UNC Basketball: Do the Tar Heels Lack The Killer Instinct?

Closing out games is very important in every sport.

Without the ability to close out games, your opponent has the need to feel they can still win the game. More times then often they come back and win the game. Teams with killer instincts often finish games in a fashion that leads them to victory.

Photo Credit: Bob Donnan-US PRESSWIRE

Throughout watching North Carolina this season, I’ve paid very close attention to the end of the games. There was something this team lacked. Something about this team bugged me. They have arguably the most talented starting five in College Basketball. There was just something that really bugged me about this team.

After Wednesdays disaster (sorry to bring it up again) it finally hit me. This team doesn’t have that killer instinct to finish games.

I’m not saying the Tar Heel don’t finish games all the time, but they do have a tendency to let teams hang around. With the talent on this team, it shouldn’t disappear late in big games. If this continues to happen, it’s going to be a problem going forward into the NCAA Tournament.

In my opinion it seems like Carolina starts to play ‘soft’ and ‘comfortable’ when they have big leads. A killer instinct and good basketball for 40 minutes is what you need to win it all in today’s game.

I’ve gone back and looked at the last few real good Carolina teams and figured out they had the desire to put teams away. Let’s go back to the 2009 National Champion team that dominated throughout the tournament.

Early on the team struggled. They lost their first two ACC conference games. But after that, it was domination. Something changed with this team. Something was installed into this team that gave them the desire to finish the games. They had the players, much like this years team, and they put the game away when they had too.

Sure they had a few close games. But who doesn’t?

The team had the go to guy at the end in Tyler Hansbrough. They had the leader of the offense in Ty Lawson. They had a deadly three point shooter in Wayne Ellington. They had solid post players like Deon Thompson and Ed Davis. Danny Green gave them another legit option at the end.

This years team has the players. Harrison Barnes should be the guy to put the dagger in the opponents heart. We’ve seen him do it before, yet this season it’s appeared very little. They have dominant players down low like John Henson and Tyler Zeller. They have a leader on the offense in Kendall Marshall. They even have a compliment at the three-point phase in Reggie Bullock.

So what’s the problem? This team should be dominant like we all thought before the season started. What happened to the team that had one of the best starting fives in the past few years?

No killer instinct is what happened.

The good news for North Carolina is they have time to figure it out. It’s all a learning experience, but if that learning experience takes too long, this team could wind up falling short in March.

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