John Clay's Sidelines

(Raleigh News Observer photo/Robert Willett)

Was on Larry Glover’s radio show Monday night. Glover pointed out that it was not all that long ago Kentucky fans worried that the Cats would be overtaken by North Carolina when it came to all-time college basketball victories. Or that the Tar Heels might reach the 2,000 win plateau before Kentucky.

Then Kentucky hired John Calipari, and North Carolina stopped winning.

The first did not cause the second, but after winning the national title last April, the Tar Heels are struggling this season. Thursday night’s 74-70 loss at Virginia Tech dropped Roy Williams’ club to 13-9 overall and 2-5 in ACC play.

Even before the loss, Sagarin had the Tar Heels 53rd in his computer rankings. North Carolina was 77th in the RPI before the loss in Blacksburg.

Roy Williams after Thursday night’s loss:

“It was a heck of a basketball game, I thought, and the two teams played really hard. But it’s not really a heck of a basketball game unless your team wins, and we didn’t win,” said Williams, whose Tar Heels (13-9) are circling ever closer to NIT, rather than NCAA, territory.

“My team competed harder than we’ve been doing – and I’ve never had a team where I’ve worried about how hard we were playing, but that’s seeped into our poor play lately. But I thought we played with much more intensity tonight.”

Links:

• John Perroto of Baskeball Prospectus on the Carolina slide.
• Robbie Pickeral of the Raleigh News and Observer on Virginia Tech’s win over the Heels.
• Bill Cole of the Winston-Salem Journal on the North Carolina loss.
• Adam Lucas of Tar Heel Blue calls it a cold snap.
• Jimmy Dupree of the Durham Herald-Sun says dry spell doomed Carolina.