UNC basketball left playing the ‘if only’ game in wake of another one-possession loss

If only Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum had an in-house lip reader, or maybe a hidden mic tucked away under the visiting team’s bench, to pick up and distill Hubert Davis’ in-game tirades Tuesday night.

About a minute and a half remained in the first half. His Tar Heels had just turned the ball over for the third time in as many trips down the court. This time, the Demon Deacons stripped the ball as freshman Ian Jackson drove to the basket, and took it the other way.

North Carolina recovered just in time to knock the ball out of bounds. The buzzer sounded. The clock stopped. Davis clapped. He threw his arms and body forward, nearly stepping over the 3-point line as he did so. He yelled.

Maybe “bejeebies.”

Or, “bejeebies a ba weebies.” (The latter is curse word fill-in Davis reserves for when he’s really upset.)

And he had every reason to be by the end of the Tar Heels’ 67-66 loss to Wake Forest — their second-straight defeat to a middling conference opponent.

As much as Davis had to say to his team on the sidelines, he spoke for fewer than six minutes to the media afterward. He was curt. He pointed again to missed shots — “sometimes shots go in, sometimes they don’t” — and North Carolina’s inability to sustain leads.

Other times, he was much more abrupt.

Coach, your team didn’t shoot a free throw the entire second half. Was that a product of settling for too many perimeter shots?

“No, I don’t think so at all.”

What led to it then?

“Not being able to get to the free throw line.”

Meanwhile, Davis’ players began to mill about just outside the media room. As they exited the visitor’s locker, reporters glommed on, pulling them away before they could grab their catered dinners.

The Tar Heels — granted, with little time to process the emotions of another loss to an unranked ACC foe — began to offer their best rationales for the loss.

It was ironic — or maybe poetic, depending on your vantage point — that this crude procession took place in the bowels of LJVM Coliseum. After all, this is the same venue where, about two years ago, then-senior center Armando Bacot held a desperate postgame intervention (“If you want to be here, be at practice on Thursday. If not, just go home”) as the team slipped further out of NCAA tournament contention.

And here, this time, after another deflating loss to Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, the “if only” refrain began to echo louder than ever.

Shooting confidence wanes

If only the Tar Heels could have made a few more shots.

On paper, it seemed like a winnable game. Wake Forest came into the matchup with a 14-4 record and a solid 6-1 mark in ACC play, but the Demon Deacons had their own issues, especially from beyond the arc.

Tuesday, Wake Forest went a dismal 2-for-15 (13%) from 3-point range. Its two successful attempts came from, as Davis pointed out, their statistically worst long-range shooters.

Yet, in a game yet again defined by small margins, that discrepancy didn’t matter.

North Carolina’s own shooting woes — 8-of-32 from 3-point range and 13 missed layups — were far more telling. If only the Tar Heels could’ve knocked down a few more of those wide-open attempts.

RJ Davis led North Carolina with 21 points. He said it was the inability to string together key shots down the stretch that left his team on the wrong side of a heartbreaking loss.

“We had a lot of turnovers and shots didn’t go our way,” Davis said. “We had a lot of great shot opportunities… obviously just wasn’t a great shooting night as a team.”

At times, the Tar Heels seemed more comfortable shooting from the outside than attacking the basket — an imbalance that may have ultimately cost them. In the second half, the Tar Heels launched 18 3-pointers, hitting only five of them. Meanwhile, Wake Forest used a steady diet of free throws — 11 attempts compared to zero for UNC in the second half — to widen its lead. If only North Carolina had taken a different approach when the shots weren’t falling. If only the Tar Heels had attacked the rim more consistently — dominating points in the paint through post and penetration, as Hubert Davis likes to say with alliterative flair — perhaps the game would have unfolded differently.

Instead, in huddles down the stretch, freshman Drake Powell said the message was “to keep firing.”

“Keep shooting with confidence,” Powell said.

If only confidence were enough.

Late game struggles

If only the Tar Heels could execute better down the stretch.

This North Carolina team seems to have a magnetic pull toward one-possession games — as if the Tar Heels are destined to walk the razor’s edge every time they step on the court. The loss Tuesday marked the ninth such game for the Tar Heels this season, tying the most one-possession games for any UNC squad since the advent of the 3-point line.

And North Carolina is just 20 games into the season.

The Tar Heels’ results have been as unpredictable as the games themselves. North Carolina is now 5-4 in one-possession contests after these consecutive one-point losses. This is a level of déjà vu that stretches back decades. The last time UNC dropped consecutive games by a single point was in 1968. That year, those Lyndon B. Johnson-era cagers lost to South Carolina 87-86 and followed it up with another 87-86 defeat against Duke.

It’s a remarkable stat, but one that underscores the frustration Hubert Davis and his team are feeling. Close games can be thrilling, but they’re also unforgiving. Every missed shot, botched sequence and mental lapse is exposed.

Tuesday, that came in the form of Wake Forest’s 12-0 run to start of the second half.

Davis called timeout with his team down by 10 points with 10 minutes to play. During that early second-half stretch, North Carolina fired up eight triples and missed. Two came from Jackson, three came from Powell, and one each from Elliot Cadeau, Seth Trimble and Davis. All bad.

The sequence underscored what would become a major issue: when the 3’s weren’t falling, North Carolina couldn’t get anything else going offensively.

Cadeau, who finished with a season-high 13 assists, said UNC’s guards can get past just about any defender. He argued his team could benefit from more dribble penetration when shots aren’t falling.

But, instead, the Tar Heels attempted 18 3’s in the second half to 16 tries from two.

And when the Tar Heels finally started hitting from beyond the arc — they ended the game on back-to-back 3’s from Jalen Washington and RJ Davis — it was too little, too late.

If only they could’ve found that rhythm sooner.

“It was pretty frustrating,” Cadeau said, “but we’re going to have nights like this sometimes and we just gotta push through it. When shots aren’t falling, we just gotta get more points in the paint.”

Needed: A sense of urgency

For a team with aspirations of making a deep run in the NCAA tournament, this loss to Wake Forest felt like another reminder of what could have been.

If only they could have hit a few more shots. If only they had played more disciplined basketball. If only they had capitalized on their chances.

The “if only” narrative is starting to become a familiar refrain, but the team has little time to dwell on what could have been. There’s no time to wallow in what went wrong. Not with five remaining Quad 1 opportunities coming up soon: road matchups against Pittsburgh, Duke, Clemson, and Florida State, capped off by a home showdown with Duke.

If only we could get a glimpse inside the locker room.

Ian, what’s the mood like in there?

“I mean, how would we feel after a loss?” Jackson retorted. “Regular. We gotta get back. We gotta get better.”

If only they could do it a little faster.

This story was originally published January 22, 2025 at 11:04 AM.