Cooled Heels (NCAABB)

When Achilles’ mother dipped her infant son in the River Styx she made him invulnerable, unfortunately she held him by his ankle and an arrow to this spot felled the mighty warrior.

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams must’ve held his team by the guards as Monday night’s stunning 82-79 overtime upset to the College of Charleston is evidence of.

The Cougars took the No. 9 Heels, minus guards Marcus Ginyard and Will Graves, to task and hit them where it hurt most: the backcourt. The Cougars’ starting backcourt outscored their counterparts 52-17, had 11 assists to the Heels’ six and made 20 of 47 field goals compared to UNC’s 5 of 21 from their starting guards.

But the real difference in the game came from beyond the arc where North Carolina could not contain the College of Charleston, who were draining threes like the NCAA Rules Committee was considering banning them.

The Cougars outscored the Heels 39-3 from outside, making 13 of their 32 attempts including a guarded buzzer-beater from 28-feet out by Andrew Goudelock to tie the game and force overtime.

Goudelock’s bucket capped a 12-1 run by the Cougars and he scored the last eight points for C of C.

The overtime was more of the same from the Cougars as Donavan Monroe opened the period with a three-point bucket to put the Cougars ahead for good. The Tar Heels made their lone three in overtime to bring the game within one but a missed layup from Dexter Strickland with four seconds left spelled the end for UNC. An errant baseball pass intercepted by Monroe ended the game and evened C of C’s all-time record versus UNC to 3-and-3.

The loss gives UNC its fourth of the year and should drop them from the rankings completely . . . that is if they were anyone but North Carolina.

That’s because the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls have an unconditional love for the Heels. Any other team with four losses before conference play, even if three were to ranked opponents, would be nowhere near the top 25.

But due to the Vitale-inspired, North Carolina and Roy Williams-can-do-no-wrong-attitude of the pollsters they’ll likely drop to just 11 or 12 when the new polls come out next week. All the while one and two loss teams like Baylor, O.K. State and UNLV languish on the outside of the 25.

Maybe when UNC drops games in the upcoming ACC conference play, which they will if they continue to have the weak guard play they exhibited last night, the pollsters rose-tinted glasses will come off.

Or should I say powder blue-tinted glasses?

–Aaron Whitebread, Red’s Editorial Staff