Saturday night at 8 p.m., we will see just how much this Carolina basketball team has learned since practice began in October 2010.
The Tar Heels will play Duke in the final regular-season game of 2011. A victory would shake the Dean Dome to its foundation. A victory would also provide UNC with at least a share of first place in the final conference standings (UNC played at Florida State on Wednesday night, hoping to win in order to play Duke for the outright title; otherwise, it would be to tie the Blue Devils for first, assuming Duke defeated Clemson Wednesday. Both games were after The Citizen’s deadline.)
“Now we control our own destiny,†UNC point guard Kendall Marshall said.
There are, without a doubt, people around the nation still in denial at just how good this Carolina team has become. This is not the sleek machine of 2005 or 2009, teams that could mow down the competition in an end-to-end blur. This team is just as likely to win 48-46 as 106-75.
“I like the way we’re finding ways to win,†Marshall said. “We never know how we’re going to do it.â€
The key has been doing it. After UNC defeated Maryland last Sunday, Terrapins coach Gary Williams said that teams sometimes have a hard time shaking early impressions.
“I looked at their team that played against us last year and I don’t think they had one guy who started against us who was on the team [on Sunday],†Gary Williams said. “It takes time to put a team together. I don’t care how good the players are; it just takes time.
“What happens now in college basketball is if you lose some games in November and December, you kind of get labeled as that level of team. I think Carolina right now is top 15, top 12 in the country, for sure. Because they lost those games early, they really haven’t gotten the mention.â€
The idea of the Tar Heels, the 2009 national champions and second-winningest program in the history of college basketball, being overlooked would, ordinarily, seem absurd. But last year’s collapse, which saw the Tar Heels fall into the postseason NIT and then start 4-3 this season, fueled the knee-jerk reaction that dominates the minds of so many sports fans and the computers and microphones of sports journalists.
The idea that a team can get better as the season progresses does not register with some people. So many people fell into the trap of thinking last year’s team did not have talent, but what it really lacked was experience and good health.
Just imagine that Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller had played the entire season without getting hurt. Do you really believe UNC would have missed the NCAA Tournament?
Not hardly.
There is one more key difference in this year’s team. Zeller said everyone has given themselves wholly to what coach Roy Williams is teaching. Why would they not have done so a year ago, considering there are few coaches of Williams’ stature and so many of the players were new to college basketball?
The answer is, “Who knows?†Why does any adolescent do what he does? All we know is that Williams and these players have formed a bond similar to the one he created with so many of the nation’s best teams since he became a head coach at Kansas.
And now we arrive at the most important and interesting part of the season. It should be fun to see just what the final product becomes this year.