The North Carolina men's basketball team was bad last season — a record-breaking level of bad. Last year marked head coach Roy Williams' lone losing season through his collegiate tenure, and the Tar Heels — in part due to a running list of injuries — never found a way to click on the court.
What began as a promising season after UNC started 5-0 — including an ACC win over Notre Dame in the season opener — quickly fell apart as the Tar Heels faced higher levels of competition. A 74-49 loss to Ohio State in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge was a harbinger for the struggles the Tar Heels would face for the remainder of the campaign.
Despite an appalling run filled with bad injuries and plays from opponents, it wasn’t all gloom and doom for the 2019-2020 Tar Heel squad. Here’s a breakdown of the good, the bad and the ugly from last season:
The Good
Despite the woes of 2020, UNC escaped without losing to N.C. State. The Tar Heels lengthened their win-streak over the Wolfpack to five games, fueling the ever-contentious rivalry debate with their ACC foes from Raleigh.
Forward Garrison Brooks offered another rare bright spot for the Tar Heels in his junior campaign. Brooks racked up an average of 16.4 points and 8.7 rebounds per game on his way to earning second-team All-ACC honors and the Most Improved Player award from the conference.
The Tar Heels also managed to put together a three-game win streak toward the end of the season, showing signs of improvement before the flames were put out by a deflating 13-point loss to Duke at the end of the regular season.
The Bad
North Carolina was plagued with injuries to key players, deflating a team with an already-shallow rotation. The Tar Heels had an ever-rotating injury list, with nine players starting three or more games due to injuries on the roster. Most notably, UNC struggled to find consistent point guard play with first-year Cole Anthony missing a number of games due to a knee injury.
