KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Just when you thought a Roy Williams swing through Kansas territory and a looming potential meeting with Kentucky were going to be the only echoes of North Carolina tournaments past, along came something unexpected to potentially knock a key player out of the lineup. Again.
Coming off perhaps the best weekend of his career, Nassir Little did not even come to the arena on Thursday with the ubiquitous "flu-like symptoms," which so weakened Little, per Williams, that it "looked to me like it was hard to pick up the fork" at the team's breakfast. Officially listed as questionable, the freshman's prospects for playing against Auburn on Friday seem dire based on Williams' unofficial appraisal, the usual Roy caveat that he is not a doctor omitted.
"I can say it's hard to make a 180 (degree) turn, because there's no way in the world he could play if we're playing today," Williams said.
It's all too familiar, all too resonant. The Tar Heels survived scary injuries last weekend in Columbus _ Garrison Brooks' rearranged teeth and Kenny Williams' tweaked hamstring, only for both to return to the game _ and presumably thought the worst was behind them, the looming historic bullet dodged, only for Little to pick up some kind of a bug.
It could be worse: Little could, potentially, make an overnight recovery, however pessimistic Williams may have been Thursday. This isn't like Kendall Marshall's wrist (2012) or Ty Lawson's toe (2009), which cast longer shadows over the Tar Heels' postseason, or even P.J. Hairston's split finger webbing that slowed him in this building in 2013. Marshall's injury proved fatal to their hopes, while Lawson was able to emerge from his ill-advised Epsom salt bath and lead North Carolina to a national title.
But the Tar Heels have also been without Little, or even a full-strength Little, at times this season. He went on a run in February where he had a twisted ankle, a bruised sternum, a bruised knee and then got poked in the eye, all in short sequence. That put a serious crimp in his progress, and it really wasn't until the wins over Iona and Washington _ 39 points in 38 minutes, tearing apart the middle of the Huskies' zone _ that he looked like the instant-offense, explosive player off the bench he was expected to be all along.
"In the two games last weekend, he was sensational," Williams said. "If he's going to play like that all the time, we're going to miss that greatly because we don't have anybody that can do those things he did."
That's the shame of it: Little, finally at his peak, suddenly sidelined. Even if he does play, it's hard to imagine him being 100 percent, although a photoshopped version of the photo of Scottie Pippen helping Michael Jordan through his 1997 "flu game," with Coby White as Pippen and Little as Jordan, was making the Twitter rounds Thursday.
Auburn would presumably have been a good matchup for Little again, with his size and mobility serving as a relief valve against the Tigers' pressure, and a lot of transition play leading to a lot of Little dunks. More responsibility will fall back on utility man Brandon Robinson, who had to fill that role at midseason when Little was banged up or struggling.
Still, the mood in the North Carolina locker room was something less than dire. While White exulted in unexpectedly having a room of his own, Dr. Luke Maye had a less pessimistic diagnosis than Williams.
"It's just a little precautionary," Maye said. "Trying to make sure that he's ready for tomorrow and hopefully we'll have him. If not, we're going to do our best to play without him."
If Little can't lift his fork Friday, the Tar Heels may or may not be in trouble, but it certainly won't be a new experience for them. Not this season, and not in seasons past.
