Whew, boy.
It's about to be a long offseason in Chapel Hill.
After being up by as many as 19 points with 14:58 to go over VCU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, the Tar Heels completely watched it get melted away in an 82-78 overtime loss.
It was a movie that Carolina fans have seen over and over throughout this season. Blown leads and inconsistency on tilt.
Syracuse is a great example. Carolina led by 32 and it was cut down to six by a 37-11 run in under nine minutes. Against Wake Forest, the Heels blew a 15 point lead allowing the Deacs to get within one. The Heels managed to hang on and win both of those, but were not so fortunate against Stanford when they blew a 12 point lead out west.
It all came to a climax with 28 seconds to go in regulation when UNC had a five second inbounding violation, leading to VCU tying the game at 75. Then, Henri Veesaar turned the ball over on a bad pass and VCU was not able to convert.
It was a display of some of Carolina's sloppiest basketball of the year leading into OT. Overtime did not go much better for the Heels as they proceeded to only score three points in that span.
Missed free throws were a major issue for the Heels, tonight, specifically late in the second half and in overtime. They went 5-11 at the stripe from the 5:47 mark in the second half through overtime.
VCU's 19 point comeback was the biggest in the history of the first round of the NCAA Tournament and also means for the third time in the last four years, Carolina won't get to the second round of the tournament.
This now sends the conversation to what will happen next in Chapel Hill. It's the end of Seth Trimble, likely the end of both Caleb Wilson and Henri Veesaar, and beyond that who knows. It most likely will not be the end of Hubert Davis.
There is a growing sector of the fan base that won't be happy to hear that, but you have to look reality in the face. There will now be more pressure than ever on Hubert Davis going into next year, but ultimately, he's probably going to get the mulligan of Caleb Wilson getting hurt.
That certainly doesn't excuse the lack of consistency under his leadership and not fulfilling what is viewed as the Carolina standard, but a change is going to take longer than fans hope. Then, there's the conversation of finally making the decision of going outside the "Carolina Family" for these things.
That's a conversation for another day that we certainly will have on this site.
For now, it's a wrap for the Tar Heels in Greenville and a very fitting way for the season to end for this team that's been on one hell of a roller coaster ride.