UNC Basketball: 5 reasons why Tar Heels have fallen apart this season
There was literally no team in college basketball that had more pressure on it than UNC Basketball, which was one minute away from winning the national title as an 8 seed and entered this season as the preseason No. 1 team.
But it was clear early on that the Tar Heels weren’t worthy of that ranking. After struggling against several inferior opponents to start the season, they went on a four-game losing streak to be the earliest to go from No. 1 to unranked in AP poll history.
It looked as if they were at least treading water, going on a four-game win streak a month ago. Unfortunately, the Tar Heels have since struggled badly, now currently in a four-game losing skid. The latest came on Tuesday night, falling 92-85 at Wake Forest. A 60-point second-half output masked what was mostly a blowout, down 22 points at the half.
The latest defeat brings the Tar Heels to 15-9 overall and 7-6 in ACC play. And now they’re once again firmly on the bubble, with a resume that isn’t very impressive. Their lone Quad 1 resume win is against a reeling Ohio State squad and is in real danger of missing the NCAA Tournament entirely if things don’t improve.
"Really I just told everybody that I'm not going to quit, if you want to be here, be here on Thursday. If not, just go home." Armando Bacot speaking after tonight's loss to Wake Forest. @WFMY #wfmysports @_amandaferguson pic.twitter.com/p03kSNq4xQ
— Brian Hall (@bhallwfmy) February 8, 2023
Things truly have soured for UNC Basketball and the turmoil seems to have reached the locker room. This makes the home game against Clemson this weekend all the more important, as the loss could see them out of the projected field.
Here are some reasons why the Heels have struggled so much and what they can do to fix it.