The defending champions of the NCAA tournament, North Carolina Tar Heels, are looking like anything but a championship team. They have lost six or their last seven with their lone win coming against North Carolina State. Their next game is against arch-rival Duke and it doesn't look like they are going to win this one either. This brings a question to mind:
Why have the defending champs, who started off 11-4, sunk so far and fast?
One factor always looked at is the conference they play in, the ACC, but they are not just losing to the "big boys" but also teams they should beat. They lost to Georgia Tech by two on their home floor, which happens once in a blue moon. Add a loss to a Clemson team that never has near the talent they have by 20, granted it was at Little John Coliseum but home-court doesn't make a team better by 21 points. Then this past weekend they lost by 21 to a Maryland team that is ranked second in the ACC standings but still doesn't have better players than the Tar Heels. Their only two wins are against Virginia Tech and North Carolina State, not too sexy of wins for the tournament resume, not as if they would get in with only two conference wins.
We all knew they would struggle somewhat this year, but i don't think anyone knew it would be this bad.
In the only few games i have watched this year of them, one being the Texas game, it seems like their guards seem somewhat confused about what they are doing sometimes out there on the floor, that usually what happens when you have young point guard. Then you can take a look at Kentucky's John Wall and argue that fact. Larry Drew II is averaging just a little over three turnovers a game. That is not what you look for in your top point guard.
The low post players Ed Davis and Deon Thompson are averaging fourteen points a game but they need more offense from their guards who none of them are averaging over 10 points a game. If the guards come alive and help out the big men down low then they could pull off a run of six straight after this Wednesday against Duke and possibly put themselves into the big dance.
Another point to look at is last years team was so talented, that the back-ups didn't get to play and develop much for this year. This is the biggest reason why they are struggling this year. When you have the talent that Roy Williams had last year no one can really blame you on not playing the bench players for more than ten minutes a game but now he is feeling the effects of this.
North Carolina might not make the tournament this year but next year they should be better equipped to make a run next year with Drew, Zeller, and possibly Davis coming back should be a great nucleus to work with and not to mention them signing the top player in the country in Barnes this year.
Watch out for the Tar Heels next season but this year they would be lucky to make the NIT.
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