UNC Basketball: Crushing Loss to Duke Will Be Positive for Tar Heels

On Feb. 8, North Carolina learned a hard lesson: Even though they were playing at home against a Duke team that had been struggling, the Tar Heels found out that they were not unbeatable. 

As a result, this will end up being the best moment of the Tar Heels' season. 

Duke was struggling going into that game, but they are certainly a good team. But despite the fact that the Blue Devils shot nearly 39 percent from three-point land, North Carolina led for the entire second half. Duke didn't hold a single lead until Austin Rivers' final shot went through. 

Let's run with a hypothetical for a second and say that Rivers' shot missed but everything else remained the same. Obviously, North Carolina would have an additional win on their record right now, but what they have now is far more important. 

Now the Tar Heels know that they're not invincible. They need to go out and play their best game to beat an opponent like Duke. In the NCAA Tournament, UNC will be facing teams a consistent slew of teams on Duke's level. North Carolina's players now know that they need to come out and play tough all of the time—they can outplay an opponent and still lose. 

This is a good thing to know for a veteran team; they won't be that sloppy again. In particular, center Tyler Zeller will play with a tremendous amount of focus late in games. You will never see him play that poorly down the stretch again. 

It is amazing to think that tipping the ball into his own basket and missing free throws could have all been offset had he just put his hands up against Rivers. Zeller stands eight inches taller than Rivers. If he has hands in Rivers' face, there is a very good chance that ball doesn't go in. 

The problem is that if that happened, North Carolina would have a false sense of security. They would be thinking something like, "If we can play that against Duke and win, we're pretty good." That is the attitude that breeds complacency and leads to eliminations in the first three rounds of the NCAA Tournament for Final Four-caliber teams. 

The Tar Heels will now come out with more focus and dedication in their games. They have seen sloppiness lead directly to an absolutely crushing loss. They have watched their archrival fans rush the floor of the court of the Dean Dome. If that doesn't strike anger and desperation into the hearts of North Carolina, nothing will. 

But Roy Williams is the head coach of this team. They have veteran leaders in Zeller, John Henson and Harrison Barnes. They are not going to cave in from that loss. North Carolina will bounce back and make a run to the Final Four. That run wouldn't have been possible if the Tar Heels had held on to beat Duke.

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