Hardin: UNC's fall from grace
CHAPEL HILL — Marcus Ginyard stood on the practice floor Monday and seethed. He was surrounded by cameras and note pads, and he didn't particularly enjoy the experience.
Only days away from the ACC tournament, the basketball team at the University of North Carolina isn't having any fun.
Ginyard deflected most of the questions, conducted the entire interview while eating crushed ice and acted as if he'd rather be anywhere else in the world but on the practice floor answering questions.
And then he dropped a bombshell. Asked if he'd had any indication early on that the defending national champions, with one of the top recruiting classes in the country coming into a program that had two titles and three Final Fours in five seasons, could have possibly turned out the way it has, he didn't hesitate.
"Yes," he said.
Ginyard said they knew it from the very beginning, the scars that would never heal, the players that would never come together, the instructions that would be hammered into their heads over and over again that would go unheeded.
"The very first time we stepped on the court together," he said.
He was talking about a scrimmage game back in October, a hastily scheduled trip to Nashville, Tenn., to play Vanderbilt. What happened that day, Ginyard said, has haunted the team all season.
Roy Williams sat in the media room Monday and thought back over an entire year, a season that began with him having shoulder surgery and now comes down to a week in which a rattled and unfocused team must win four games in four days to win the ACC tournament and thus make the NCAA tournament.
Based on the mood in the Carolina program right now, don't count on it.
The season has been a disaster, a wreck from the days after Christmas, when an 11-3 team came apart against Albany. Carolina would win that game, then go down to Charleston a week later and lose. The team has been losing ever since, going into the ACC tournament with a 16-15 record and coming off an 82-50 loss to Duke in which the Blue Devils could have won without scoring a point in the second half.
Williams was asked point blank if he felt he owed North Carolina's spoiled and angry fans an explanation.
"Yes," he said.
Then he said he felt as if he'd already given them one. The truth is, we may never know what happened to this team. We now know this team doesn't like playing together, doesn't listen to its coach and doesn't have the talent to overcome those issues.
"Part of education is teaching," Williams said, "And part of it is learning."
This team hasn't learned. And at times, it seems this team isn't even listening.
Ginyard said that was apparent from the moment it walked onto a court together.
"That was terrible," he said of the Vanderbilt scrimmage. "That was like the whole season right there. That's exactly the way this whole year's gone down."
Vanderbilt won the scrimmage by more than 30 points, and Ginyard said the Tar Heels didn't seem ready to play, didn't even seem all that concerned.
"At the time, you think there's no way we're not even ready to play and got beat by Vanderbilt by 30 points," he said. "It was the very first time we were all playing. It was like, how are we not super-pumped to be playing? As soon as we got back we had a meeting in the locker room. We were like, 'This isn't how it's supposed to go down. We've got to play better than this. We've got to play more together than this, blah, blah, blah.' But again, even more indicative of the year, nothing really changed after that."
Ginyard said the team we've seen this season is exactly the same as that one. But a team coming off a national title with hand-picked recruits, a team with its archrival on the run, a team with a hall of fame coach heading into what everyone knew would be a down year in the ACC?
It was a bizarre year, from the Charleston loss with Williams trying to get his players' attention with one arm after the surgery, to the strange ejection of a fan during the Presbyterian game, to the unfortunate comments about Haiti, to the silver uniforms and finally a 32-point loss to Duke and a 10th seed for the cocktail party.
The irony, of course, is that the Heels now have to win the cocktail party to save the season. The reality is there is no way that will happen. We might not have known that from the beginning. But they did.
Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com
Accompanying Photos
Photo Caption: N.C. State's Jordan Vandenberg (right) and Carolina's Ed Davis fight for possession of the ball during a game Jan. 26.
ACC TOURNAMENT
Thursday through Sunday at the Greensboro Coliseum. All games are on WFMY-2 unless noted.
Thursday's first-round games
No. 8 Boston College vs. No. 9 Virginia, noon
No. 5 Wake Forest vs. No. 12 Miami, 2:30
No. 7 Georgia Tech vs. No. 10 North Carolina, 7 (ESPN2)
No. 6 Clemson vs. No. 11 N.C. State, 9:30
Friday's quarterfinals
No. 1 Duke vs. Boston College-Virginia winner, noon
No. 4 Virginia Tech vs. Wake Forest-Miami winner, 2:30
No. 2 Maryland vs. Georgia Tech-North Carolina winner, 7
No. 3 Florida State vs. Clemson-N.C. State winner, 9:30
Saturday's semifinals
Duke-Boston College/Virginia winner vs. Virginia Tech-Wake Forest/Miami winner, 1:30
Maryland-Georgia Tech/North Carolina winner vs. Florida State/Clemson-N.C. State winner, 3:30
Sunday's championship
Semifinal winners, 1
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