Did The Season Just End?

With today's dispiriting loss to Maryland, a game where the offense was better but the defense lackadaisical, it's not hard to declare the 2010 season over for the Tar Heels.  We all knew this year would be a rebuilding year, and it now looks more and more like an NIT year.  


Against Maryland today we simply could not get a stop - at any time during the game. I know Maryland leads the ACC in scoring but our defense never ever rose to the occasion after two spirited offensive runs got the Heels back in the game, especially early in the second half.


The lack of defensive execution undercut some positives from today's game, namely the play of Ginyard, Thompson and Davis (who finished with 16 rebounds but was weak on defense).  Those guys had nice games, but the flip side was Larry Drew completely stinking up the joint, finishing with 0 points, 4 turnovers versus 5 assists. 


I probably should not be that harsh. Carolina can probably still qualify for the NCAA tournament with a 7 and 9 ACC regular season record (both because of the Heels' strength of schedule and the fact that the PAC 10, and some mid-major conferences who have gotten 3 bids recently, are very weak this season).  


But to do so, we will need to run the table at home since it appears unlikely that the Heels will win another road game this season. That's the rub - the Heels only have four home games left, versus State, Miami (the two 'easy' games) but also host FSU (doable since we're talking about a Leonard Hamilton-coached team) and Duke on Wednesday.


For more reasons than one the Duke game is crucial.  The good news is, a win could turn around the season and give this team confidence as it enters the second half of the ACC schedule.  The bad news, the season really would end with a loss to Duke.  


There is one ray of hope in Carolina's road schedule, and that's Boston College.  In addition to visiting Chestnut Hill, the Heels have to go to Durham, Wake Forest, and Georgia Tech.  Of course, it would be fantastic to win in Cameron for the fifth year in a row, but winning at Duke and Wake appear unlikely with this squad.  Winning in Atlanta seems a bit more likely but not nearly as possible as winning at BC.  


Either way, we need 5 wins to get into the NCAA tournament and need to start versus the Devils on Wednesday.


GO HEELS! (please!)