Three takeaways from No. 11 UNC's loss to No. 7 Michigan Wednesday night

Following his team's loss on Wednesday night in Ann Arbor, Mich., Roy Williams was frustrated.

Frustrated with his coaching, frustrated with his players and probably frustrated with answering questions from reporters when he surely wanted to start his journey back to Chapel Hill.

The source of frustration was the No. 11 North Carolina men's basketball team's performance in an ugly, 84-67 road loss to No. 7 Michigan that dropped his team to 6-2 on the season.

Despite a fast start, the Tar Heels had no answer for first-year forward Ignas Brazdeikis and senior guard Charles Matthews. The display by UNC was undoubtedly the worst this season. 

With that in mind, here are three takeaways from the blowout loss:

Defensive struggles continue

Earlier this season, the UNC head coach was disgusted by his team's defensive effort in the second half of his team's win against Stanford. Later that week in practice, Williams nearly took the rims off the goalposts as his team focused almost solely on defense for a whole practice. 

This time, Williams might actually pull the rims off the goalposts. UNC roared to a 21-11 lead just seven minutes and 23 seconds into the game. It was all Michigan from that point — the Wolverines outscored the Tar Heels, 73-46, the rest of the way. 

"Right now, we stink," Williams told ESPN after the game Wednesday night. "... I've coached for 31 years. Right now, my coaching sucks."

One can see why Williams is concerned. The Tar Heels have now allowed opponents to convert 10 or more 3-point shots in four consecutive games. Last season, 3-point defense was UNC's biggest weakness and it is continuing to plague it this season. 

To put that number in perspective, last season North Carolina allowed opponents to hit an average of 9.6 3-pointers a game, a number only topped by eight other teams.

Equally concerning was the ease with which Michigan scored. The Wolverines shot 57.4 percent for the game and three players scored 18 or more points.

UNC will have to correct its defense quickly with matchups against No. 1 Gonzaga and No. 10 Kentucky looming in the near future.

Rough day for the starting lineup

It was not an encouraging performance for the North Carolina starting lineup. Just 4:12 into the second half, Williams saw his team go down by 12 points and he quickly yanked his starting unit. By the time the starters re-entered the game at the 11:21 mark, Michigan had opened up a 19-point lead. Williams did not mince words when asked about pulling his first team after the game. 

"It was because they stunk it up," Williams told ESPN. "Every one of them stunk it up, and so did I."

He wasn't wrong. It was the lowest scoring output by his starting five this season at 49 points. First-year guard Coby White led the five with 12 points and graduate guard Cameron Johnson, the team's leading scorer heading into the matchup, was held to five points on 2-7 shooting.

Only time will tell whether the performance was an aberration, or a warning of things to come.

Where were the UNC big men?

In the team's season-opening win over Wofford, sophomore forward Garrison Brooks exploded for a career-high 20 points, leaving fans wondering if he was about to experience a breakthrough campaign.

Since that game, Brooks has struggled and so has fellow sophomore forward Sterling Manley. Brooks, who's averaging 9.3 points per game on the season, has only reached double figures in points twice since the Wofford game. 

Although he scored 10 points Wednesday night, four of those points came in the opening minute. In recent games, Brooks has failed to recreate the aggressive play he had in the first game of the season. 

Manley has taken a step back thus far in his second season with the team, only averaging 4.5 points after scoring 5.4 per game last season. In his past three games he has only logged 19 minutes of playing time, accumulating five fouls, five turnovers, six rebounds and only two points. 

Along with senior forward Luke Maye, who has seen his scoring output go down 2.9 points per game so far this season, the UNC frontcourt has not taken the big step forward Williams would have liked.

If the problem does not get solved soon, UNC could move to a small-ball lineup like the team did in the 2017-2018 season.

@christrenkle2

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