UNC reverted to its early season lethargy against Ole Miss on Friday, falling behind by 17 in the first half. The Tar Heels did rally in the second and it was a winnable game with 1:09 left and Ole Miss up just 69-66.
Didn’t matter – UNC lost.
And the questions that UNC had put to rest after their late-season surge, after the tremendous comeback against Duke in the ACC Tournament and the utter domination of San Diego State in the First Four, returned with a vengeance.
After the loss Friday, UNC coach Hubert Davis said this: “Every category, every angle in regards to physicality, they not only won in the first half — they dominated us. There were only two choices coming out in the second half, either to respond with that same type of fight or get embarrassed.”
And Seth Trimble said this: ”We were really lifeless in the first half. We had no passion. We had no joy. We looked like the group we were a few months ago. We were fortunate enough to listen just to what the coaches had to say in the second half. We checked ourselves. We got checked. And everybody kind of just looked in the mirror, and, I mean, that second half it was clear we just played with passion, with joy, and we played for each other. We were a team in that second half. That was the biggest difference. We weren’t in that first half.”
The question after that explanation has to be: why? Why did this happen? And while the players have to take a lot of responsibility for this happening, in the end, it’s really on the coach. And while we’re Duke fans and biased, the truth is that the coach is ultimately responsible.
Small vignette: after sitting out most of the 1994-95 season with his back issue, when Mike Krzyzewski returned the following season, it didn’t take long for him to get a technical.
Why? Well, we believe because Duke wasn’t playing up to the standards he demanded and he was furious and called them over to talk about it.
We don’t know Hubert. We don’t know anyone who plays for UNC and we don’t know the internal issues that team had.
Something was wrong though. Something was off. On some level, it has to come down to communication.
Is everyone on the same page? Does everyone understand their role? Is everyone willing to give their best?
The thing about Davis that sticks in our mind is what Caleb Love said about his decision to transfer.
Love asked Davis what his role might be if he returned and Davis told him he didn’t know. Like most Duke fans, we’re not huge fans of Love, but it was hard not to feel empathy for him at that point. And while Davis is free to decide who will be on his team and all that, he didn’t seem to handle that situation very well.
Incidentally, after Love ended up at Arizona, Tommy Lloyd has done a nice job of taming his wilder side. He’s set expectations, given Love a role, and for the most part, Love has responded well to superior coaching.
We say all of this despite the fact that Hubert seems like an immensely decent guy, much more likable than, say, Love, at least from a distance.
It was easy to dislike Dean Smith because in his era, UNC dominated Duke for almost two decades. Bill Guthridge was a bit of a gray man, certainly no one to hate but just a bland public personality. It was easy to detest Matt Doherty because he constantly did stupid, detestable things. Ol’ Roy Williams? He seems like a nice man with a lot of good qualities, but he lashed out a lot, including at Kansas and UNC fans. What’s the point in that?
Davis just seems like a pleasant fellow who may not be ideally suited to coaching. We’re not sure how else to put it. And while he’s done some smart things lately, like hiring a GM, if he can’t get his team to buy in, it won’t end well. We’re not sure why it has been, but it absolutely has. As you can tell from the sign on the door, we’re Duke fans. That said, there’s something sad about seeing a program that means so much to so many being run this way.
And by the way, if Will Wade does well at NC State, the pressure on Davis is only going to increase.
Other than UNC’s loss, the rest of the day was certainly interesting.
There weren’t many surprises though Colorado State did upset Memphis, but injuries for the Tigers played a role there. #15 Robert Morris gave #2 Alabama a solid game in the East. #15 Bryant pushed #2 Michigan State fairly far into the game before the Spartans took over.
Shaka Smart bowed out early again as #10 New Mexico took out #7 Marquette.
#8 UConn and #9 Oklahoma put on a heck of a show before the Huskies pulled away in the closing minutes.
The SEC lost two more teams with #10 Vanderbilt losing to #7 St. Mary’s 59-56 and #8 Mississippi State falling to #9 Baylor. #11 Texas went out in the First Four while #6 Missouri and #9 Georgia went out on Thursday.
Not that ACC fans have reason to be cocky with only Duke still carrying the banner.
It’s been a dismal season for the All-Coast Conference, perhaps the worst since 1979. Most of the country associates Black Friday with the 1929 stock market crash but in the Triangle, the real Black Friday came 50 years later, when both Duke and UNC lost, on the same day, wiping out the ACC altogether.
It was tremendously depressing, but things changed quickly.
Before long, Jim Valvano, Bobby Cremins and some guy from Army with an impossible to spell last name showed up at NC State, Georgia Tech and Duke and turned those programs around. UNC won a national championship in 1982, NC State won another in 1983, and the following players overlapped in the conference: Ralph Sampson, Sam Perkins, James Worthy, Michael Jordan, Johnny Dawkins, Mark Price, John Sally and Len Bias came through the conference.
For all the talk about the SEC being the greatest conference ever, the ACC, between 1981 and 1986, set a standard that may never be touched again.
So we take the recent hires as good news. We’re a little queasy about Wade at NC State, not because he can coach – clearly he can – but because he didn’t just cheat at LSU, he allegedly tried to pay off someone who was on to him. If that’s true, and it appears to be, where does he draw the line? Is it academic fraud? God forbid, but what would he do in a Len Bias situation? What about poor Patrick Dennehy, murdered by a teammate at Baylor where the Bastard Dave Bliss tried to frame the deceased Dennehy as a drug dealer to cover his own sorry behind.?
Look, Wade has made a great impression this week and his players seem to love him. But if things go bad, is he going to go for shortcuts again?
He’s probably going to win, but State is taking a significant risk. At the press conference, whenever that happens, State AD Boo Corrigan will likely say something about feeling confident, but it’s still a risk.
As for Virginia’s incoming coach, Ryan Odom, he’ll most likely do well too. The ACC will soon have a solid stable of coaches who understand how to coach in the modern environment and that will lead to more NIL, better players and happier Marches to the Final Four.
Saturday’s games should be fun.
Wade and #12 McNeese tangle with #4 Purdue in the Midwest. #10 Arkansas and #2 St. John’s rumble in the West while #5 Michigan and #4 Texas A&M go at it in the South.
Can #11 Drake keep it going against #3 Texas Tech in the West? #1 Auburn has been shaky lately and #9 Creighton looked great against Louisville Thursday. Can they knock off a #1? #6 BYU gets #3 Wisconsin in Denver which seems like a big advantage.
In the nightcaps, #8 Gonzaga gets #1 Houston in the Midwest while the night closes with #7 UCLA gunning for #2 Tennessee.
We like McNeese over Purdue, St. John’s over Arkansas in Rick Pitino’s old stomping grounds of Providence, Michigan over A&M, Texas Tech over Drake, Creighton over Auburn, BYU over Wisconsin, Houston over Gonzaga and Tennessee over UCLA.
Blue Healer Auctions | Drop us a line
