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North Carolina basketball: 2019-20 season review and 2020-2021 early preview

By Cody Williams

CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 01: Cole Anthony #2 talks with head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels during the first half of their game against the Boston College Eaglesat the Dean Smith Center on February 01, 2020 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA - FEBRUARY 01: Cole Anthony #2 talks with head coach Roy Williams of the North Carolina Tar Heels during the first half of their game against the Boston College Eaglesat the Dean Smith Center on February 01, 2020 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) /

How did they do?

In most years, the standard for North Carolina basketball in terms of “was it a successful season or not” comes down to how far they made it in the NCAA Tournament and where did they finish in the AP Top 25. As a blue-blood, success is gauged in Chapel Hill by if there’s another banner hanging in the rafters of the Dean Dome. So the 2019-20 season was the most unwelcome type of anomaly.

This was a year of abject failure for the Tar Heels, to put it bluntly. To be sure, they suffered their share of misfortune along the way with injuries to Anthony, Robinson, Anthony Harris and several others. But the simple fact is that UNC, even when healthy, was never able to put it all together.

No matter if they were at full-strength or not, the Heels were susceptible to wild swings in terms of composure and, in turn, their performance. Whether it was abysmal late-game decision-making, a power struggle between Anthony and Brooks as to who the alpha on the floor should be or just simply having role players make shots, North Carolina continually missed the mark.

For a program that prides itself on titles, both of the ACC and national varieties, having a team that wasn’t even close to the Field of 68 — or even the NIT for that matter — was immensely disheartening. And it’s even more so considering that, with the arrival of Anthony and all the buzz around him, many were talking about possibly another chance at winning a National Championship for Roy Williams.