Tar Heels’ March Madness Meltdown Caps a Colossal Year of Failure for Carolina Way

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Imagine how good they had it last summer at North Carolina.

Football season-ticket sales were reaching new highs. Bill freaking Belichick was coaching again but, not just in college, in powder blue. The Tar Heels were in the preseason AP Top 25 for their beloved hoops, and the early returns from practice made you believe the ceiling was far higher with NBA draft lottery pick Caleb Wilson in the fold. The rest of the school’s Olympic sports were continuing apace, many NCAA title hopefuls as usual.

Life was good in Chapel Hill, N.C., for a department that was long labeled the sleeping giant of college athletics. Whenever administrators would whisper about the next move in conference realignment, they would point at North Carolina and say it had every ingredient to become an everything school. Perhaps 2025–26 would be the time it finally all came together at once and it jolted awake.

Oh how good they had it then. The Carolina Way meant something positive and aspirational.

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Not now. Not after the No. 6-seeded Tar Heels collapsed in the most excruciating way possible to lose in overtime, 82–78, to No. 11 VCU to go one-and-done in the only tournament that is intertwined with the university’s identity.

“I feel like we started off [the season] really well, gave a lot of hope to the fans of our team. Then, obviously ending on a three-game losing streak was a horrible way to end it. Losing the last game in [the ACC] tournament. Losing here in this tournament,” said center Henri Veesaar, one of the few Tar Heels not enveloped in tears after a 26-point, 10-rebound effort. “It definitely leaves a stain on the season.”

A stain on the season, the program and the school at large to stamp a once-promising campaign in the two major revenue sports at North Carolina as a colossal failure. North Carolina choked away a football season full of optimism and then the basketball team gagged away in March Madness to end things on an even lower note.

The Rams trailed by 19 with under 14 minutes to play, using a furious defense and some impressive shotmaking to rally for the sixth-biggest comeback in NCAA tournament history and the largest ever for this opening round of 64. It’s the second-biggest deficit in the second half of a tourney game overcome in the event’s illustrious history, too.

And make no mistake, for as good as the literal last team in the field was during the closing kick, this was handed to them on a silver platter as much as they dined out in delight on it.

The Tar Heels missed their final nine shots from the field in the last two minutes of regulation and in overtime. They turned it over seven times in the second half after doing so just once before the midway mark. After holding VCU to a 13-of-39 start from the field, they proceeded to give up a 12-of-15 stretch that made the game a one-possession affair and rallied the support of everyone not in powder blue at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on Thursday night.

After spending the afternoon laughing at Duke for nearly getting upset by 16-seed Siena, it was North Carolina fans who went home the biggest loser.

Maybe worst of all for the Carolina supporters, it sure appears that their coach didn’t receive the hint that this latest crashout on the grand stage was as bad as it gets.

When asked what went wrong during the postgame news conference, Hubert Davis needed a full four seconds—that felt like four hours—to pause and respond: “What do you mean?”

If Davis had been fired on the spot during that silence that hung in the air, by either current athletic director Bubba Cunningham, incoming successor Steve Newmark or school chancellor Lee Roberts after they had gone from all smiles at halftime behind the bench to glum as can be, it may have been justified. In the minds of many North Carolina fans, he may as well be at this point with a downright reasonable $5 million buyout.

There is little question that everybody wearing that very specific argyle print—or who is decked out in Jordan-brand logos—wants Davis to succeed in the job. Former patriarch Roy Williams does. The fans, who loved Davis when he was a proper counterweight to Duke as a media figure or when he was leading the team to the Final Four as a baby-faced college kid, do too. Even the donors, who have opened up their wallets to spend really big on this season’s roster may deep down want the same.

But it just isn’t working out and that’s clear as day for all to see. He’ll always have that mic drop of a moment over their Tobacco Road rivals in 2022, but Davis simply isn’t the kind of coach this blueblood needs to live up to its historical standard.

“Just because you miss a shot doesn’t mean something’s wrong. We had open looks. We had shots at the basket. We had executed plays. And we miss eight free throws. Sometimes the ball doesn’t go in,” Davis said. “There were mistakes made that helped them come back. At times we’ve done that all year.”

Indeed, it’s a regular occurrence for the Tar Heels. A recurring nightmare that is the worst kind of Groundhog Day that even the loss of Wilson to injuries is enough to explain away.

North Carolina guard Seth Trimble reacts after losing to VCU in the first round of the men’s NCAA tournament. | Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

“I feel like they just gained momentum and they just couldn’t stop. Momentum in March is dangerous and we took our foot off the pedal,” remarked forward Jarin Stevenson. “[Davis] was trying to calm us down, trying to get us together to stop the run and get us settled. But they were able to pull away.”

Davis called timeouts when he could, pausing from all his typical gesturing to move the ball that he does on every offensive possession from his spot in the coaching box. But whatever message he kept trying to deliver with each passing trip down the floor was never received like has been the case most of his tenure.

Afterward, Davis acknowledged that free throws were an issue after going just 12 of 20 from the line and missing several critical front ends of a one-and-one down the stretch. He also noted it’s been something that’s plagued the team all season and contrary to public belief, they do actually work on them.

He also gave plenty of fuel if—or at this point when—the school inevitably pulls the trigger in the future over his job status when Davis also firmly said he didn’t think his team got tired as they wilted down the stretch and the decision to stick with just a six-man rotation in the second half was all his.

“Yeah, eating into the rotation that second half,” said guard Seth Trimble, who nearly hit a buzzer beater after stealing an inbounds pass at the end of regulation and finished with 15 points. “It may have gotten the best of some guys.”

No doubt and, in the end, got the best of a Carolina team that had the talent to to be so much more than they were this season.

“This team had the ability to do it, but we fell short with the things we kind of been struggling with all year. That’s one really frustrating part,” Trimble said. “Right now it’s just all sadness.”

What’s worse, that’s just what the Carolina way has become after a year to forget for a sleeping giant that remains slumbering still.

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