The coming hoops campaign already worries me to death.
This is a sermon I am going to preach on the road toward Houston, where the Tar Heels are favored to win the 2023 national championship. They are not a consensus pick but some of the early polls are scary.
CBS Sports, for example, has Hubert Davis’ second team a 37 percent favorite to cut down the nets on Monday night. That’s overwhelming when you consider Gonzaga is given a 20 percent chance, Kentucky a 5 percent chance, while Duke, Kansas, Tennessee, UCLA and Virginia all come in at 1 percent.
I hope Carolina is working hard in the offseason and not spending too much time on NIL gigs. There is ample room for improvement, from Bacot’s shooting range, to Love and Davis maintaining defensive pressure and 3-point percentages, to Leaky continuing his great play on both ends, to Pete Nance adjusting to a new system as soon as possible.
The excitement is profound, for sure, but I like to spout this scenario even as the Heels came within a bad second half of beating Kansas in the title game. What if any of the following had happened:
• Duke did not lose a late lead in the national semifinal.
• Carolina had to play Purdue in the Elite Eight instead of St. Peter’s.
• Caleb Love hadn’t rescued his team with long bombs against UCLA.
• And, the biggie, if reserve Dontrez Styles had not made a corner 3-ball with the shot clock expiring to begin overtime after Baylor rallied from 25 points down in the last 10 minutes to tie the game.
If any of those had gone the other way, especially avoiding what would have been one of the worst defeats in UNC history to Baylor, what would the narrative be today about the 2022-23 Heels and Coach Davis?
We all suffered, particularly players and coaches, with the rough start while Davis put a car with old parts, broken parts and new parts together and got it running smoothly. But that kept the expectations way down heading into the postseason.
With four returning starters, a new grad transfer and a deeper bench, Carolina has been saddled with an opposite set of expectations that has only grown since the final buzzer against Kansas went off, throughout the summer and will last right into the opening game against UNCW on November 7.
These Heels will be playing under intense, prolonged pressure all season, which none of their talented youngsters have ever faced before.
Featured image via Todd Melet
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