WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

Does Carolina have the heart to beat Duke?

By Chris Morris

Feb 9, 2010

It has become a familiar refrain for North Carolina basketball over the last five weeks.

The Tar Heels fall behind early and then play well for a stretch to make things interesting. Then, behind a combination of turnovers, poor shot selection, and lax defensive effort, UNC falls into a hole it can not dig out of and loses.

That scenario repeated itself again on Sunday as Carolina was blown out by Maryland 92-71 at College Park. 

This has certainly become a season of frustration for Tar Heel coaches, players and fans. A team that started the year ranked nationally in the Top 10 is now fighting for its postseason life. How did things get so bad for this team, and more importantly, how can things be improved?

"There are several things that are at issue," Tar Heel Sports Network analyst and former UNC All-American Eric Montross told The Fan. "There doesn't seem to be a lot changing."

While the Tar Heels have fallen into this pattern of lackluster play, Montross says that there is hope for this team to improve, but it comes down to one key area.

"One of the players said (after the Maryland game) that it's an effort thing.  Well, that seems to me like it is an absolute player issue," Montross said. "If this team has any chance of turning this thing around, these are things that are correctable.  You can lose, but you can lose in a fashion that you can be somewhat proud of your effort."

Effort has been a hot-button issue this year's Tar Heel team. Coach Roy Williams has said that he is as frustrated as he has ever been by his team's performance this season, and has taken a great deal of the blame, claiming that he has done a bad job coaching and motivating this squad.

Montross, however, says that Williams hasn't changed his methods very much this year. "These guys don't seem to be responding to the normal methods of motivation," Montross said.

"My fear is that this team has issues with self-motivation, because the message has not changed," Montross said. "Coach Williams has not won 80 percent of his games because of luck.  I think that this team needs to find some inner motivation and quit letting him put it on his shoulders.  He is certainly partly responsible, but at some point you have to say the players are responsible for what is going on." 

Next up for Carolina is a Wednesday night date with Duke in Chapel Hill.  Montross said that game will be a good indicator as to how much hope Tar Heel fans can have for the second half of ACC play.

"We are going to see if this team has a pulse," said Montross. "If we see a team that comes out and shows effort and shows guts, then we've got a different ball of wax."

The Tar Heels and Blue Devils tip off Wednesday at 9 p.m.  The game can be seen on WRAL-TV.