Off the cuff: As much flack as last year's Carolina team took, if you played a computer game pitting last year's UNC team with this year's team, the previous team might just win. Remember, that team played pretty well during the NIT. This team isn't playing very well right now.
The last thing Roy Williams wants to do is compare the two seasons but if something doesn't turn around in a hurry, the media will continue to remind him.
I thought the Tar Heels would lose two, maybe three in nonconference action. With College of Charleston, Illinois, Kentucky and Texas on the horizon, that prediction isn't looking good.
If the returning players have any pride at all, they will play very hard and very well this time against Charleston. The loss to them last year started the slide. But sweeping the other three teams seems unlikely.
Carolina still should be a good team by the end of the season but the losses could mount up unless the Heels can create some offense and hit their free throws.
Vanderbilt 72, Tar Heels 67 Maybe Heels just aren't that good
After losing to Minnesota in the Puerto Rico Tipoff tournament, North Carolina perhaps could point to a flukish poor shooting night but what's the excuse for turning right around and losing 72-65 to Vanderbilt? (11/21)
The Tar Heels expended a lot of energy coming from 14 points down in the first half to take a one-point lead midway through the second half. But with the score tied at 51, Vanderbilt reeled off eight straight points while the Heels went scoreless over more than three minutes.
Carolina never could catch up again. Again UNC had shooting woes hitting just 40.7 percent from the field (including just three of 11 from the arc). Both teams were sloppy as the Heels committed 22 turnovers while the Commodores committed 21.
But Vanderbilt scored 12 more points than the Heels from the three-point line and three more points from the free throw line. That's 15 points UNC had to make up from the field and the Heels didn't shoot well enough to do that.
Tyler Zeller led Carolina with 20 points while Harrison Barnes scored 11 and Reggie Bullock got 10. Carolina, which falls to 2-2, hosts UNC-Asheville Tuesday night.
