Patience starting to run thin with head coach Mack Brown at UNC

This season has been disappointing for the North Carolina Tar Heels. North Carolina came into the season with a preseason top ten ranking, and the Tar Heels have simply not lived up to those massive expectations. After a season-ending loss to NC State on Friday, a disappointing regular season is in the books for UNC and head coach Mack Brown. Some in the media are even questioning whether or not Brown was a good hire for the Tar Heels.

UNC began the year with a 17-10 loss at Virginia Tech. The Tar Heels bounced back with a win over Georgia State to improve to 1-1. From there, UNC beat Virginia and lost by 23 to Georgia Tech. UNC alternated wins and losses for the rest of the season, finishing 6-6.

The season included some high highs and some low lows for Brown and UNC. UNC lost to Florida State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and blew a nine point lead with just over two minutes remaining against NC State. But the Tar Heels also beat Wake Forest and Miami and lost a one possession game to a good Pittsburgh team.

Brown took responsibility for UNC’s struggles earlier in the year

Earlier in the year during the heart of UNC’s struggles, Brown took the blame for the Tar Heels’ struggles this season. Brown acknowledged that he is responsible.

“But I think the thing is, there’s a key to each team, there’s a key to each kid, and my job right now is to step up, be strong, be positive, and try to find the key to this team that we haven’t found yet,” Brown said on how North Carolina can turn things around. “And the real key is consistency and why can’t we get everybody to play at the same time. I don’t know, and I’m working on it. I met along with the team yesterday, I met along with the staff yesterday. And I told them this is not good. It’s unacceptable. We’re disappointing to ourselves.

“We’ve done a great job of not letting one loss beat us twice. So, let’s go back to work. Why don’t we all play good on the same Saturday. That’s legal, I checked it, we can do that. They allow us to. So let’s do it. But it’s a hundred percent my fault that they’re not. I can duck it and say something else. I’m responsible for everybody that’s hired here, I’m responsible for how they coach their players and we are responsible for how those players play… We’re older and we’ve been around longer. We’ve got to help them and we’ve got to be more consistent as coaches to get our team to play more consistent than we’ve been. That’s 100 percent no ducking, it is what it is.”