Another UNC Team Plummets Downward at Great Speed

You couuld be referring to the women’s basketball team which is headed for the NIT (which I’m sure they’ll reject in their infinite wisdom) also.

Could the 38 million spent on renovating Carmichael have been used for the women’s soccer and field hockey teams to build even better facilities for teams that actually win something on a regular basis and don’t look completely inept even in down years?

Since Carmichael is practically holy ground to me, so renovating it will always be money well spent. I think both Navy Field (or the Francis Henry Stadium, I suppose) and Fetzer were renovated in the last decade or so, they’re good.

The women’s team is still getting poll votes, and the field isn’t as deep, so I hold out hope they can still make the NCAAs.

I probably exaggerated, though they’re a 6 seed in Charlie Creme’s ESPN bracketology, are 16-8 overall, and really are probably not going to fall out.

That being said, they’ve lost 5 in a row, lost in ugly fashion to rival dook, the team has rumors of in-fighting with both other players and staff since the UConn loss and the fab freshman who was considered the #1 or #2 recruiting class has showed flashed of great play and terrible play. With no real vocal on-court leader like Tracey Reid, Nikki Teasley, Charlotte Smith, Ivory Latta, or even Erlana Larkins of years past, the team is in a fog and the ugly basketball they play (20+ turnovers most games) that they could get away with in the past isn’t so viable now, with other teams in the league getting better game in and game out.

I really think the women’s program is at a crossroads. While they had huge success the last few years, Hatchell, who excels at taking athletic players and making them stars, hasn’t done so much lately with stronger recruiting classes and essentially a brand new facility now open (dook and several other schools they compete with are killing them in recruiting for 2011 and from what I heard, 2012 may not break our way either). To be an elite team, you need to land the big fish. Now that we’re landing the near big-fish, when will the results come? Why has the team regressed with supposedly better players? Can we ever land a Maya Moore type or is that player always going to the UConn and Tennessees and even to some degree, dooks of the NCAA world?

This is all not even factoring in the loss of Jessica Breland, who is battling cancer.