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The fall from grace is unbelievable. The preseason number one favorite, now their tournament hopes are on life support. UNC is currently 16-11 (8-8 in conference) and sits 9th in the ACC. They are 0-9 in Quad 1 games.
ESPN and former guest on the KarterKast Joe Lunardi have the Tar Heels on the outside looking in. Their current resume has no reason to be sniffing the tournament. But they have plenty of chances to play their way in if the Tar Heels close the season 4-0 against Notre Dame, Virginia, Florida State, and Duke. Two of those are Quad 1 opportunities for Carolina. If the Tar Heels finish the season 3-1 (one of the losses to Virginia or Duke) and they win a game or two in the ACC Tournament, with their namesake, there’s still a solid shot they make the NCAA Tournament.
Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way. They lose Brady Manek, who was their engine, having to deal with realistic expectations, and their confidence has been shot. But what about coaching? Besides a one-month stretch last season, UNC has been abysmal. The Tar Heels consistently settle for contested jumpers and have no flow on offense. There have also been questionable coaching decisions regarding the number of minutes Pete Nance has been playing. At what point does this disappointing season land on Hubert instead of the players?
It will be interesting to see if UNC misses the tournament and whether or not they accept an invite to the NIT. If I were a Tar Heels fan, I would rather the team decline the invite than even play in NIT. It will also be interesting to see if the NIT becomes similar to point college football bowl games regarding opt-outs, but that’s a blog for another day. At the of the day, even Duke fans would take a few bad seasons to win that game in New Orleans last season.
