UNC Basketball: Why Kendall Marshall's Injury Kills Carolina's Final Four Hopes

Anybody out there wearing Carolina blue should guard their wrists with their lives. There's an epidemic going around.

First it was John Henson's badly sprained left wrist, which pretty much killed whatever hopes the Tar Heels had of winning the ACC tournament. Luckily, Henson was able to return to action in UNC's Round of 32 tilt against Creighton, much to everyone's relief.

And then star point guard Kendall Marshall broke his right wrist in the second half of the game when the Tar Heels were well en-route to an 87-73 victory. 

According to ESPN.com, Marshall had surgery on his wounded wrist on Monday morning. He had a screw inserted, but amazingly enough nobody is ruling him out for Friday's Sweet 16 tilt against the 13th-seeded Ohio Bobcats.

In the event Marshall actually manages to play, it would be one of the great comeback stories in the history of the NCAA Tournament.

But let's face it: Any man who has to have surgery that requires a screw to repair a broken bone probably should not be playing in a high-stakes basketball game just a few days later.

Even if Marshall insists he's ready to play, Roy Williams would be wise to keep on the bench and in street clothes.

That would put the Tar Heels at a significant disadvantage against the Ohio Bobcats, who have beaten fourth-seeded Michigan and 12th-seeded South Florida to get to the Sweet 16.

The Tar Heels would still have the better frontcourt, but what's scary about the run Ohio is the fact that they're winning games without the help of offensive rebounds and garbage points—two things the Bobcats racked up in abundance during the regular season. 

Beating the Bobcats without Marshall—who had 18 points and 11 assists against Creighton—will not be easy. The same will be true even if Marshall, perhaps by some miracle, is able to play. 

Even if the Tar Heels do get past Ohio, things wouldn't get much easier than the Elite Eight.

They'd be looking at a matchup against either an NC State team that gave them hell in the ACC tournament, or against a Kansas team that has proven time and again to be much better than the sum of its parts.

That's saying a lot, seeing as how one of its parts, Thomas Robinson, is one of the best players in the country.

With a 100-percent healthy Marshall, North Carolina could beat these opponents. If Marshall is able to play, but is limited, all bets are off.

If Marshall is unable to play, North Carolina is a dead team walking.

So the Final Four, which at the start of the tournament was a near-certainty for this Tar Heels team, is now a total uncertainty. 

It won't even take an upset to deny North Carolina the right to go to the Final Four. With Marshall wounded or (most likely) out of the picture altogether, the truth is that no loss the Tar Heels suffer from here on out will be an upset.

Without Marshall, they're just not that good.