UNC's Michael Malone Challenged His Team, but It Hasn't Worked

It's been a very strange year for North Carolina's basketball program. At times, this looks to be a team that has a real opportunity to be among the best 25 in the country. However, we also have to be fair and say that North Carolina just hasn't been good enough in other avenues to suggest that this can be one of the best teams in America. 

Sitting at 3-0 on the season, North Carolina has still won games and hasn't really had any scares, but the fact that this team isn't blowing out squads like Western Carolina and Wyoming is a bit worrisome. For head coach Michael Malone, it continues to be all of the same issues. 

Malone isn't somebody who's going to beat around the bush when it comes to the issues that we've seen regarding North Carolina not being a tough team. 

He's not somebody who's going to say that he's content with the way this team has played, and it sounds like he says that straight to his players' faces, doing so in the locker room at halftime against Wyoming.

“I challenged our manhood at halftime," Malone said. "We had guys that had just played a whole half of basketball with zero rebounds or one defensive rebound. And I went down the whole roster and challenged each player and challenged the group collectively to go out there and stop getting punked. Because the streets talk, and right now the streets are talking. ‘Go into the Dean Smith Center and push them boys around.’ And so I challenged them.

"And to your point, first half 15 offensive rebounds, second half only four, I believe, for two points," Malone continued, per Logan Lazarczyk. "So, when you guard, you have to finish the possession off with a defensive rebound, which enables you to run. And we did that for a half tonight, so it allowed us to get the win, but we have to start bringing that from Jump Street, not waiting until the second half.”

And during halftime against Wyoming, there were some very frustrated fans about what the Tar Heels looked like on both sides of the basketball. North Carolina had just a 31-29 lead and was getting outrebounded and outphysicaled once again. The rebounding and physicality issues have been very prevalent throughout the first three games of the season and in exhibition play. Wyoming also entered as one of the best defensive rebounding teams in America, so it wasn't that surprising to see North Carolina get beat up on the glass a bit.

The Tar Heels did respond in the second half much better than they did in the first half, outscoring Wyoming by 11 to come away with a 13-point win.