Keeping It Heel
Fansided

UNC Basketball: The 9 lowest lows of the Roy Williams era

By Blake Cockrum

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - DECEMBER 21: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts after his players turned the ball over against the UCLA Bruins during the CBS Sports Classic at T-Mobile Arena on December 21, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Tar Heels defeated the Bruins 74-64. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - DECEMBER 21: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts after his players turned the ball over against the UCLA Bruins during the CBS Sports Classic at T-Mobile Arena on December 21, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Tar Heels defeated the Bruins 74-64. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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DURHAM, NC – MARCH 06: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels watches his team against the Duke Blue Devils during their game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on March 6, 2010 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

3. From NCAA Tournament championship to NIT title game

After rolling off 34 wins and a national championship victory in 2009, the Tar Heels said goodbye to seniors Tyler Hansbrough and Danny Green, as well as junior standouts Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington. No doubt the Tar Heels lost a lot that offseason, but nobody could have anticipated what happened next.

Roy Williams and the Tar Heels brought in the nation’s No. 2-ranked recruiting class the following season, so hopes were high that the program could remain at the level of a title contender despite the loss of so many elite starters. Although they returned a pair of seniors in Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson, and a couple of up-and-coming but inexperienced sophomores in Tyler Zeller and Ed Davis, it just wasn’t enough to support a freshman class that greatly underachieved.

The five-man class of John Henson — who would become a terrific college basketball player in time — Dexter Strickland, Leslie McDonald and David and Travis Wear didn’t mesh well or compliment the Tar Heels’ existing players. As a result, North Carolina turned in a 20-win season that didn’t include the NCAA Tournament for the first time since Williams returned to Chapel Hill in 2003. Instead, they earned a bid to the NIT Tournament where they eventually lost in the title game to the Dayton Flyers.

Needless to say, the 2009-10 season has stuck out in the minds of North Carolina fans — and those of opposing fanbases — in the decade since. It was the only season in the Roy Williams era that the Tar Heels didn’t make the NCAA Tournament.

At least, it was before this season…

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