Keeping It Heel
Fansided

UNC Basketball: Tar Heels’ toughest moments of the past 20 years

By Blake Cockrum

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 01: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts during the second half of their game against the Boston College Eagles at the Dean Smith Center on February 01, 2020 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Boston College won 71-70. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 01: Head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels reacts during the second half of their game against the Boston College Eagles at the Dean Smith Center on February 01, 2020 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Boston College won 71-70. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA – MARCH 11: (L-R) Armando Bacot #5, Leaky Black #1, Cole Anthony #2, and Jeremiah Francis #13 of the North Carolina Tar Heels look on from the bench during their game against the Syracuse Orange in the second round of the 2020 Men’s ACC Basketball Tournament at Greensboro Coliseum on March 11, 2020 in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) /

Missing the NCAA Tournament Part 2

The Tar Heels’ 2019-20 season made the 2009-10 campaign look like a banner year. North Carolina amassed so many injuries that resulted in dozens of missed games that saw UNC rarely put a team on the floor that resembled the season’s original starting lineup.

Junior big man Sterling Manley rode the bench all year with multiple injuries, and freshman guard Anthony Harris sustained a torn right ACL that ended his season in late December. Even more detrimental to the Tar Heels that season was the partially torn meniscus that kept freshman point guard Cole Anthony out of the lineup for 11 games. Senior shooting guard Brandon Robinson also missed a handful of games due to injury, and freshman center Armando Bacot played injured for a good portion of the season.

Basically anything bad that could happen that season, did happen. And more than once in most cases. The Tar Heels simply couldn’t catch a break. But to be clear, it wasn’t just bad luck that held the Tar Heels back in 2020. Their lack of cohesiveness and experience and talent also hurt their chances at anything resembling a prototypical successful UNC basketball season.

They finished the season with a record of 14-19 overall, including a 6-14 last-place conference finish — both of which are the worst of Williams’ tenure at North Carolina. Had it not been for the Covid-19 pandemic that brought an abrupt halt to the 2019-20 college hoops season, it would have been the second time in a decade that UNC failed to make the NCAA Tournament.

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