The question is what are he and his teammates going to do about it? Tyler Zeller talked with ESPN.com Robbi Pickeral today about the FSU game and leaving the court early.
“There hasn’t been a lot of talking going on the last few days,’’ the senior said. “It’s just been focusing on basketball, trying to get better.”
But Zeller will never forget what it felt like to follow coach Roy Williams and most of the rest of his team off the Tucker Center court and to the locker room with 14.2 seconds left.
“That was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done in my life, because it was to the point where I never thought I’d leave a game early because we’d lost by that much, and they were going to storm the floor,’’ Zeller said. “And it was just something I hope to never experience again.”
What you hope for most here is this sentiment is shared by the rest of the Heels and it carries them the rest of the season.
Speaking of the rest of the season, in case you were wondering how Roy Williams’ coached teams did based on the worst loss of each season, wonder no more. David Hess at Team Rankings put together a chart showing the worst loss for each of Roy’s seasons at Kansas and UNC.
It’s fairly rare for one of his teams to lose by more than 20, but when they do, it’s generally a pretty bad sign for their postseason outlook. The teams suffering such a large beatdown have gone on to win 0, 0, 1, 1, and 2 games in the NCAA tournament.
Judging by the best fit line, this most recent loss — if it were the only thing we knew about the Tar Heels – seems to point towards a mere one win in the NCAA tournament.
However, once the tournament rolls around, we’ll also know UNC’s seed. The five previous teams that lost by more than 20 were seeded only #2, #4, #8, and missed the tournament twice (the two zero-win years). That means they underperformed slightly in the tournament, since we would have expected them to win 5 or 6 games, but they only won 4.
This is the fourth time a Roy Williams team has lost a game by more than 30 points. In 2000, his Kansas team lost by 33 to Oklahoma St., ended up a #8 seed in the NCAA Tournament and lost in the 2nd Round to Duke. In 2001 it was a 31 point loss to Wake Forest. Kansas was ultimately a #4 seed and lost in the Sweet Sixteen. UNC did not make the tournament in 2010 after the 32 point loss to Duke.
We will see how this season turns out but the statistics certainly don’t paint a favorable picture.
