UNC Basketball: Time To Hit the Panic Button in Chapel Hill

It's time to hit the panic button in Chapel Hill.

The nation witnessed a shocker on Jan. 4, as the College of Charleston knocked off the Tar Heels in an overtime thriller, but the bigger shock is Carolina's 1-3 start in ACC play.

The Tar Heels showed the college basketball world just how much they are hurting in every aspect of the game in Wednesday's 82-69 loss against Wake Forest.

The defending champions have dropped four of their last five contests, including three straight. This is the first three-game slide in the Roy Williams era, and their longest since Matt Doherty's five-game debacle in the 2002-2003 season.

We have witnessed the turnover struggles throughout the season; you would think that's what doomed Carolina against the Demon Deacons. But the Heels only turned the ball over nine times, eight fewer than their season average of 17.

What killed UNC was its complete inability to guard Ishmael Smith, C.J. Harris, and Al-Forouq Aminu. The trio combined to score 53 points, and simply couldn't be stopped all night.

The Heels kept things interesting in the first half, trailing by 36-33 at halftime, but an 18-6 run by Wake in the opening minutes of the second half put the game out of reach for good.

Carolina was without its second-leading scorer, Ed Davis, a highly-touted NBA prospect, due to an ankle injury. Seven-footer Tyler Zeller was also out of action, as he will be for the next 4-6 weeks.

The Heels have never been known for their strong defensive play, but to accompany their defensive struggles, they have lost the ability to light up the scoreboard.

In previous years, the defensive lapses were made up for on the offensive end, but with no consistently reliable perimeter shooter and poor guard play, Carolina is averaging just 72 points during the last five games.

UNC's shooting woes were on full display Wednesday, as the team shot 36 percent from the field, including an awful 26 percent from behind the arc.

We knew coming into the season that the Heels would struggle through growing pains, but I don't think anyone fathomed the situation Carolina is in now.

Coming into the week, UNC was ranked No. 23 by the Associated Press, its lowest ranking since February 2006.

That was Tyler Hansbrough's freshman season, and a so-called rebuilding year for Carolina, as it dealt with the losses of Rashad McCants, Raymond Felton, Sean May, and Marvin Williams.

The Heels finished that season 23-8, with a second-round exit at the hands of the Cinderella-story George Mason squad. This season, coping with the departure of Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Danny Green, and Wayne Ellington, Carolina is a meager 12-7 with three conference losses just four games into ACC competition.

Those UNC fans who are sitting back comfortably, confident Williams will get his team to turn things around, don't rest so assured. The bulk of the schedule hasn't even been played and the Heels are sitting at 1-3 and second-to-last in the ACC.

Next Tuesday, Carolina visits a North Carolina State squad that thumped Duke 88-74. The Heels battle surprising conference leader Virginia five days later, and then faces road trips to Virginia Tech and Maryland before taking on Duke Feb. 10.

Three of these five matchups are on the road, where UNC has failed to manage a win this season. None of these are shoe-in victories by any means, either. In fact, they are all potential losses. Carolina has to go 3-2 at the very least in this five-game stretch, and probably 4-1 if it wants to salvage its season.

A season that began with hopes of battling for an ACC title and a high seed in the NCAA tournament has become a campaign to build a solid resume just to earn a tournament invitation.

So far, Carolina's accomplishments this season include an 89-82 victory over No. 6 Michigan State and a 77-73 victory over then-No. 15 Ohio State. Other than those two contests, in which the team started hot, then nearly surrendered double-digit leads, the Heels haven't beaten anybody noteworthy.

With Wednesday's loss, the Heels will drop out of the rankings for the first time since the 2005-2006 preseason polls. Rankings don't mean everything, but a consistent contender falling out of them is sure to raise eyebrows.

Roy Williams is a great coach, and certainly has the ability to change the fortunes of the unsuccessful Heels, but if the Heels don't turn it around quickly, they are looking at a run at an NIT title rather than a run in the NCAA tournament.