Ryan Seacrest look-a-like, announced these words to a raucous audience full of the finest and brightest the town has to offer. The people have made it clear that they are beyond anxious for the results; however, there is still one more contestant yet to sing, the crowd favorite.

Standing at center stage, Marcus Paige looks out at the sea of fans cheering him on and takes a deep breath. The spotlights shine so bright on his face that they’re forcing him to break into a full sweat.  It’s “80’s night” in this scenario, and the judges are staring at the point guard, wearing his full uniform, eagerly awaiting his rendition of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough.”

Before beginning, however, Judge Christina Aguilera lets Paige know that his coach, Roy Williams, had just come off of the performance of the night with his take on “Superfreak” by Rick James. The pressure was on.

Paige, cued by the music, starts bobbing his head up and down before hitting a hip thrust followed by a perfect moonwalk.

Then it all hit me like a ton of bricks.

I had been fast asleep, dreaming my heart out, but the shock of that moonwalk image sent me back to the real world.

The chatter around the Tar Heels all season long has revolved around their lack of a true vocal leader or “voice,” whether it be on the floor or in the locker room.  You’d think there really was a singing competition going on amongst the team with all the questioning over who’s been the best voice for the Heels so far. The bulk of the criticism has fallen on Marcus Paige’s shoulders this season due to his lofty preseason expectations, but in reality this assessment of the team, and its star player, is unfair.

Carolina is 11-4 and 1-1 in the ACC right now. One of those losses was to a Kentucky team sent from outer space to destroy anything in its path. Forget that ever happened. It’s the other three that I want to bring into focus.

In each of those games (Butler, Iowa, Notre Dame), the Tar Heels shot under 40 percent from the field, including a horrid 28 percent December 2^nd at home against Iowa. The other common denominator in these losses is awful three-point shooting. I mean, we’re talking 25 percent or lower from deep in each game. The craziest part is that the Heels had legitimate chances to win every one of them.

With 37 seconds to go against Butler, they trailed by just three before ultimately falling by eight. The Iowa game was tied with a minute left when the Hawkeyes went ahead for good on a three-point play by guard Mike Gesell. And of course UNC held a one point lead over 14^th ranked Notre Dame the other night with just the final minute to play before Zach Auguste scored what ended up being the winning bucket off of an offensive rebound for Notre Dame, with the Heels going on to miss their final five shots on offense including two lay-ups and a highly contested Paige three at the buzzer.

Often times in the world of sportswriting, we like to create stories out of nothing and over-analyze the smallest things to death (Roy Williams changing his tie at halftime vs. Iowa). Looking at the facts, it occurred to me that blaming the team’s struggles this season on vocal leadership falls right into this category.

What if Paige’s three goes in against the Irish? And while we’re at it, let’s imagine that he had hit a couple more against Iowa? I can bet we’d all be wondering if this team is among the nation’s top five or ten squads. Just a couple bounces here or there have been the difference in those games. To search for a deeper meaning in that is a fool’s errand.

This team has plenty of talent and plenty of time to win tough games in the brutal ACC and fulfill some of the expectations placed upon them in the preseason.

The first step in that process would be avoiding a 1-2 start to the conference season by upsetting ACC newcomer and fifth-ranked Louisville this Saturday in the Dean Dome.

Led by their Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino, the Cardinals will bring their patented full court press and a star forward, Montrezl Harrell, that attacks the basket as if it had stolen from his grandma. While Harrell has been a man among boys, averaging 16.5 points per game to go along with 9.5 rebounds and 60 percent shooting, the questions for the Cards lie in the backcourt. The criticism that has most plagued Pitino’s team this year is inconsistent shooting from their guards, with only one starter (Terry Rozier) shooting above 30 percent from deep. UNC may see a bit of themselves in their opponent this weekend, which could make for a compelling matchup.

I’ll go out on a limb and say that three-point shooting will determine this basketball game, not which team has louder leaders.

If those threes start falling for number five on Saturday, look for the mood in Chapel Hill to rise exponentially. It won’t be about “The Voice” anymore, it’ll be about more shots going through the hoop.

From us writers, though, the narrative will change and suddenly Paige won’t need to conform and become the “rah-rah” leader some expect him to be. Instead his personality and leadership style will be celebrated for what they are: as the late, great Stuart Scott would say, “As cool as the other side of the pillow.”