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A bright spot in an other wise gloomy season for the North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team occurred tonight when the Tar Heels defeated the Miami Hurricanes 69-62 to become the second team in NCAA history to win 2,000 games. The win improved North Carolina’s record to 16-14/5-10 in the ACC and assured the Tar Heels of at least finishing at .500 for the regular season.

North Carolina – Miami Game Recap

Deon Thompson led the way for the Tar Heels tonight with 14 points in his final home game for North Carolina. Marcus Ginyard chipped in with 12 points in his final home game as Coach Williams won back to back games for the first time this calendar year. The Tar Heels upset Wake Forest 77-68 in the previous game. The Tar Heels almost snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the Miami game tonight, however, seeing an 18 point lead get cut to just one point in the final four minutes of the ballgame.

The Road to 2,000 Wins for North Carolina Basketball

North Carolina came off of their 2009 NCAA basketball championship just behind the Kentucky Wildcats on the road to 2,000 wins. The Tar Heels started ACC play at 11-4 this season, before getting hit with injuries and a string of ACC losses that have resulted in hall of fame Coach Roy Williams having his worst season as a head coach with the previous being his 19-12 initial season coaching the Kansas Jayhawks on probation. The Tar Heels will close out the 2009-10 NCAA regular season at Duke on Saturday March 6th. The 2010 ACC tournament will start on March 11th and is being held at Greensboro, North Carolina.

Among the most surprising lines in college basketball this season, none has been more shocking than the decline of North Carolina, normally one of the powerhouses of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the NCAA in general.

Their defeat against a fairly limited Boston College team on Saturday was their 10^th in the last 13 games, a run that started with an 82-79 collapse against the College of Charleston, one of their most embarrassing reverses in years.

The Tar Heels started the season ranked sixth in the nation and although they lost three games in their non-Conference schedule, those losses came to top teams in Syracuse, Kentucky and then ranked No 2 Texas, who have been on a similar slide since mid-January.

And it is no real excuse that North Carolina had been without Tyler Zeller for the last 10 games, since the key bench player had only been on court for 16 minutes per game until suffering a stress fracture of his foot, and Ed Davis for the last three games because of his broken wrist – things had already gone awry before then.


Zeller returned against the Eagles but managed to hit only two of his nine shots from the floor as poor shooting affected both teams, as would befit a matchup between schools who had won only six games combined in ACC play so far this season.

Nothing has gone right on court for the Tar Heels for most of the campaign as well, down to sloppy shooting and poor defense, and the defeat at the weekend made sure that Roy Williams’ men moved into their worst stretch in the last eight years.

Worse at the weekend was that the Tar Heels played themselves into a winning position early in the second half when they took a 46-39 lead, but BC rallied straight away to score 10 straight points and hold on when challenged in the final minutes.

So now there is little choice but to look forward to next season, when Basketball Bets might expect North Carolina to come in under the radar a little.

The problem? They will always have a reputation with Basketball Tips as one of the ACC’s giants, and if Davis goes to the NBA they will need freshman Harrison Barnes to be the real deal or it could be another season of struggles on Chapel Hill.

 Source: Wikipedia, UNC Tar Heels Official Webpage