CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) – North Carolina is hoping for a fast start in the NCAA tournament, for a change.
That certainly didn’t happen last week at the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament.
The Tar Heels repeatedly fell into early, deep deficits and played in catch-up mode for all three games. After rallying to win the first two, they were routed by Duke in the title game.
And there’s no doubt they can’t afford to allow it keep happening in the East Regional, beginning Friday night when No. 2 seeded North Carolina (26-7) plays its NCAA opener against 15th-seeded Long Island in Charlotte.
“We don’t always want to get down, because teams are going to play (and) you’re not going to come back 15, 16 points every game,” forward John Henson said Wednesday. “So we’ve just got to come ready to play and make a game out of it early.”
Those deficits are especially important to avoid in the NCAA tournament, where one bad stretch can end a season, coach Roy Williams said.
“We’ve got to emphasize to them that it’s a whole different type of atmosphere from the ACC,” Williams said. “Because there are no do-overs, no mulligans, for sure.”
Williams said the Tar Heels spent Monday in the film room and had Tuesday off to recover, and their Wednesday practice was their first since the 75-58 loss to Duke on Sunday in the ACC title game – the first deficit of the postseason that North Carolina couldn’t escape.
“We learned that we’ve got to come way harder than we did,” Henson said. “We can’t get complacent, and I think us losing … brought us back to earth and (let them know) that we could be beat. I think that bodes well for us in the future.”
In the total 120 minutes they played in regulation during three ACC tournament games, the Tar Heels led for a combined 36 seconds – though they did lead for most of the 5 minutes of overtime in the semifinal against Clemson.
North Carolina rallied from 19 down with less than 10 minutes to play and beat Miami when a layup by Tyler Zeller at the final buzzer gave them their only lead of the day. They led for a matter of seconds in regulation against Clemson, trailing by 14 in the first half and by seven with 2 1/2 minutes remaining before tying it and surging ahead in OT.
And they never led in the championship game, falling behind by 18 in the first half before the Blue Devils denied every attempt they made to get back in the game.
No wonder Williams said the Tar Heels “realized that we didn’t play our best basketball” in Greensboro.
“Everybody’s so giddy after those first two games, and I was depressed because I knew we were standing on the top of that building and the banana peel was under one foot,” Williams said.
Zeller, one of only two current Tar Heels who have ever played in an NCAA tournament game, is making sure his young teammates know what to expect when they arrive at the Charlotte Bobcats’ arena later this week.
“We know that the games are going to be more intense,” Zeller said. “We’ve got to be more focused. Now it’s lose-and-you-go-home. So it’s one of those things that I think we all have a good understanding. We’ve talked about it. We know that these games are going to be more intense, and we’ve got to be ready.”
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