Forty-eight hours after seemingly righting all wrongs, the UNC men’s basketball team once again took a step back Monday night against Miami, falling 80-72 for its fourth loss in five games. It’s Carolina’s 10th loss this season, equaling the team’s total from last season. That squad advanced to the national championship. This one would be lucky to receive an invite to the tournament.
“I’m honestly just blank right now,” said a demoralized Armando Bacot after the game. “I’m not really processing anything. I don’t know how to feel.”
Bacot finished with 12 points but just four rebounds against the Hurricanes and fouled out with less than a minute remaining. His four boards were his fewest in a full game since Carolina’s first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Wisconsin at the end of the 2020-21 season, Roy Williams’ last game as head coach.
But Bacot’s lack of production was not what killed the Tar Heels Monday night. Instead, it was Carolina’s inability to hit outside shots: UNC finished a paltry 5-31 (16.1 percent) from downtown, its worst rate of the season. Junior guard Caleb Love finished 2-12 from outside, nearly equaling the entire volume of attempts from all of the Hurricanes combined (13). Miami was much more efficient on its threes, finishing 6-13.
“We had a number of good looks out there,” head coach Hubert Davis said. “On Saturday [against Clemson] we were able to make some of those. Tonight we weren’t able to do it.”
The Tar Heels fought through those three-point woes in a competitive first half, exchanging the lead with the Hurricanes multiple times before going to the locker rooms down 35-34. Carolina shot 51.7 percent in the half, with Love and Bacot combining for 22 points.
But the Hurricanes adjusted in a big way in the second half, cutting off driving lanes for Love and R.J. Davis while shooting 52.2 percent. Carolina’s shooting plummeted to 14-37 (37.8) as Miami built a lead as large as 14 points. A desperate UNC rally in the final minutes, which cut that lead down to as little as four points, was not enough.
“We didn’t really hit shots,” Bacot said. “I thought the guards played great, and Leaky, but we just need other guys to step up.”
Love and Davis combined for 43, countering the 47 Miami’s Jordan Miller and Nijel Pack scored in tandem. Black added 13 points of his own, but graduate forward Pete Nance scored just two. Mired in a shooting slump from hell, Nance has scored just two points in Carolina’s last two games. He was 1-5 from the field and 0-3 on three-point attempts.
The Tar Heels also struggled at the free throw line once again, finishing just 9-15. Carolina made 36 of 39 attempts against NC State in January, but are just 71-104 (68.2 percent) in the six games since then. The team is 2-4 in those games.
That stretch has sunk Carolina to the unfavorable side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, bringing ever closer the unthinkable prospect of missing the field after a runner-up finish last spring and a preseason No. 1 ranking.
“I’m stressed the hell out,” said Bacot. “I want to get back to the NCAA Tournament. This would’ve never even crossed my mind.”
Nor would visiting NC State this weekend with Carolina in desperate need of a quality win and the Wolfpack comfortably in the tournament field. The fans in Raleigh need no motivation to get fired up for the UNC game, but an opportunity to knock the Tar Heels out of the NCAA bracket for good is juicy enough to create an all-time atmosphere in PNC Arena on Sunday.
Hold on to your butts.
Featured image via Todd Melet. For a full photo gallery of the game, click here.
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