Some New Year’s resolution for Carolina teams and coaches.

As we welcome the new year and new decade, here is what I wish for in the Carolina athletic orbit.

A successful growth spurt for the struggling Tar Heel basketball team, which has been caught short with its usual array of talented players and been burdened by more injuries that any program deserves.

Let’s resolve that the 2020 Tar Heels improve enough to reach another NCAA tournament and use the experience to launch its next championship contender later in the year. Players can get better with coaching and practice, and that process will help build depth for the future.

Roy Williams has proven he can develop a team from a bunch of spare parts, and as a recruiter he is as good as it gets. His group of five-star and four-star signees enrolling this summer will cure the shooting and scoring woes of the current team and, due to the players forced into action this season, will have one of the deepest rosters of Ol’ Roy’s tenure here.

Much the same can be said about Mack Brown’s program, which will obviously be a quicker rebuild than his first stint in Chapel Hill. One starter will be lost on offense and only three on defense, and snaps the younger kids got this past season will make for important competition in practice. Watch how the UNC strength and conditioning coaches reshape Sam Howell’s high school body into a leaner, more-muscular college star. Then watch how Brown will give Carolina a national profile heading into the 2020 season, when the Tar Heels will be picked to win the ACC Coastal Division.

Let’s also resolve that 2020 will give Anson Dorrance’s deep and talented women’s soccer team the national championship it missed by one match in 2018 and ‘19. Dorrance has most of his key players back next fall, and the Tar Heels will be picked again to win the ACC and reach another College Cup, winning Dorrance’s and UNC’s 23rd national championship.

Since Karen Shelton’s field hockey team has won 46 straight games and consecutive NCAA championships, why not keep those streaks going into the new year. Shelton has great momentum in recruiting, which keeps her roster filled with upper-class-women and newcomers.

Plus, why not resolve that Mike Fox’s Diamond Heels return to another College World Series and, at last, win that trophy, as well?

Finally, Courtney Banghart’s reign in women’s hoops has already begun. Anyone who has seen how she has improved everything on and off the court knows that success isn’t far away.

Happy, healthy 2020, to you all.

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