Photo by Todd Melet

“The other team has coaches, too.”

That was a favorite line of Dean Smith when his Tar Heels were preparing for a tough opponent or they didn’t play as well as expected. I thought about that after Chris Mack’s Louisville Cardinals cleaned Carolina’s collective clock Saturday at the Smith Center in what we hope is one bad loss that all teams have.

It was explainable for these reasons. The Heels were coming off a great, emotional victory at N.C. State and a heavy favorite to beat Louisville, which had lost in overtime to the same Pitt team Carolina had drubbed by 25 points in both of their ACC openers.

All that, and 18, 19 and 20-year old boys – who are lucky enough to play basketball here and get all the glory that comes with it – will be boys. That means taking some opponents lightly and not playing as hard as they should. It also means hoping they can come back from big deficits on their home court, as they sometimes do.

But Chris Mack is known as a defensive coach, and what his team did to Roy’s is a bit concerning. The Cardinals played aggressive defense like Michigan did at Ann Arbor and were even more physical than the Wolverines in administering the worst loss Williams has had in the Smith Center since he returned.

The ‘Ville’s on-the-ball defense kept Carolina from getting into its motion offense and gave up precious few transition points, which as we all know is the Tar Heels’ game. The Cardinals exposed our weakness inside on both ends of the court. These are already on opposing scouting reports and will be underscored by future foes.

Many of the season-lows put up by Carolina, like 20 field goals in 58 attempts, 35 percent shooting and a dreadful 3-of-22 from the three-point line, can be chalked up to a bad shooting day at the office. But those stats — and other lows like 31 rebounds, 13 assists and 62 points scored, including only 28 in the second half — were also products of Louisville’s rugged play and getting into the Tar Heels’ head after they couldn’t have their way early.

Ol’ Roy needs a quick fix so one bad loss doesn’t turn into two.

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