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The Daily Tar Heel

Column: This team could fall apart any day

North Carolina guard Joel Berry (2) and wings Justin Jackson (44) and Theo Pinson (1) walk back to the locker room after losing to Virginia on the road on February 27th.

North Carolina guard Joel Berry (2) and wings Justin Jackson (44) and Theo Pinson (1) walk back to the locker room after losing to Virginia on the road on February 27th.

Chances are, if you’re a North Carolina men’s basketball fan, right now you’re riding high on the emotions of the Tar Heels’  90-83 win over Duke on Saturday. And that’s understandable. North Carolina played well —  Grayson Allen didn’t.  Joel Berry looked like first-half-of-the-season Joel Berry and Isaiah Hicks played more than eight minutes. There were plenty of reasons to celebrate.

But now it’s tournament time. These next four weeks will take the Tar Heels out of the comfort of the Smith Center, where UNC went undefeated, and toss them into a gauntlet against college basketball’s best conference before facing dozens of other teams vying for a championship crown.

Sure, some of these players have been there before. In fact, all five North Carolina starters played in last season’s  national title game.

But if you think this team can get  back to that point — let alone win the whole thing — you might have inhaled a little too much smoke on Franklin Street on Saturday night.

Almost every member of the Tar Heels’ roster could be a cause for concern heading into the NCAA Tournament. I say “almost” because Brandon Robinson,  Stilman White and the walk-ons don’t play enough to monumentally screw things up.

Berry has been as inconsistent this season as the Wi-Fi signal in my apartment. Pinson hasn’t scored since Feb. 25. Hicks — sans his performance against Duke — has spent more valuable time on the exercise bike than on the court over the past month. He also missed an uncontested dunk against the Blue Devils because he “jumped too high.” OK, Isaiah.

It seems like the only way Kennedy Meeks can score is if he misses a shot first. I don’t think  Tony Bradley has ever used his left hand. Every time  Luke Maye touches the ball, he incites more audible gasps and screams of “NOOOOO” than any player in the country.  Seventh Woods elicits the same things but just from Roy Williams.

Even  Justin Jackson, the  ACC Player of the Year, has air-balled as many threes as he’s made over the past two games.

Twenty minutes after I wrote the previous paragraph, my editor let me know I forgot to mention Nate Britt. I guess that’s pretty telling given his performance this season.

The Tar Heels have been able to survive this season when one of their wheels falls off the wagon. And when every player is playing his best, UNC can beat anyone in the country.

But as Georgia Tech, the toughest ACC team to ever lose in the first round of the conference tournament, and Miami — which actually had more turnovers than assists this season — showed us, North Carolina has some fatal flaws.

There are too many things that can go wrong with this team for something not to during the NCAA Tournament. It doesn’t take 4.7 seconds to figure that out.

@jbo_vernon

sports@dailytarheel.com

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