Puff Johnson shares what’s wrong with North Carolina on the floor

Things are still not exactly right in Chapel Hill. After North Carolina started 5-4, they calmed several nerves by following that up with a 10-2 run over their next 12. However, they’re now faltering again as the Tar Heels have dropped three straight.

Now, Puff Johnson is the latest player to sound off on what he thinks is wrong with his team. While there’s nothing specifically he feels is off, he did say he thinks the team has gotten away from playing ‘Tar Heel basketball’ and that they need to get back to that as quickly as possible.

“I’m not sure yet,” said Johnson. “I’m gonna go back in tonight and watch the game. Break it down and then just see what I can do better and see how I can help the team better.”

“Nothing stands out to me in particular. We just have to get back to Carolina basketball. Rebound, run, and just do the things that made North Carolina successful for so many years,” Johnson said. “I feel like we’ve gotten away from that just a little bit. But, I feel like if we go back to rebounding, running, and just doing what North Carolina does? We’ll get back to the production.”

While rebounding and fast break scoring could be better, they’re not necessarily the root of the problem during North Carolina’s skid. Overall, they’re +18 in rebounding margin and have won in points in transition in two of the three games. Even so, they could be thrown in as far as improvements UNC needs to make along with defense, scoring lulls, and late execution problems they’ve shown against Pittsburgh, Duke, and Wake Forest.

There’s a lot going wrong for the Tar Heels right now. They’re not happening at a good time either as they’re 7-6 in the ACC and are trending toward the bubble. Still, it’s on Johnson and North Carolina to set things right. Regardless of what needs to be fixed, it needs to happen in a hurry with seven games to go.