The Will To Win

It has taken me about 5 days to recover from the beat down the Tarheels received at the hands of Florida State last Saturday so I can only imagine what the team is going thru.

I coached high school basketball at a small, private Christian school for a couple of seasons and I could tell when my team was in for a lackluster performance. Early in the season it provided motivation for the games that followed. At the end of the season, it was too late. We had already mailed it in.

As soon as the Florida State game was over, the so called experts were already predicting a free-fall to mediocrity and that was the end of the season for the Tarheels. The prediction was they had mailed it in. Even Roy Williams said he felt they had gotten complacent. Nine straight home games can do that to you.

Before the season even started, so many comparisons were made between this years Tarheel team and the last Tarheel championship team of 2009. The biggest differences between the two teams are leadership and the will to win.

Tyler Hansbrough had a will to win that was second only to Michael Jordan in North Carolina basketball history. He could put the team on his back and will them to win. He also had a great supporting cast but he was the emotional leader, on and off the court.

Harrison Barnes does that in spurts. There has been a few games that he has carried the team but he has completely disappeared in so many others. This years team needs an emotional leader. A player that can get them fired up when the team needs it. Most of this years players are mild-mannered and prefer to let their actions on the court speak for them. Sometimes that is not enough.