North Carolina’s slide leaves it on bubble

Roughly 20 minutes had passed since his North Carolina team had lost a grind-itout battle against rival Duke, and Armando Bacot had taken his customary seat behind a small table with his back to a wallmounted television.

The questions started coming from a reporters surrounding him, probing what had gone wrong. But they weren’t just about one game. They were about an entire season, one that has seen an experienced team open with a No. 1 ranking after a magical ride to the national-title game only to close the regular season in precarious at best standing for a return to the NCAA Tournament.

“Could you have ever thought that you’d be in this position?” one reporter asked.

“No,” Bacot said, “but I’m here.”

The Tar Heels (19-12) are flirting with becoming the first team to open at No. 1 in the preseason Associated Press poll and miss the NCAA Tournament since its expansion to 64 teams in 1985. They’ve struggled to make outside shots or win close games, building a postseason resume filled with far more missed opportunities than high-end wins.

And that has them headed to this week’s Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament likely needing multiple victories — and maybe nothing short of the title — to ensure they hear their name called on Selection Sunday.

They open play Wednesday as a No. 7 seed in a second-round game against the Louisville-Boston College winner.

There are multiple answers for what has gone wrong.

Second-year coach Hubert Davis has mentioned his team looking weighed down by some of the high expectations to repeat last year’s run, which included spoiling retiring Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski’s final home game at Duke and then handing him the final loss of his career in the Final Four during an epic first-ever in the NCAA Tournament between the storied rivals.

“We knew since the start of the season,” starting guard R.J. Davis said. “Just the expectations that were being upholded, just out there in the media, just the noise . ... Sometimes you put too much stress on yourself and you try to meet those expectations (instead of) just going out there and just play freely.”