UNC Basketball: Early Concerns for Tar Heels in 2014-15

In the opening game of the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, everything Tar Heels fans worry about—read: everything that went so horribly last year—reared its ugly head in the game against Butler.

The final score wasn't indicative of the struggle. Even if UNC had completed some miraculous comeback, and it did get within three points late, the problems were still overtly evident.

Although these issues didn't come up steadily during the season's first three games, a lack of competition and/or lack of urgency made that explainable. For the rest of the way, Carolina is going to have to deal with what pestered it against the Bulldogs.

First and foremost were the offensive rebounds.

North Carolina got destroyed on the boards by a smaller and less athletic club. This is incredibly alarming. Butler finished with 29 offensive rebounds, which was more than UNC grabbed on the defensive side. A lack of effort and push down low precipitated the domination.

If this type of thing can happen against Butler, what happens when the Tar Heels face a team with actual size in the post? The Bulldogs took advantage and hit a number of second-chance, kick-out threes. Those alone could have been UNC's undoing if the team didn't also struggle on the offensive side.

This is where I am forced to mention—once again to the utter chagrin of Heels fans across the nation—free-throw and three-point shooting.

What an embarrassment.

The numbers speak for themselves. UNC went 18-of-32 from the line and 4-of-16 from behind the arc.

The worrisome part is free-throw shooting and volume three-point shooting have been issues even in Carolina's blowout wins earlier in the month. Against NC Central, the Heels shot 66 percent from the foul line and were just 2-of-11 from three.

Against Robert Morris, a crushing win for North Carolina, the Heels were good from the line but struggled again from three, although it didn't matter in that contest.

Then, against Davidson, it was more of the same from the line as Carolina shot 64 percent. It was solid from deep, proving the skill at least exists in North Carolina's arsenal, even if it's only come out once this year.

Against the Wildcats, the Tar Heels allowed another 17 offensive boards, bringing the total to 41 in those first three contests. Prior to the game against Butler, the offensive rebounds allowed weren't killers necessarily, but the problem wasn't exactly dormant either.

Which brings us back to that Bulldogs game where everything bad came together.

To top it all off, UNC turned the ball over 19 times. Hopefully, this was an aberration and not some undoing of Roy Williams' forward-heavy lineups. He actually used two guards together a lot versus Butler, but it didn't help matters.

Only time will tell whether these complications end up being hiccups through the early slate of 2014-15 or setbacks that hold the team down all season long.

It is simply amazing, though, to think North Carolina could be this bad at such integral basketball skills two seasons in a row.