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Last night’s game was an aberration. If Carolina and Kansas played again, the Jayhawks might win, or the Tar Heels could prevail, but there’s almost no chance that we’d witness another ‘imperfect storm’ of Kansas playing ‘lights out’ on both ends of the floor while no one in Carolina blue seemed to be able to dribble, pass or shoot for most an entire half. Unfortunately, the “one and done” nature of the NCAA Tournament that gives Cinderella a chance to excite us in the early rounds applies in the Final Four too: One bad day and you go home. Carolina found that out the hard way Saturday night, playing easily its worst eight and a half minutes in the first half of its most important game, and leaving every Tar Heel fan aghast in shock and horror as the deficit expanded from 5 to 28 points in what felt like the blink of an eye.

There are a variety of explanations for the tragedy we all witnessed in the Tar Heels battle at the Alamo. Perhaps the most simple is also the most accurate: Kansas is an extremely talented team and they played their very best, while Carolina wasn’t ready to match their intensity. Maybe, as Coach Williams suggested in his post-game press conference, he didn’t have the Tar Heels as prepared as Bill Self had the Jayhawks, although that seems unlikely. What seems much more likely is the following combination of atypical play resulting in a loss that all Tar Heel fans will spend from now until this fall’s Maui Invitational Tournament trying to forget:

·         Ty Lawson disappeared (scoring only 4 points prior to the last 1:34 of the game and recording only 2 assists against 2 turnovers);

·         Wayne Ellington, despite being the leading Tar Heels’ scorer with 18 points, shot poorly from the field (8 of 21, 38.1%) and terribly (1 out of 9, 11.1%) from behind the 3-point line;

·         the Tar Heels recorded only 7 assists (compared to 17 for Kansas) and 3 blocked shots (versus 9 for the Jayhawks); and

·         only five Tar Heels scored (Ellington, Lawson - 9, Tyler Hansbrough - 17, Deon Thompson -7 and Danny Green -15), compared to eight Jayhawks scoring at least 4 points.

Until tipoff in Maui, there are many things to discuss, not the least of which is whether Hansbrough, Ellington and Lawson will return to Chapel Hill or depart for the NBA Draft. Those answers will come in the next few weeks (perhaps sooner), but until then, in the bitterness of this disappointing loss, don’t forget to celebrate all that this team gave its fans, including an ACC Regular Season Championship, an ACC Tournament Championship, a Final Four appearance, a 36-3 record, and a win over the hated Blue Devils on their senior night, a night when the Heels first wore a simple patch that said “Eve”.  What a fantastic season.