Tar Heels Fade at End of Once-Promising Season

North Carolina coach Matt Doherty, a man whose face reveals his mood, fought back tears as he addressed the media Sunday afternoon.

Doherty's Tar Heels had lost 82-74 to Penn State in the second round of the NCAA tournament, and their season was over.

Earlier than most people had expected, and certainly earlier than the Tar Heels wanted.

How did it happen? UNC's 22 turnovers were the big reason in that one game, but there was more to it than that. How did the team that won 18 games in a row at one point finish the season 5-5?

It seems the Tar Heels were looking out for No. 1. The ranking, that is.

North Carolina rolled through the first half of the ACC season and took over the top ranking in the polls the week after winning 85-83 at Duke on Feb. 1.

The success was remarkable for a team that was picked to finish third in the league.

"I don't think we handled it real well," Doherty said. "That's sometimes a tough thing to do, to deal with success, and I don't think we handled it real well. Things slipped, and it's hard to get it back."

The Tar Heels never did get "it" back. They began losing control of it after their Feb. 10 win at home against Maryland.

UNC played its best game of the season that day, shooting 58.3 percent and throttling the Terrapins 96-82. But then came an eight-day layoff that culminated in a 75-65 loss at last-place Clemson.

From then on, it was a limp to the finish line. And fairly or not, what could have been a great season turned into merely a good one with a bad ending.

"We have a great team, and we could have done a lot of great things," forward Kris Lang said. "We did a lot of great things during the season, but we couldn't put it together right here at the end."

No one could figure out why. Why were things that worked earlier in the season no longer effective?

It became popular for critics to blame the team's star. Sophomore guard Joseph Forte increased his shot attempts and scoring as the season progressed, and the team perhaps became too dependent on his offensive output.

So Forte scaled things back in the NCAA tournament, trying to get his teammates involved. He took 13 shots, a conservative total by his standards, in each of UNC's two games.

And the team still failed in the end.

So where does that finish leave the Tar Heels for next season, Doherty's second at the helm?

Seniors Brendan Haywood and Max Owens are the only two players in the nine-man rotation who definitely won't be back.

But Forte could head to the NBA. And power forward Julius Peppers could head to the NFL. And anything could happen to point guard/quarterback Ronald Curry during football season.

"We'll never be together as a group," forward Jason Capel said. "This group right here will never be together again."

But that group will always have its share of fond memories. It will have the ACC regular-season title it shared with Duke, the 18-game winning streak and the No. 1 ranking it held for two weeks.

"I'm proud of some of the things we accomplished," Doherty said. "I know at North Carolina you're not really content unless you win a national championship, but I can't fault the guys' effort."

The Sports Editor can be reached at sports@unc.edu.