For a school accustomed to winning at least 20 games a year, how difficult is it to stomach a season of 20 losses? Just how severe a shock is it to finish 8-20, particularly after challenging for a national title and posting a 26-7 record just one year previously?
The storied North Carolina men's basketball program struggled with those questions all last season. As losses piled up, beginning with the embarrassing home defeats to Hampton and Davidson and then finally ending with a gritty performance against Duke during its first-round exit from the ACC Tournament, the Tar Heel faithful grew more and more stunned.
A final record of 8-20 made once-powerful North Carolina into a laughingstock around the country. While acknowledging the fans' hunger for the Tar Heels to regain their status amongst the nation's elite, third-year head coach Matt Doherty is pleading for one thing during the 2002-2003 season.
"Patience, but that is easier said then done," he said. "We are officially in a rebuilding process at North Carolina. We have the youngest team North Carolina's every had, and maybe the youngest team the ACC's ever had."
UNC's roster contains just two seniors, Will Johnson and Jonathan Holmes, who see little playing time. The two combined to average just five points a game last season. Of the other nine players on scholarship, three are sophomores and six are freshmen.
With its legions of followers more accustomed to reloading than rebuilding, the Tar Heels desperately want to make significant strides this year. Hope arrived in the form of one of the nation's top-ranked recruiting class, which features three McDonald's All-Americans: Sean May, Rashad McCants and Raymond Felton.
Of these, three expected stars, Felton, the 2002 Naismith National High School Player of the Year, faces more pressure than anyone else. And yet, in keeping with Doherty's request for patience, the Tar Heels see struggles for the 6-foot point guard in the immediate future.
"Playing for the state championship in high school is different from playing for the ACC Championship," Doherty said. "There are a lot of expectations on Raymond, and Raymond's not surrounded by experienced talent."
North Carolina would love for sophomores Jackie Manuel, Melvin Scott and Jawad Williams to make the leap from tentative rookies to confident leaders in 2002-03, but that may be too tall an order. Williams, a McDonald's All-American in 2001 who averaged nearly 10 points a game as a freshman, will be expected to step up more than any other returning Tar Heel.
Unfortunately for UNC, the experience its unseasoned talent so badly needs will come at a cost.
The Tar Heels' schedule features tough non-conference December matchups against Kentucky and Illinois. The games will be crucial as Doherty prepares his squad for the rigors of the ACC season to follow.
Although players, coaches and fans alike do express some optimism, it is anybody's guess just how long any upbeat attitude will last.
Preseason rankings find North Carolina picked to repeat last season's seventh-place finish.
Can a program already reeling from a 20-loss year sustain confidence if the Tar Heels fail to sport a winning record?
Questions abound in Chapel Hill, and the fans, even in November, are looking for answers.
"Our fans know this is a young team, they know there will be some bumps in the road," Johnson said. "They want to see us play hard, and they want to see us play together. If we do that our fans are going to fill the Smith center every night."
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