UNC came close to writing one of the darkest chapters in program history Monday night in the Smith Center. That’s no hyperbole.
After building up a 32-point lead against Syracuse, the Tar Heels saw that lead dwindle down to as little as six points in less than nine minutes of game time before the Orange mercifully ran out of time. From a 72-40 lead to 83-77, Syracuse outscored UNC 37-11. Carolina won 87-77 in a game that never should have been that close. Prior to the 37-11 run, Syracuse had only scored 32 total points in the first half.
“That’s just unacceptable,” said head coach Hubert Davis. “Just a departure of what allowed us to get the lead.”
For Tar Heel fans, the script was not a new one. Carolina also built double-digit leads against lower-level competition in the non-conference portion of the regular season: against Navy, a 24-point lead ended at 12. Against East Tennessee State, a 27-point lead ended at 19. In ACC play, a 15-point lead against Wake Forest withered to just one point before the Tar Heels won 87-84. And at Stanford, UNC led by 12 twice before collapsing late in a five-point loss.
The Tar Heels are at least consistent in one aspect of their game: they are consistently inconsistent.
“We got too comfortable,” said wing Jonathan Powell, who scored 12 points Monday night but was mired in foul trouble, eventually fouling out in the second half as Syracuse was making its run. “We were up big, and we went away from the things that put us in a position to be up.”
“We can play at a really, really high level and compete against anybody and win against anybody,” said Henri Veesaar, who recorded a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. “But if we lack focus and we don’t follow the plan the coaches have given us, any team can go on a run and almost beat us, even if we’re up 30.”
Said Luka Bogavac, “We have to learn to react faster.”
When reviewing Monday’s blowout-turned-nailbiter, one must ask this question: were the Tar Heels caught looking ahead to their matchup with No. 4 Duke this weekend? It’s happened before: Carolina has lost the game immediately preceding its first game against the Blue Devils in each of the past three seasons and five of the last six. Once UNC built its 32-point edge, the players could be forgiven for turning their eyes forward just a bit.
But Veesaar insisted that wasn’t the case.
“I don’t think anybody was thinking about the next game,” he said. “I think it was more thinking we had already won the game. But realistically, we hadn’t.”
“I’ve not mentioned who we’re playing on Saturday to them one time,” said Davis. “Your focus should be real on what’s in front of you. And what was real in front of us was a very good Syracuse team.”
Davis is perhaps inflating Syracuse’s quality a bit; Monday’s loss dropped the Orange to 13-10 overall and 4-6 in the ACC, including a particularly putrid road loss at Boston College. But Davis clearly sensed the urgency of the moment in his postgame comments. With the Big Bad Blue Devils coming to town Saturday night, the Tar Heels simply cannot afford lackadaisical stretches like the one displayed at the end of the Syracuse game. If Carolina’s mentality slips again, another 37-11 run isn’t out of the question. Except this time, the Tar Heels won’t be up by 32 at the beginning of it.
“We have stretches of brilliance, and then we’ll go stretches where we’re making multiple mistakes,” Davis said. “And that’s something that we need to fix, now.”
Featured image via Todd Melet
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