UNC's Season Comes to A Close Losing to Syracuse In Round 2 of ACC Tourney, 81-53

There isn't much to say about this UNC season; its been discussed in probably every aspect of media, injuries, line-ups, chemistry, leadership, and the list goes on. Tonight the team lost to Syracuse, a team they beat just two weeks ago, by 28 points; the final score was 81-53. A complete 180 from yesterday, but an example of what this season has been for Roy Williams and club.

"Tonight. First time in my life, I felt sort of hopeless. I couldn't find any cures, couldn't find any solutions," Williams said, "You know, and I've lost before, Jiminy Christmas. We've had great teams that have lost before. But tonight wasn't much fun."

Syracuse opened the game with an early lead, and UNC couldn't come close; not once did Carolina lead. Here are the highlighted numbers from the game that contributed to the loss:

34 Points in the paint out of the 53 scored
12 Second-chance points
4 Bench points
4 Turnover points
2 Fast break points

Tonight is arguably one of the Heels' worst games this season. Despite being down ten early, during the 6:47 mark in the first half, the Heels came within four, but soon after, Syracuse went on a 19-2 run during a significant scoring drought from UNC.

"But we didn't get off to a good start, and then we made a little run to try to get back in the game, and it was a four-point game, and then we just -- everything we touched turned bad, turned badly I guess is better English. They made shots. We couldn't make a shot." Williams stated, " And we came out in the second half and tried to get more involved and got the ball inside three of the first four possessions and scored, and then we lost the ability to get it in there either by not making the right pass to get it in or the big guys not moving as well."

Like much of this season, Garrison Brooks lead the team in points with 18 and 4 rebounds, Leaky Black stepped up and dropped 14 points with 4 rebounds, and no one else cracked double-digit points. Freshman guard, and likely his last year, Cole Anthony contributed 8 points. Anthony, who is averaging 19.1 points per game, hasn't quite shown up offensively against Duke, 10, Virginia Tech, 9 and tonight, Syracuse.

As the game closed, Brooks was on the bench, crying. It's easy to place blame on these kids and tell them they weren't qualified or had the heart, but when you agree to put on that Carolina jersey, something in you changes, and it's no longer about you. Brooks could've easily let this season go and just thought on to greener pastures for next year, but no, he broke down over a heartbreaking season that no Heel wants to experience.

"What I take from it is you can never quit. You're never down; you're never really out. But we dug ourselves that hole in our season, but I think we can just take a lot from it, just perseverance and just always being grateful that we're able to do what we love," Brooks said, "I'm thankful to be able to come here, I play basketball every day under Coach Williams, and I enjoy it. So just taking advantage of stuff like that and just coming to work hard every day. I think sometimes in our season everyone didn't come as hard as they should have, come as hard to work as we should have, and as a leader, I think that I have to do a better job motivating everyone to come to work every day and come with our hardhat and lunch pail to show that every day is meaningful and every day means something to us."

"Every 7-8 years UNC needs to experience a losing season to appreciate the good ones" Looks like Coach Dean Smith was right.

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