AFTER MUCH DISAPPOINTMENT: BECAUSE OF UNFINISHED DEALS, THE TAR HEELS HEAD COACH DECIDED TO FIRE.

AFTER MUCH DISAPPOINTMENT: BECAUSE OF UNFINISHED DEALS, THE TAR HEELS HEAD COACH DECIDED TO FIRE.

Puff Johnson was carrying his backpack, which was visible in his locker behind him. It had an orange tag that read “Team Bus” and still had the Final Four emblem from the previous year attached. Up to the very end, this North Carolina team was constantly reminded of its origins and the expectations that were both placed on it and placed upon it.

What used to be a source of pride—the sports department even released a picture of Dean Smith and himself replicating the iconic 1982 Sports Illustrated cover—became a weight that this group seemed oddly ill-prepared to bear. Nothing ever goes as smoothly as it should, and Thursday was no exception as the unfulfilled promise of reality hit them hard.

“It hurts to see the result we just had today, and we definitely had a lot of expectations going into the year,” Johnson stated. It has occurred all season long. All you have to do when you fall is get back up.

Leaky Black (1) of North Carolina collects his thoughts in the locker room as the Tar Heels fall to Virginia 68-59 in the ACC Tournament’s third round on Thursday, March 9, 2023, at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. The newsobserver.com/rwillett@robert willett

Leaky Black (1) of North Carolina collects his thoughts in the locker room as the Tar Heels fall to Virginia 68-59 in the ACC Tournament’s third round on Thursday, March 9, 2023, at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina. The newsobserver.com/rwillett@robert willett

The Tar Heels, led by Armando Bacot, Caleb Love, and R.J. Davis, lost Brady Manek but gained Pete Nance, a highly sought-after transfer, and came within a hair’s breadth of winning a national championship the previous season. They possessed flair, drive, and confidence. It turns out that they were ill-prepared to handle the luggage they had as well.

The most disappointing team in college basketball’s modern era faced its ultimate failure on Thursday night in a very quiet locker room within the Greensboro Coliseum. Nance left Northwestern to pursue a national championship. The NCAA tournament will feature the Wildcats. Very likely, North Carolina won’t.

Until this Sunday, when this team will hear the expected bad news, barring some supernatural bureaucratic intervention, no preseason No. 1 has failed to make the NCAA tournament since the field grew to 64 teams in 1985. Three others, including N.C. State in 1975, failed to make much smaller fields. (Bubba Cunningham, the athletic director of North Carolina, won’t be present, but if the Tar Heels are eliminated, the committee members will still need to face him.)

On Thursday, March 9, 2023, in Greensboro, North Carolina, following Virginia’s 68-59 victory against UNC in the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinals, head coach Hubert Davis of North Carolina leaves the field. The newsobserver.com/[email protected]

On Thursday, March 9, 2023, in Greensboro, North Carolina, following Virginia’s 68-59 victory against UNC in the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinals, head coach Hubert Davis of North Carolina leaves the field. The newsobserver.com/[email protected]

Following the 68-59 defeat to Virginia, there was a complete sense of resignation rather than rage or grief. Perhaps even relief at this juncture. There won’t be a shortage of things to take into account in the postmortem, but these North Carolina players might never be able to pinpoint why this squad was so much less than the sum of its parts.

The easiest diagnosis is that there were too many players who simply needed the ball in their hands. However, there were also concerns about the Tar Heels’ motivation—whether they wanted to win or just collect NIL money—whether they believed they could simply show up and win, and whether they had too many baggage to carry around in addition to the emotional burden they already carried.

Hubert Davis, the coach of North Carolina, stated, “I’m talking to more than 18 guys in the locker room.” “Yes, there is occasionally noise, whether it comes from the phone, relatives, friends, fans, agents, or the workout guys. I’m talking to about 35 to 40 individuals. I believe it hurts us a lot at times.

In either case, the Tar Heels weren’t caught off guard by Thursday’s defeat. They had been aware of the consequences of a loss for some time. Maybe that allowed them too much leeway to think out the consequences—not just tonight, not just this week, but for months already.