North Carolina will get one more chance.
The Tar Heels, mired in a 16-16 season and a tenth-place finish in the ACC, were nonetheless too attractive a candidate for the National Invitational Tournament to pass up, and UNC earned a No. 4 seed in the NIT. The Tar Heels host No. 5 seed William and Mary on March 16.
It's the second time since 2002 that UNC will play in the NIT. In that year, the Tar Heels finished 19-16 in a rebuilding year after going 8-20 the season previous. They won two games in the NIT and eventually fell to Georgetown. It is the third time that UNC has missed the NCAA tournament since 2001, and the first time during Roy Williams' tenure.
The fastest coach to 600 wins hadn't sat out the NCAA tournament since his first season as a head coach at Kansas in 1989. This season breaks Williams' streak of 20 consecutive NCAA appearances, and 20 consecutive seasons with at least one NCAA tournament win.
This year's squad will be focused winning a game or two to try to wash away any of the dismal 2009-2010 season, which included a 5-11 record in the ACC, a 32-point loss to Duke to close out the regular season and a first-round exit from the ACC tournament. All that came on the heels of a national championship in 2009
But the Tar Heels face a stiff test in William and Mary. The Tribe boasts wins against three tournament teams already, taking decisions from Richmond, Wake Forest and Maryland. Both the ACC wins were on the road.
While the Tar Heels will host at least the first-round game, they will not play in the Smith Center. Scheduled renovations to the building will push the Tar Heels into Carmichael Arena, which served as the home to UNC men's basketball teams in the '80s before the Smith Center's construction in 1986.
