CHAPEL HILL It’s reached the stage now that North Carolina’s shell-shocked basketball fans can get excited about a double-digit loss in the Smith Center.

In this strange winter when Toyota and Tiger Woods can no longer be deemed automatic successes, the Tar Heels’ battered brand absorbed its latest humiliation Wednesday against Florida State.

The Seminoles, a modest one-point favorite, dominated most of the night but finally hit a snag during the last five or so minutes.

Down 23 earlier, the Tar Heels came to life long enough to escape with a 77-67 loss that had the below-normal crowd of 15,779 in a frenzy near the end.

Were it not for the stark reality of the coliseum scoreboards, you’d thought Carolina had the lead in a close, important game and was chasing another No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed. In other words, you would have thought it was the old days.

Instead, this Tar Heel team only took another embarrassing hit, dropping its conference record to 3-10 and into a tie for last place with N.C. State. At 14-14 overall and with remaining games at Wake Forest (Saturday) and Duke, plus a home game against Miami, there’s not much reason to think last season’s national champions will get out of regular season with so much as a winning record.

In the first round of the league tournament on Thursday, March 11 in Greensboro, the No. 12 seed will play No. 5 at about 2:30 p.m. The No. 11 seed will face No. 6 in the final first-rounder _ a game that wouldn’t start until approximately 9:30.

“When it rains, it really rains hard,” Carolina coach Roy Williams said.

And early.

As usual, Williams’ players got overwhelmed right of the locker room, falling behind by 11 points inside the opening nine minutes and never showing anywhere near the composure needed to rattle a Seminole team (8-5, 20-7) that’s actually almost as young and raw.

“In some respects we’re a lot alike,” Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. “I think we’re actually the two youngest teams in the league, so I know what they’re going through. It’s not easy.”

But if the Seminoles and Tar Heels share a lot of common ground, it was difficult to detect Wednesday. While Carolina began by committing turnovers at an alarming rate during the decisive early going, Hamilton’s team quickly carved apart the loose Tar Heel defense to the extent that substitute wingman Deividas Dulkys at times looked like a latter day Larry Bird.

Dulkys finished with 17 points in 22 minutes, while all of Carolina’s reserves combined for 14 points in 56 minutes.

Williams didn’t play the injury card. “That’s just excuses,” he said. But it’s clear that the ongoing string of mishaps is only compounding the team’s lack of confidence and hope.

And while Williams has been critical of no-shows and late-arriving fans in the past, he hardly made an issue of the lean audience.

“It is what it is,” he said. “I just appreciate those people who were there.”

The tone of Williams’ words perfectly reflected the mood of the program these days. He looks and sounds like a confused, depressed man in charge of a confused, depressed team.