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5 reasons UNC won’t win the National Championship

By Will Schreefer

Dec 17, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels guard Joel Berry (2) dribbles during a game against the Kentucky Wildcats at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 17, 2016; Las Vegas, NV, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels guard Joel Berry (2) dribbles during a game against the Kentucky Wildcats at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports /
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Five rock solid reasons North Carolina won’t win the title in this year’s NCAA tournament

UNC’s about to kick off its postseason with a first-round matchup against Texas Southern on Friday, the second day of full action in the NCAA tournament. They earned a No. 1seed with an excellent season, and look well set up to make a push for this year’s championship game. With last year ending in heartbreak at the buzzer, it would be great redemption for this year’s squad.

RELATED: Updated 2017 NCAA Tournament Bracket

But, like everything in the NCAA tournament, it’d be really hard. Though North Carolina seems to be well set up in its region to easily make the Elite Eight, there are plenty of potential pitfalls along the way. In fact, the odds are against them even returning to the championship game this year, let alone winning it. To see why, check below for five reasons UNC won’t win the national title this year.

5. Not enough 3-point shooters

Roy Williams’s squads are never big on the 3-pointers, preferring instead to feast on a diet of transition opportunities and offensive rebounds. It’s been incredible effective for them year in and year out — the last time the Tar Heels had an offense below 11th-best in the country was 2014. But their insistence on forsaking the 3-pointer can come back to bite them at key times. After a hot start from deep in last year’s national championship game, North Carolina went cold in the second half and ended up falling behind by double-digits. Though they eventually battled back to tie the game in the closing seconds, their inability to hit from 3 early in the second half hurt them against a ‘Nova team determined to prevent them from scoring inside.

North Carolina is taking more of its shots from behind the arc this year. The Tar Heels have taken exactly 30 percent of their attempts from distance, the most for the squad since 2002-03. And they’re hitting 36.7 percent of them, a top-100 rate in the country. But almost all of them come from two players — Joel Berry and Justin Jackson. The two have combined for 412 of the Tar Heels’ 672 attempts — over 60 percent. While they’ve both been excellent, that’s an enormous chunk of North Carolina’s total shooting. If either goes cold in a  big game, there aren’t a lot of other options for the team from deep. While it shouldn’t matter against the lower seeds they’ll play on the way to the Elite Eight, if either struggles from deep against a top team, it could spell their doom.

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