Tracking the Tar Heels, Jan. 8

Welcome to the first 2014 edition of Tracking the Tar Heels.

Let’s see what the Tar Heels have been up to to kick off the new year:

• The North Carolina women’s basketball, wrestling and diving teams were busy during winter break, writes Assistant Sports Editor Grace Raynor.

• Sports Editor Michael Lananna takes a look at the entire saga of now former North Carolina basketball player P.J. Hairston, whose career at UNC is officially over.

• Lananna also recaps the UNC football team’s Dec. 28 Belk Bowl victory against Cincinnati in which the Tar Heels showcased their youth.

• The UNC football team’s 2014 season officially begins today, writes Brett Frielander of the Wilmington Star News.

• UNC men’s basketball coach Roy Williams called for his team to increase its intensity to avoid failing 0-2 in conference play tonight against Miami, Senior Writer Brooke Pryor writes.

• Andrew Carter of the (Raleigh) News & Observer writes that the Tar Heel men’s basketball team is not overlooking Miami with a matchup against No. 2 Syracuse less than a week away.

• A UNC campus group suggests more academic advising for the University’s student-athletes, University Editor Amanda Albright writes.

• In his thought of the week, ESPN’s C.L. Brown writes that the UNC men’s basketball players must trust each other more.

• After winning the program’s first national championship in 2013, the North Carolina women’s lacrosse team is ranked No. 1 on Inside Lacrosse’s preseason poll.

• Last but not least, CNN’s Sara Ganim reveals that some UNC student-athletes have elementary school reading levels.