The North Carolina Tar Heels entered the season ranked 9th in the preseason AP Poll, and now, just a little over two months later, those very same Tar Heels have already suffered their 9th loss of the season. At 13-9, North Carolina's path to the NCAA Tournament is getting murkier by the game, but even worse than Carolina's record has been their body language, and arguably their most disappointing outing came earlier this week against the Pittsburgh Panthers.
Granted, the Pitt Panthers are currently in the NCAA Tournament field according to my most recent Bracketology projections, and yes, this game was played in Western Pennsylvania, and sure, the Tar Heels did only lose by eight points, but the big problem was how the Tar Heels looked at the end of the game. And it didn't help that former Duke Blue Devil legend Jay Williams was on the call, and more than willing to point out the fact that Hubert Davis' squad was lifeless with time still remaining on the clock.
Jay Williams rips into UNC for a lack of fight.
“It already looks as if, with 24.9 seconds left to go, North Carolina being down only four points, that the game feels over.” pic.twitter.com/JqB3yV8nqc
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 29, 2025
“They are all fragmented on the court,” Williams said of the Tar Heels. “Look at Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is huddling in the middle of the court. It already looks as if, with 24.9 seconds left to go, North Carolina being down only four points, that the game feels over. None of them have huddled, none of them have talked to each other. This is what Hubert Davis has been talking about, the lack of leadership on this team.”
RJ Davis, a fifth-year senior, was supposed to be that guy. Not only has Davis' production dipped from last season — his scoring is down 4 points per game and his shooting has plummeted to under 40 percent — when he was an All-American and the ACC Player of the Year, but his leadership has been called into question by his head coach, Hubert Davis.
“When you put on that uniform, when you're in that locker room, when you run through that tunnel and you play on that floor, it's more than just basketball,” Davis said after Carolina's overtime win over Boston College last weekend, per Evan Rogers of 247Sports. “You're a part of something that is a part of your life, and that's the emotion that I played with, that's the emotion that I coach with, and that's the emotion that I want each player to play with.”