Lucas: The Ride

By Adam Lucas

In sifting through the wreckage in order to come up with some good news to share following Saturday's overtime home loss to N.C. State, I came up with only this one tiny nugget: there sure are a lot of post-NCAA championship teams to choose from when you're trying to assess this current bunch.

That means, of course, that there have been a lot of NCAA championship teams. That the 2018 team lost on Saturday doesn't dim the 2017 title at all. But it was a stark reminder that the aftermath of a championship isn't always easy.

It's the end of January and the Tar Heels now sit here 16-6, 5-4 in the ACC. They don't have much inside presence, Luke Maye is a star, they are too dependent on the three-point shot and they desperately miss a rim protector on defense.

Or, in other words—they're pretty much what we thought they would be back in September.

Saturday's loss to the Wolfpack by itself wouldn't be that stunning. Anyone who has watched decades of Carolina-State basketball is familiar with the scenario in which a heretofore unknown Wolfpack player suddenly gets red-hot from the perimeter, and State springs the upset. Yesterday, it was Lakista McCuller or C.C. Harrison. Today, it was Allerik Freeman, who came off the bench and did even better than those two, hitting all seven of his three-point attempts.

But when put into context with the rest of the season, Saturday's game gets more frustrating. First, the opening month of the season spoiled us. The Tar Heels got what have turned out to be very good wins over Michigan, Tennessee, Ohio State and Arkansas. Right now, Carolina's strongest NCAA Tournament credentials are the nonconference wins, not the ACC results.

The team that won those games was a delight to watch. They shared the ball constantly, competed on every possession, and consistently created good shots.

Then there's the more recent version. That's the Carolina team that won four straight ACC games, but even then, as Roy Williams pointed out Saturday, "I said we needed to play better." He was right, and they haven't. That's why Carolina now rides two straight losses going into Tuesday's trip to Clemson, which suddenly looks like a very important game.

Every season is ultimately a full picture. The problem, and why we're all screaming at the television so frequently these days, is we don't have the full picture yet. So this most recent slump could be indicative of how we'll remember this team. Maybe this is the real 2018 Carolina squad. That's why we're so worried.

But the truth is that we don't know. This could be just a normal late January slide, the kind many Tar Heel teams have had before and many Tar Heel teams will have in the future. If that November/December team returns soon, we'll only remember this span as a little adversity that Carolina ultimately overcame. The not knowing, though, is stressful. No offense, but if Carolina shoots 4-for-19 from the three-point line every game with this year's team, we're not going to be eating many biscuits, people.

Let's put it in some context. The 2006 team came off the 2005 national title and went 23-8 overall and 12-4 in the ACC. They were sitting 4-3 in the ACC at the end of January.

The 2010 team followed the 2009 club and was 20-17 overall and 5-11 in the league. They were 2-4 in the conference at the end of January.

Let's include the 2013 team, because it was basically a reboot after 2012 ended with an injury and multiple departures. That team was 25-11 overall, 12-6 in the conference, and sat 4-3 in the conference at the end of January.

You can say this team is not as tough or as good as the 2017 version. The answer is pretty easy: of course. Of course it's not. You're comparing it to one of the best six teams in program history. You can't say you enjoyed the ride that led up to the 2017 title—and that ride stretched back to the freshman years for Kennedy Meeks, Isaiah Hicks and Nate Britt—and not also acknowledge that the ride also included 2014 and 2015, which had a combined three NCAA Tournament wins.

This year's team is right now much more comparable to 2006, 2010 or 2013 than it is to 2017, to which it has similarity really only in proximity on the calendar.

That doesn't make it any less frustrating to watch Freeman hit all seven of his three-pointers and the Tar Heels struggle at the free throw line. But it's part of the ride. Come March, will we remember this game more as a foreboding sign for the rest of the season or the day Theo Pinson discovered how good he could be offensively? Maybe this loss pushes the Tar Heels back to playing a freshman big man (Garrison Brooks had some very good first half minutes and Sterling Manley had a key overtime steal before turning it over because, well, he's a freshman) more minutes. Maybe Jalek Felton and Joel Berry II is an "and" instead of an "either."

This felt like more of a loss that's important for what happens afterward than for what happened during the 45 minutes of game action. The season is a ride because it's a ride. There's a team out there right now that thinks it's great that will end the year feeling like a failure. There's a team out there right now that thinks it's on the verge of disaster that will be a March success story.

We don't know where Carolina falls right now on that spectrum, and after the last two seasons, we're not accustomed to being uncertain with February looming.

"It's a little bit of adversity right now," an astute Cameron Johnson said. "We have to stay composed, and we have to keep pushing, and we have to keep getting better."

It's too early to get off the ride just yet.

Players Mentioned

Joel Berry II

Nate Britt

Garrison Brooks

Jalek Felton

Isaiah Hicks

Cameron Johnson

Sterling Manley

Luke Maye

Kennedy Meeks

Theo Pinson

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