CHAPEL HILL, N.C. _ This was the noise, the roar, the sound that would have dared anyone to put the words "wine" or "cheese" next to it. As North Carolina started to chip away at a second-half lead, the fans stomped their feet and screamed and rattled the girders atop Carmichael Arena as if three decades had never passed.
It wouldn't have been the first come-from-behind win in this building, but the crowd was trying desperately to urge the Tar Heels to a comeback against not Maryland or Georgia Tech or N.C. State or Duke but Wofford. On this otherwise retro Sunday, that was very, very 2019.
All the concern over who was going to score for North Carolina other than Cole Anthony suddenly seemed very quaint when Anthony watched the 68-64 loss to the Terriers in a suit from the bench.
What should have been a heartwarming return to the Tar Heels' former home became the starting point for a heartrending and potentially heartbreaking voyage into the bitter unknown after Anthony was declared out indefinitely with a knee injury, especially with Leaky Black standing next to him in a walking boot.
"It's tough for a lot of reasons," UNC guard Brandon Robinson said. "I can't really explain them all. But I felt like we tried. We tried the hardest we tried all year."
Either Anthony or Black or both figured in almost half of North Carolina's offensive possessions over the first nine games, which is the statistical way of saying the Tar Heels were in deep, deep trouble Sunday and figure to be in equally deep trouble for the foreseeable future.
Their combined absence left 24 points on the bench for a team that was already struggling mightily to score: outside, inside, transition, whatever. It wasn't just that the Tar Heels couldn't shoot to this point. The easy points that North Carolina relies upon as a matter of course, the big men beating the opposition down the court for easy buckets on the break, the offensive rebounds for and-one putbacks, those weren't coming easily, if at all.
It was a lot of baggage to carry across campus to play against Wofford, a team already on a one-game winning streak in Chapel Hill, even with Anthony and Black. Let alone without them.
So with K.J. Smith at the point _ his father, Kenny, started the previous regular-season game at Carmichael, against N.C. State in January 1986 _ the Tar Heels staggered into this new uncertainty. What at times had devolved _ and at times, like the second half against Notre Dame, evolved _ into a one-man team was now anyone's team, with little-used players like Smith and Jeremiah Francis and Andrew Platek asked to assume major roles.
"We're going to benefit in the long run from it, but it doesn't make it any easier to go through right now for sure," Roy Williams said.
The persistent failure of UNC's non-Anthony players to assert themselves had to this point been an existential question; by the time Wofford went on a 16-0 run in the second half to take a lead it would not relinquish, it was now a very real and very pressing problem.
This already had the feel of 2014, when the Tar Heels had one reliable shooter (Marcus Paige) and several square pegs forced into round holes. On this throwback Sunday, with the Tar Heels wearing old-school uniforms and playing in the school's old gym, it started to feel like a less memorable season: 2010, when injuries submarined the season and the Tar Heels opened the NIT on this same floor.
It doesn't get any easier, either: The Tar Heels face a cross-country flight to play powerful Gonzaga on Wednesday, almost certainly without Anthony and possibly without Black, who is officially "game to game." Black hurt his foot against Michigan and tried to play through it until it started getting worse. Anthony, who injured his right ankle in the Bahamas, came into the Smith Center on Friday with a swollen right knee and was shut down after being examined by doctors.
The crowd lucky enough to be in Carmichael on Sunday arrived full of nostalgia and optimism and left full of disappointment and trepidation. The Tar Heels were having trouble finding their way with Anthony. Now losers of three straight and four of their past five, where are they headed without him? Maybe back here in March.
