Sweet Sixteen Collapse: Carolina 87 - Alabama 89

No disrespect to 'Bama--I always (or, rather, usually...) like playing them.

But a lot had to go wrong for Carolina to lose that game.

And unfortunately, it all did.

They've been a streaky team, so it's not entirely unexpected. And, again: Alabama is good. But the way we lost was surprising. Namely: R. J. Davis, ACC POY, national POY candidate: 4 of 20, 0 of 9 from 3. Given that bit of extremely bad luck, I suppose it's surprising it was as close as it was. 'Bama's length bothered our guards, but that didn't really seem to be R. J.'s main problem--he was even missing wide-open shots that are usually routine for him. Just an off night...for our most important player...  All the missed chippies also played a role, including Bacot's late-game, wide-open missed dunk... Then there was J-Wit's really, really, really, really ill-advised 3 late in the game when we had a 1-point lead...and his follow-up bad defense and weak foul. Anyway. It took a lot of bad luck / suboptimal play to lose from where we were with a minute left. But, y'know, shit happens. Really too bad about R. J. missing the front end of a 1-and-1 at the end of the first half... And as for CHD sitting both Cadeau and Trimble almost the entire second half and playing Pax and J-Witt instead...I didn't get it. But, as Lo Pan would say, I was not brought upon this world to 'get it'...not in this context, anyway.

So here's CHD's bizarre post-season record thus far: stomp Kansas in the first half of the final game ('22), collapse in the second. Miss tournament entirely ('23). Win the first half against Alabama, more-or-less collapse in the second (Sweet Sixteen, '24)...don't even crack the final 8...

A disappointing ending for a really good team--one of my all-time favorite Tar Heel teams, actually. They really deserved a better final game than this. But it doesn't change the fact that they're obviously a great bunch of guys, lots of fun to watch play, and they gave us an exciting season. Props to them.