Tar Heels crash NIT party

Associated Press

NEW YORK

This isn’t where Marcus Ginyard expected to end his career when he signed a letter of intent with North Carolina four years ago.

He expected to be playing in the Final Four, of course, just not this one.

So forgive him for speaking quietly, slouching ever so slightly, looking just a little bit out of place Monday when he joined a few other players from Rhode Island, Mississippi and Dayton for a news conference before the semifinals of the NIT.

The truth is, Ginyard’s entire team looks out of place in New York.

Twelve months removed from cutting down the nets after its fifth national championship, North Carolina is trying to make bittersweet history. No school has ever followed a title on basketball’s biggest stage with an NIT championship at Madison Square Garden.

“To me it’s still a championship. You just have to put out of mind it’s not what you wanted,” Ginyard said, suddenly perking up. “It speaks to greater life lessons, you know? You’re not always going to be given what you want or put in the position that you want, but you just have to do the best you can with what you have.”

The bluest of the bluebloods, North Carolina joined a dubious list this season only eight teams long — since the NCAA tournament expanded in 1975 — by following a national championship by missing college basketball’s signature event. The last was Florida in 2008, when the Gators had four juniors leave early for the NBA draft.

Early departures are part of the reason the Tar Heels have stumbled, too. Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington followed seniors Tyler Hansbrough and Danny Green into the play-for-pay ranks, rather than returning to Chapel Hill for one more season.

The bigger problem, though, has been injuries that ransacked a lineup that was already fairly thin. Nine players have combined to miss 43 games, from Ed Davis’ broken wrist to Tyler Zeller’s fractured foot to season-ending injuries to brothers, David and Travis Wear.