University of North Carolina Athletics
Jacobs: These Things Happen
January 23, 2012 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers
Jan. 23, 2012
By Barry Jacobs, TarHeelBlue.com
These things happen.
Good teams sometimes falter at mid-season. If the squad is strong and prominent, as is usually the case at North Carolina, any fall is apt to attract national attention. Especially when it's the most decisive defeat of Roy Williams' nine-year tenure at his alma mater, a 33-point tumble at Tallahassee.
But teams recover. January's troubles, immediate as they seem, are apt to fade like dissolvable stitches by season's end.
Only three Januarys ago the Tar Heels, undefeated and top-ranked in the country, were stunned in their ACC home opener by a mostly no-name Boston College squad. Two games later they were defeated again at Wake Forest, dropping to fifth in the polls.
The interlude cost a gifted Carolina club its air of invincibility and command. But not for long.
That '09 group followed the losses with wins in 14 of its next 15 games. Following a defeat against Florida State in the ACC Tournament semifinals, UNC rebounded to capture the school's fifth NCAA title, second under Williams.
The 2009 squad also survived an injury to Tyler Zeller, then a promising freshman. Zeller broke his left wrist in November and missed 13 weeks of the season. He returned in mid-February, seeing spot duty the rest of the way, a decision he embraces to this day.
Now, on the heels of a striking stumble, UNC confronts a serious injury to a starter, with no chance he'll return this season.
The torn anterior cruciate ligament suffered by Dexter Strickland comes less than a week after the loss to FSU in Carolina's first ACC road game. Like the season-ending wrist injury suffered by big man Ed Davis in February 2010, this one is sobering for the young man involved and for the team as a whole.
Strickland had evolved into a complete player, starting each of the Tar Heels' first 19 games at second guard.
As a freshman Strickland often operated at the edge of control. His sophomore year he settled admirably into a role as a perimeter defensive stopper. This season, through hard work he'd become the team's most accurate shooter (.570) and a reliable backup to Kendall Marshall at point guard (39 assists, 26 turnovers).
"Dexter's a guy that's not looking for his shot all the time," Williams said two weeks ago. "He's our best defensive player and gives us a physical guy. For every loose ball that Dexter's involved in, you know what mostly happens? Dexter mostly gets it. Some of those conscientious objectors out there, when they're involved, the other team usually gets it."
Defense and intensity, both Strickland traits, have been areas of concern for this year's squad. They were strengths as the Heels rallied to a 14-point victory at Blacksburg, Va. For most of the second half, they came back with an injured Strickland on the bench.
Long-term, though, making do without Strickland will be far more challenging than winning on the road or erasing the embarrassment of the loss at FSU. Those hurdles were mental and evanescent; the junior's absence will be manifest every time UNC takes the court.
"We're going to have to make up a lot defensively," Zeller said after Thursday's game. "He's a fantastic defender. He can chase guys around screens. He can defend one-on-one very well. It is a big loss for us. And he's been shooting the ball extremely well for us."
Fortunately for Carolina, Williams' teams tend to have formidable reserves. Reggie Bullock and P.J. Hairston, both regulars on this year's squad, figure to step up immediately.
Bullock, himself felled by a damaged knee late last season, has recovered admirably. Appearing in every game this year, the 6-7 wing emerged as the team's second-best shooter from 3-point range (.386), with more attempts than anyone else (88).
Perhaps Bullock's most impressive outing came against Long Beach State, when he scored 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting and had a team-high three steals. "Reggie was huge," Williams said afterward. "He's a youngster that's gone through a lot of tough times."
Bullock seemed to be coming into his own, scoring in double figures in six of seven games. Since the start of ACC competition, however, he's made just one-quarter of his shots.
Hairston, a freshman, likewise has appeared in every North Carolina contest, playing fewer minutes than any other regular. The burly 6-5 freshman is the best foul shooter (40-47, 85.1 percent) on a squad that struggles at the line.
Hairston relies on 3-pointers more than any Tar Heel, launching more than three-quarters of his shots from beyond the arc. Lately he too has lost his touch, missing 37 of his last 48 threes.
Just over a week ago Williams announced that Leslie McDonald, yet another casualty of an ACL injury, had returned to full drills but was likely to redshirt this season. "He couldn't play in a game today," Williams said. "He feels comfortable, but I would say not 100 percent confident, about all of his moves and everything right now."
That's especially unfortunate given that Zeller, a senior, may not be the only Tar Heel star leaving for the NBA next season. This is a special group even without Strickland, but its shelf life is quite limited.
The current team's unusual wealth of talent and seasoning led many observers to anoint it the preseason favorite to win the national championship. Most of those strengths remain, even if January's blows make a steep hill that much steeper to climb.
