CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Blue Heaven hasn't been this gray in more than 60 years.
The North Carolina basketball empire built and fostered by Dean Smith has taken a major detour five seasons after he retired as the winningest coach in Division I-A history.
The Tar Heels have been a March Madness fixture for an NCAA-record 27 straight seasons, but that amazing streak is in jeopardy.
At this point, the NIT is a distant goal.
"We turn the ball over and we're not a great shooting team," said UNC's Matt Doherty, the former Kansas assistant and Notre Dame head coach.
"And we're not a great rebounding team. Those are pretty vital stats in the game of basketball."
A 31-point exhibition loss to EA Sports All-Stars, and embarrassing season-opening home defeats against Hampton and Davidson were the first signs of trouble.
Consecutive blowouts against Wake Forest and Maryland were more evidence that this year's version of the Tar Heels might be hard-pressed to win 10 games, let alone 20.
The Tar Heels dropped to 5-9 overall and 1-4 in the ACC with their road loss against Florida State on Wednesday, then lost their fifth straight game Saturday in a nonconference tilt at Connecticut.
North Carolina's last losing season was 8-9 in 1961-62, Smith's first.
"I look at it like it's our North Carolina program and not Dean Smith's program or anybody's else," Smith said, "and certainly it pains me when we don't play well."
Besides the program's postseason streak, the Tar Heels have won 20 or more games for a record 31 straight seasons and finished in the top three in the Atlantic Coast Conference 37 years in a row. They've also been to the Final Four a record 15 times and produced 31 first-round draft picks, including Michael Jordan in 1984.
Until now, the transition from Smith to Bill Guthridge to Doherty had been fairly smooth.
Guthridge Smith's longtime assistant took the program to two Final Fours in three seasons, and people expected the success to continue under Doherty, a former Tar Heel player.
Doherty had led Notre Dame to a 22-15 mark and an NIT berth in his only season in South Bend, Ind. He bolted to Chapel Hill when his former boss Kansas coach Roy Williams and others turned down the UNC job.
Doherty got off to a great start at his alma mater last season. He led the Tar Heels to an 18-game winning streak, a No. 1 ranking, an NCAA Tournament berth and was chosen as The Associated Press coach of the year for 2000-01.
The Tar Heels won 26 games including a 13-3 league mark and ended up tying Duke for the ACC regular-season crown, but they lost five of their final 10 games. Still, that finish was nothing compared with this year's start, which has left Tar Heels past and present searching for answers.
"I am not playing and I hear it every day," former North Carolina standout Brad Daugherty said. "When you live on a campus like North Carolina, everything revolves around what's going on with the program.
"There is pressure created, even if it's subconsciously. Just hearing that stuff at a distance can make you tight. And that is no way to play basketball."
The simple answers to North Carolina's poor play are a lack of overall talent and depth, and recruiting missteps dating to Smith's last season in 1997. Gutheridge's staff has been criticized by many for failing to bring in high-quality talent.
The program has also been gutted by early defections to the NBA. Since 1995, the Tar Heels have lost Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Jeff McInnis, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter and Joseph Forte before their eligibility was up.
"Matt and I talked when he took the job that, looking down the road, he was concerned about this year and how we would be able to compete," athletics director Dick Baddour said.
First-team All-American Forte, who averaged 23.7 points in 16 ACC games last season, went to the Boston Celtics after his sophomore season. Seven-foot center Brendan Haywood, now playing with Jordan and the Washington Wizards, was a fixture in the middle for the Tar Heels, graduating as the ACC's career field-goal percentage leader (63.7 percent) and North Carolina's career shot-block leader (304).
Doherty also lost point guard Ronald Curry and power forward Julius Peppers, both of whom played on the football team and chose not to return to the basketball team this winter in order to focus on NFL careers.
"They really miss that player that can take the basketball to the front of the goal, kind of get his own shot and create a little bit of leadership," Daugherty said.
Doherty has tried to mold the team around seniors Jason Capel and Kris Lang, and three freshmen. But the play of Jawad Williams, Jackie Manuel and Melvin Scott has been mixed, at best. The Tar Heels are last in the ACC in field-goal percentage and turnover margin, and eighth in scoring offense, scoring defense and free-throw percentage.
"I've always had trouble with highly recruited freshmen, which Matt seems to be having, too," Smith said. "They have a hard time understanding shot selection."
The losing has not only been tough on this year's team, but to the extended North Carolina basketball family.
McInnis enjoyed the 13-18 season of rival Duke in 1995, but he is now taking heat from Los Angeles Clippers teammates and former Duke players Elton Brand and Corey Maggette over North Carolina's struggles.
"I never thought I'd see this day," McInnis said. "I remember laughing at Duke when they were down, now I got Maggette and Brand just killing me every day, rubbing it in.
"It's not like I'm going to start wearing a Duke cap or nothing, but I can't believe how this year is going. I can't even watch for the scores because each one is more humiliating than the last one."
Help could be on the way. Doherty has recruited prep standouts Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants and Sean May, and has a commitment from 7-footer Damion Grant for next season.
But for now, it appears the second-winningest program in college hoops history behind Kentucky will have to endure a painful season.
Jawad Williams, however, expects his team to rally.
"We seem like we've been playing without goals and now we've found something to play for," Williams said. "We're playing for each other, playing for respect, playing for pride and playing for all the past players who put on this uniform."
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.