Kendall Marshall Injury: North Carolina in Trouble Without Star Point Guard

The North Carolina Tar Heels and head coach Roy Williams are fully prepared to play without their star point guard, Kendall Marshall, and that could be disastrous for their NCAA tournament hopes moving forward.

According to Robbi Pickeral of ESPN.com, Coach Williams has no idea if Marshall could be ready but Marshall's word alone still wouldn't be entirely enough to get him on the floor.

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"If he comes running in here now and says, 'God, I can play!', I'll say, 'Well, let's talk about it,' " said Williams, frustrated with the continued questioning about the nation's assist leader. "But he's in a frickin' cast. ... I cannot give you any answers. I've given everybody all the answers I can give, because I have said honestly, 'I do not know.' "

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North Carolina will no doubt miss Marshall's contributions on the floor as the Tar Heels floor general is averaging over eight points per game with almost ten assists as well. He's been the team's major distributor and has had a great tourney thus far (11 points and 10 assists vs. Vermont, 18 points and 11 assists vs. Creighton).

North Carolina will attempt to replace Marshall's output with freshman Stillman White who has played very few minutes this season, and senior Justin Watts who has been called on to run the point only twice this season.

The Tar Heels regular backup, Dexter Strickland, was lost for the season after suffering a knee injury in January.

There's no doubt North Carolina will miss Marshall's presence on the floor and it will be impossible to replace such a player.

White and Watts simply don't have the experience or skill Marshall has and while it's easy to hide such a problem with other positions in basketball, the most important position, point guard, isn't even close to as easy.

Hopefully for the Tar Heels, time will heal this wound and their star point guard will be ready to go by Friday when they take on 13th-seeded Ohio.

Marshall's absence instantly makes North Carolina less desirable to win the National Championship than at the outset of the tournament and although they should be able to beat Ohio without him, I'm not so sure about some of the tournaments more elite teams.