Here was the season-salvaging opportunity the North Carolina Tar Heels needed, right in front of them, so close they could snatch it: The best player in college basketball, Cooper Flagg of the Duke Blue Devils, was starting the second half with three fouls in a roaring Dean Dome.
Carolina went from a point down at halftime to seven points up, 56–49. But the one thing the Heels didn’t do for the longest time after intermission was to go at Flagg at all. They didn’t drive on him. They didn’t put him in pick-and-roll situations. They certainly didn’t post him up (a lost art that must wound former coach Roy Williams’s soul). They just let Flagg lurk off the ball, no chance of picking up a fourth foul.
