UNC basketball wins fifth straight game, but tougher questions still await Tar Heels
Since the 20-point loss at Clemson that called into question every single thing about North Carolina, the Tar Heels have reeled off five wins in a row, two of those on the road, making not-unexpectedly quick work of Miami in the fifth on Saturday.
Somewhere in the middle, North Carolina hired a veteran NBA agent with deep UNC ties as general manager and news of Hubert Davis’ contract extension — signed in December — reached the public consciousness.
Questions answered, right? Wounds soothed, doubts erased, vibes restored, blessings of posterity secured.
If only it were that simple for the Tar Heels.
There is, to be sure, some measure of satisfaction to be taken from beating five teams in varying shades of bad, especially since it meant North Carolina managed to go two weeks without self-inflicting any wounds. Baby steps.
But none of these teams tested the Tar Heels the way that Clemson did, or Duke before that, or others before that. Certainly not Miami, down double digits in the entire second half en route to a 92-73 UNC win.
The modus operandi of this team from the beginning has been to show alacrity against lesser opponents only to get thumped by stronger competition. Clemson by a tidy 20. Duke by a flattering 17. Struggles on the road at Wake Forest and Pittsburgh. A baffling home loss to a decent Stanford team.
That was true in November and it was true in February. Nothing that’s happened since has disabused that notion, not even during this winning streak. Hanging 46 on Miami in the first half is very much in keeping with a team that flourishes in fair weather and stumbles in stormy conditions — not literally, because the Tar Heels ran N.C. State off the Smith Center floor in another memorable snow game.
A pair of Seth Trimble 3-pointers late in the first half boosted a five-point North Carolina lead into double digits, and the Tar Heels never looked back as Miami crumbled to its 16th ACC loss, a chance to tie the league record of 18 still within reach even if the Hurricanes haven’t quite sunk to the depths of 0-18 Boston College in 2016 or 0-18 Pitt in 2018.
Rolesville’s Brandon Johnson, an East Carolina transfer, was a bright spot for Miami with 20 points Saturday, but there have been precious few of those for the Canes as a long season approaches its merciful end — Jim Larranaga having already tapped out after Christmas, less than two years removed from the Final Four.
During this run, North Carolina has avoided any catastrophic damage to its by-a-thread NCAA hopes and kept itself in contention for a double bye in the ACC tournament, if it can get SMU to play along, with the Tar Heels a game back of the fourth-place Mustangs going into SMU’s test against Stanford late Saturday night but holding the tiebreaker thanks to a January home win that ranks as one of North Carolina’s better wins this season. (A three-way tie with SMU and Stanford would leave the Tar Heels playing Wednesday, but that would require Stanford to win out, at the minimum.)
The next two games will have a lot more to say about what, if anything, has changed about the Tar Heels since the Clemson debacle. Virginia Tech has struggled this season but Cassell Coliseum can be a tough place to play, especially on a short turnaround.
And then there’s Duke, and an attempt to close what proved to be a yawning gulf between the two programs in every respect a month ago — talent, structure, coaching, teamwork and effort, just to start. It’s hard to say now, even with this recent success, whether North Carolina has closed the gap. But the Tar Heels will have the chance to prove it, at home, in a game that will be imbued with every kind of postseason implication for them and none for Duke.
That certainly wasn’t true Saturday. Miami couldn’t keep up. North Carolina added another win to its streak. It’s too soon to say what that really means. But it won’t be long until the Tar Heels find out.
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This story was originally published March 1, 2025 at 1:58 PM with the headline "UNC basketball wins fifth straight game, but tougher questions still await Tar Heels."
