{"id":633568,"date":"2026-03-20T13:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T13:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/633568\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T13:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T13:49:13","slug":"unc-must-ask-tough-questions-after-historic-meltdown-another-early-ncaa-tournament-exit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/633568\/","title":{"rendered":"UNC must ask tough questions after historic meltdown, another early NCAA Tournament exit"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Men\u2019s March Madness first round.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

GREENVILLE, S.C. \u2014 Another blown double-digit NCAA Tournament lead. Another early exit.<\/p>\n

Another March stuck watching, as other teams \u2014 not the one with six NCAA championship banners \u2014 dance on.<\/p>\n

No. 6 North Carolina quickly and loudly exited March Madness this year, blowing a 19-point lead in an 82-78 overtime loss to No. 11 VCU on Thursday, the largest collapse in a first-round game in the tournament\u2019s history. In three of the last four seasons, the winningest team in NCAA Tournament history \u2014 the one with a record 21 Final Four berths \u2014 has failed to advance to even the round of 32. Half of the program\u2019s all-time first-round NCAA Tournament losses have now come in the last two postseasons.<\/p>\n

North Carolina is one of the sport\u2019s bluest bloods, with one of the ten most expensive rosters in the nation. It\u2019s also officially at a crossroads as coach Hubert Davis\u2019 fifth season concludes.<\/p>\n

One where it must ask the question:\u00a0Is this good enough?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been chasing getting back to that one seed, and getting back to being in a top-10 team in the country. Really, just getting back to dominating,\u201d said senior guard Seth Trimble, the only four-year player of Davis\u2019 tenure to date. \u201cWe\u2019ve shown that we can do it in the recent years \u2014 but it hasn\u2019t been consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pause. A brutal dose of reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really know where it\u2019s at,\u201d Trimble added, \u201cbut it\u2019s gonna get back.\u201d<\/p>\n

But when? And how? And, after Thursday: Under whom?<\/p>\n

The loss to VCU will be near the lowest point of Davis\u2019 time in charge, if not the lowest. North Carolina led 56-37 with just under 15 minutes to play, 70-56 with seven minutes left, only to collapse in all-time fashion. It went down as the sixth-largest blown lead in any March Madness game.<\/p>\n

A choke job for the ages, frankly \u2014 and one which should force North Carolina to look firmly in the mirror.<\/p>\n

Because is this good enough?<\/p>\n

Davis\u2019 accomplishments through five seasons at the helm are unquestionable. UNC has won an ACC regular-season championship and earned one No. 1 seed. At least 20 wins every season, and a cumulative 124-54 record. And at the top of the list, a national championship game appearance in his first season, after dealing Mike Krzyzewski two of the final three losses of his Hall of Fame career: in his final home game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, and then in the Final Four, in the only NCAA Tournament meeting between UNC and Duke.<\/p>\n

For those things, North Carolina fans will be forever grateful. As they should be.<\/p>\n

But as that dynamic six-week sprint in Davis\u2019 debut season gets further and further in the rearview, it has become an albatross of sorts. Because, yes, it happened. But has Davis \u2014 now 3-3 in the NCAA Tournament since that magical March \u2014 already accomplished the things for which he\u2019ll always be remembered?<\/p>\n

The only thing that could surpass all that, at this point, is winning it all. Something that, for one reason or another, the Tar Heels have come nowhere close to doing over the last four seasons. Three of Davis\u2019 four tournament losses have come in games his teams have led at the half.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a big thinking question, and I apologize, I\u2019m just not there right now,\u201d Davis said postgame, asked about the Tar Heels\u2019 recent postseason struggles. \u201cJust really sad that we\u2019re not continuing to play and to move forward, because I have loved and enjoyed this team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any characterization of how this UNC season ended, of course, must come with an asterisk. Leading scorer and rebounder Caleb Wilson \u2014 the five-star freshman phenom and likely top-five NBA Draft pick \u2014 missed North Carolina\u2019s final nine games with a broken left hand and, later, broken right thumb. With Wilson, the Tar Heels beat all of Kansas, Kentucky and Duke this season, looking every bit like a top-10 team that could make UNC\u2019s deepest postseason run in years.<\/p>\n

Impressively, Davis guided UNC to five wins its first six games without Wilson, steadying a ship that easily could\u2019ve sunk.<\/p>\n

But three consecutive defeats to end this season \u2014 to rival Duke, Clemson and now VCU \u2014 sours that sentiment. Plus, even without Wilson, there was no excuse for North Carolina imploding in the epic fashion it did in the Bon Secours Wellness Arena.<\/p>\n

The exact particulars of UNC\u2019s meltdown will fade, but a couple of facts will endure for UNC fans. First, how Davis declined to seriously involve his bench, playing four of his five starters for 25 straight minutes after halftime. Davis said he \u201cdid not\u201d sense that his team got tired during that stretch, and that he didn\u2019t substitute more \u201cbecause that was my decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

But multiple Tar Heels, including Trimble, said postgame that they were fatigued, and VCU coach Phil Martelli Jr. said he noticed the same.<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple of shots that went short,\u201d said Martelli Jr., \u201cI said, we\u2019ve got them right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

That appeared to be a factor in the other thing people will remember most: North Carolina did not make a basket over the final 7:44 of game time, starting with 2:44 left in regulation and including the entire overtime period. (VCU guard Terrence Hill Jr. \u2014 the Rams\u2019 sixth man, who scored a career-best 34 points \u2014 had 17 by himself over the same span.)<\/p>\n

Instead, the Tar Heels only mustered 3 points in five overtime minutes, all at the free-throw line.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just took our foot off the pedal, and we thought we were gonna take it home,\u201d said junior forward Jarin Stevenson. \u201cWe just let it slip away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n UNC scored just 8 points over the final 12 minutes of Thursday\u2019s game. (Jared C. Tilton \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n

And now, North Carolina must reckon with the aftermath of doing so.<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s athletic leadership \u2014 namely, outgoing athletic director Bubba Cunningham and incoming athletic director Steve Newmark \u2014 is wise enough to know not to make any rash decisions in an emotional state. Davis signed a contract extension in December 2024 that takes him through the 2029-30 season and comes with a roughly $5 million buyout, should UNC want to move on. And that\u2019s without even factoring in North Carolina\u2019s larger financial landscape, with the Tar Heels investing in the expensive Bill Belichick experiment and navigating the new revenue-sharing era.<\/p>\n

Put together, North Carolina\u2019s situation \u2014 plus Wilson\u2019s injury lowering this team\u2019s ceiling \u2014 makes it highly unlikely the program moves on this offseason from one of its most celebrated former players in Davis.<\/p>\n

But the question remains.<\/p>\n

Is this good enough?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s telling that the advice longtime Saint Joseph\u2019s coach Phil Martelli Sr. gave his son pregame Thursday proved to be so prescient.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlay the team, not the brand,\u201d Martelli Sr. said. \u201cThe brand is phenomenal. It\u2019s a legendary brand. But the team had to play this game \u2014 and in the end, VCU was the best team.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the days and weeks to come, while it watches another NCAA Tournament from home, North Carolina must consider the true state of its brand. Of its program. Of its head coach.<\/p>\n

And it must ask the question. The big one.<\/p>\n

Is this good enough?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Men\u2019s March Madness first round.\u00a0 GREENVILLE, S.C. \u2014 Another blown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2289],"tags":[5,648,16666,1694,2341,3739],"class_list":{"0":"post-633568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-college-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-college-baseball","10":"tag-mens-college-basketball","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-baseball","13":"tag-north-carolina-tar-heels"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116261826163952322","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}