Watching the Tarheels play basketball over the past couple of games the narrative that gets written about is the same: When this team is focused and gives max effort on the court, nobody can beat them. I saw this team play, what right now, the game of the year against Maryland. It was an absolute masterpiece between two teams that look to be playing late into March looking for the title. I saw them in games before and after that where I saw similar moments of brilliant basketball from this team and then moments where they truly looked uninspired.

The other narrative that has come out of Chapel Hill is that the teams of late of lacked a total aggressiveness and toughness to win the tough games. They like to play pretty and don’t like to get too dirty as they say. I would agree with all of the assessments because as a true Heels fan I have seen some really head scratching performances from the over the years since their last national title run.

While this season has a long way to go and this team certainly has a lot left to prove, I would definitely be willing to say that they have brought in a lot more to the idea of bringing their lunch pale’s to the arena. Maybe it’s the pending NCAA punishment looming. Maybe it’s the senior leadership of Marcus Paige and Brice Johnson. But this team has a different look more often than not. They look like a team that has it’s eyes set on the long term goal of winning coach Williams his third title and the Tar Heel program it’s sixth national title.

This teams makeup looks practically identical to other two national title teams Williams had. They have great senior leadership, big men who can dominate, explosive talent from their point guard, reserves who could start on any other team and streaky three point shooting that seems to come right on time. This group will have games to come down the line where all of this talent and potential will get to display itself, so lets just wait and see if the crown will be a shade of Carolina Blue when all is said and done. But one thing I know for sure, Roy won’t let up as long as this team continues to buy into the message: Bring your A game all the time.