For the Tar Heels, it’s too little but not too late.
In winning three straight games for the first time since opening the season at 5-0, Carolina now has a solid glimpse of what went wrong.
Had the Tar Heels been able to shoot the basketball and finish off opponents like they have over the last week, they would have at least five more victories and own a record more like 18-12 and be in contention for an NCAA at-large bid, which is out of the question now.
What is left for returning to the Big Dance is a long shot of unprecedented proportions: sweeping the ACC tournament in Greensboro next week. But they go into the regular-season finale at Duke Saturday and the tourney with confidence restored after a 7-game losing streak.
Carolina continued shooting the ball well in the 10-point win over Wake Forest on Senior Night, with its best field goal/three-point/free throw percentage game in years. It may be too late to play in the 2020 post-season, but the returnees must wish next October came sooner.
Following Roy Williams’ ongoing mantra to “play better,” this is a vastly improved group, and beating a Duke team in Durham that it had beaten in Chapel Hill is not out of the question. The Blue Devils, who have struggled recently, are likely well aware of that.
Ol’ Roy’s 17th UNC team is playing looser and harder than it has all season, and however this campaign ends will be a positive springboard into the summer and 2020-21.
The Smith Center crowds have been consistently supportive and are more than ready for “next year” to begin, welcoming a recruiting class that will more than make up for senior Brandon Robinson, two grad transfers and even freshman Cole Anthony, should he turn pro.
West Virginia dropped to the bottom of the Big 12 last year and has since recovered; Carolina will also prove this season to be an outlier and learn from it.
