Cole Anthony’s absence being felt, as UNC continues to struggle

When it was time for North Carolina’s players to finish packing the visitor’s locker room and board the bus to the airport, Cole Anthony stayed back and waited for his teammates as they got dressed and finished up their media interviews.

Anthony was already dressed in a burgundy suit, a burgundy and white tie and white tennis shoes. His eyes were glued to his phone. He made the trip with his teammates to Pittsburgh for UNC’s game against Pitt, but did not play. He’s still rehabbing from a knee surgery last month that was done to repair a partially torn meniscus. He’s expected to return any day now.

For the Tar Heels, that day can’t come quickly enough. They have lost four straight games, and after their 66-52 loss to Pitt on Saturday are 8-9 overall and 1-5 in the ACC, tied for dead last in the conference with Wake Forest.

“It’s pretty high,” UNC coach Roy Williams said when asked his level of frustration. “There’s no question about that. I’ve lived a charmed life. I know we’ve lost the first game of the season a couple of times. Two times we lost the first game of the season so we started 0-1 and went to the Final Four.

“Having a losing record right now is not something we’re very familiar with.”

Any hope for a NCAA tournament berth is long gone. Now one has to wonder whether the Tar Heels’ resume will be good enough to earn an NIT bid.

The way this season has gone recently, that too may be in jeopardy. The Tar Heels’ last four losses have come against teams in the bottom half of the ACC standings.

This past four-game stretch in UNC’s schedule — record-wise — was its easiest. Three were also home games.

But the Tar Heels lost all four.

The last time UNC came close to this type of territory was during the 2009-10 season, when it started 14-14 and ended up in the NIT. That was also the last time UNC did not make the NCAA tournament.

Too many turnovers

The issues in UNC’s latest loss to Pitt were a microcosm of what has happened all season.

The Tar Heels have struggled to score. Their struggles on offense have shown in a variety of ways. They’ve taken difficult and contested shots, missed easy shots, turned the ball over.

In the first half against Pitt, turning the ball over was the Tar Heels’ biggest problem. The Tar Heels committed 11 turnovers in the first half, and at one point turned it over eight times in a 7 1/2-minute stretch.

The Panthers did what they needed to do. They converted those into points.

As a result, the Panthers jumped out to a 40-17 lead in the first half and went into halftime up by 20 points.

“You know, you’ve got to give the defense some credit,” William said of Pitt. “There’s no question about that. I didn’t like — I mean, guys, we had three walking calls or four walking calls. I mean, you’ve got to be able to feel your pivot foot and be able to handle some heat in a crowd, but I think the turnovers early just set us so far back.”

UNC did some good things in the second half and cut Pitt’s lead to 10 points.

But the 20-point deficit was just too much to overcome.

Still hope

When Anthony was first ruled out with the injury last month, the Tar Heels were 6-3. They had beaten then-No. 11 Oregon, Alabama and Notre Dame. And while they had some clear deficiencies on offense, they were also able to overcome them with solid defense and Anthony’s heroics.

If the Tar Heels needed a bucket, Williams could call on the star freshman, who scored 34 points in his season-debut. Anthony is that good when healthy.

But when Anthony was ruled out, everything quickly went downhill.

The Tar Heels are 2-6 without Anthony. They’ve also cycled through three different starters at point guard. Because of this, teams have been more likely the press in the backcourt, like Clemson, or pick them up as soon as they cross halfcourt like Pitt did.

The one thing the Tar Heels are looking forward to is Anthony returning, whenever that may be.

Williams said Saturday that he believed Anthony’s rehab was moving along well, but did not say when he would be back.

“We said 4-6 weeks,” Williams said. “It’s four-and-half weeks now. We’re not trying to push him or anything like that. We want to make sure we’re doing the right thing, and he’ll be out there when he should be out there.”

As of Monday, Anthony had not practiced yet, Williams said.

The mood in the visitor’s locker room was somber. Players got dressed in silence. Some answered questions through tears. There were few answers.

When asked what he wanted to see from his team, UNC junior Garrison Brooks, who finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds, said “some more fight.”

He said against Pitt, UNC came out too flat.

“We still had a chance, but we’ve got to come out better,” he said.

Bacot, the 6-10, 232-pound freshman didn’t have many answers either. But he said he wasn’t quitting.

“It’s still hope,” Bacot said. “If we can just be our best, we’ve got a few players coming back.”

This story was originally published January 19, 2020 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Cole Anthony’s absence being felt, as UNC continues to struggle."