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ACC basketball season ends early CHAPEL HILL — For a brief time Sunday, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky.
But it was only the eye of a storm.
Basketball season ended Sunday afternoon on Tobacco Road. The top-seeded Tar Heels fell 80-67 in an NCAA regional final, two days after State lost to the same team from Kansas, one week after Duke fell hard against Lehigh.
Carolina went down in a heap, its injuries piling up even within its final game, and a week from now they’ll play a Final Four without a team from the state of North Carolina.
That’s a rarity, something that happened only twice from 1986 to 2001. But now it’s happened two straight years. And five times in seven years.
A remarkable run by North Carolina ended because the Heels ran out of players at the end of a withering season. All told, three players were lost for the season. And in the final game, three more limped in and out of the lineup trying to push the season one more week.
A year from now, when we meet again in Atlanta for a Final Four on ACC soil, will we see a league school represented? Or has the ACC slipped behind the schools that chased it for so long?
People hung off the deck Sunday at of the Top of the Hill restaurant in downtown Chapel Hill. Roars echoed off the business district in this college town so used to winning on days like this.
“Let’s go, Heels!” a young woman screamed as the desperate seconds ticked off a season that began months ago with Roy Williams openly talking about national championship hopes.
“I want our guys to dream big dreams,” he said at the time.
The dream ended in a nightmarish run of injuries that no team could have overcome. The long offseason will begin immediately with players making decisions on staying in school or going pro.
The feel will be completely different 20 miles down the road in Raleigh.
State had a fine finish to an otherwise average year. A tournament run in the Wolfpack tradition of old saw State go all the way to the Sweet Sixteen. A recruiting class for the ages will come in now, and the Pack is already anticipating a top-10 preseason ranking.
If not higher.
Duke, meanwhile, will ponder an uneasy future. Freshman Austin Rivers, who delivered the season’s seminal moment up to now, a shot at the buzzer that beat UNC here Feb. 8, will decide on his own future this week.
If the freshman leaves, and a lot of people are assuming he’s gone, Duke will be looking at a rare rebuilding project next season. In the interim, Mike Krzyzewski will coach USA Basketball in the London Games.
A year that saw him eclipse his old coach, Bob Knight, in all-time wins will continue at an intense pace for Krzyzewski until the Olympics end and he can turn his full attention to getting Duke back to another Final Four.
He’s done it before. No one doubts he can drag himself and his school to the biggest stage again. But it’s doubtful for next year. Next year looks like a State-UNC year, which is how this one ended.
Wake Forest lost three more players last week. That makes four since the end of the regular season, seven and counting since the end of the 2011 regular season. No recruiting class can make up for that, though the Deacs believe they have a good one coming.
Jeff Bzdelik is in trouble. And this will be his last chance. Even his boss, the beleaguered Ron Wellman, can’t help him this time. Wake has to win next season to save the program and a lot of jobs.
The league has gone through a period of turmoil in recent seasons, with coaches being fired and expansion taking a toll on Tobacco Road rivalries and even Tobacco Road attendance.
The tournament will return to Greensboro, where the league will consider the addition of even more schools and the effect that has had on its most valuable commodity.
That would be basketball.
On the last day of basketball season in North Carolina, fans hung out in the bars and restaurants of Chapel Hill, hoping against hope that the season could last another week. Television noise blasted out into the streets as walkers paused and watched from the sidewalks, and radios cracked and popped like something out of the past.
A season that began with so much promise ended like all seasons.
“One team wins and one goes home,” Williams said.
And no team from home will be playing a week from now.
But it was only the eye of a storm.
Basketball season ended Sunday afternoon on Tobacco Road. The top-seeded Tar Heels fell 80-67 in an NCAA regional final, two days after State lost to the same team from Kansas, one week after Duke fell hard against Lehigh.
Carolina went down in a heap, its injuries piling up even within its final game, and a week from now they’ll play a Final Four without a team from the state of North Carolina.
That’s a rarity, something that happened only twice from 1986 to 2001. But now it’s happened two straight years. And five times in seven years.
A remarkable run by North Carolina ended because the Heels ran out of players at the end of a withering season. All told, three players were lost for the season. And in the final game, three more limped in and out of the lineup trying to push the season one more week.
A year from now, when we meet again in Atlanta for a Final Four on ACC soil, will we see a league school represented? Or has the ACC slipped behind the schools that chased it for so long?
People hung off the deck Sunday at of the Top of the Hill restaurant in downtown Chapel Hill. Roars echoed off the business district in this college town so used to winning on days like this.
“Let’s go, Heels!” a young woman screamed as the desperate seconds ticked off a season that began months ago with Roy Williams openly talking about national championship hopes.
“I want our guys to dream big dreams,” he said at the time.
The dream ended in a nightmarish run of injuries that no team could have overcome. The long offseason will begin immediately with players making decisions on staying in school or going pro.
The feel will be completely different 20 miles down the road in Raleigh.
State had a fine finish to an otherwise average year. A tournament run in the Wolfpack tradition of old saw State go all the way to the Sweet Sixteen. A recruiting class for the ages will come in now, and the Pack is already anticipating a top-10 preseason ranking.
If not higher.
Duke, meanwhile, will ponder an uneasy future. Freshman Austin Rivers, who delivered the season’s seminal moment up to now, a shot at the buzzer that beat UNC here Feb. 8, will decide on his own future this week.
If the freshman leaves, and a lot of people are assuming he’s gone, Duke will be looking at a rare rebuilding project next season. In the interim, Mike Krzyzewski will coach USA Basketball in the London Games.
A year that saw him eclipse his old coach, Bob Knight, in all-time wins will continue at an intense pace for Krzyzewski until the Olympics end and he can turn his full attention to getting Duke back to another Final Four.
He’s done it before. No one doubts he can drag himself and his school to the biggest stage again. But it’s doubtful for next year. Next year looks like a State-UNC year, which is how this one ended.
Wake Forest lost three more players last week. That makes four since the end of the regular season, seven and counting since the end of the 2011 regular season. No recruiting class can make up for that, though the Deacs believe they have a good one coming.
Jeff Bzdelik is in trouble. And this will be his last chance. Even his boss, the beleaguered Ron Wellman, can’t help him this time. Wake has to win next season to save the program and a lot of jobs.
The league has gone through a period of turmoil in recent seasons, with coaches being fired and expansion taking a toll on Tobacco Road rivalries and even Tobacco Road attendance.
The tournament will return to Greensboro, where the league will consider the addition of even more schools and the effect that has had on its most valuable commodity.
That would be basketball.
On the last day of basketball season in North Carolina, fans hung out in the bars and restaurants of Chapel Hill, hoping against hope that the season could last another week. Television noise blasted out into the streets as walkers paused and watched from the sidewalks, and radios cracked and popped like something out of the past.
A season that began with so much promise ended like all seasons.
“One team wins and one goes home,” Williams said.
And no team from home will be playing a week from now.
