Big one-year turnaround for Heels

NEWARK -- At season's end, Roy Williams will look inward, searching for answers to the questions he's asked himself year after year.

"Fear of failure is what it is with me," the North Carolina coach said. "I think last year, I looked into as many things as I possibly could."

For now, that soul-searching has been put on hold. A year after the Tar Heels lost in devastating fashion to Dayton in the NIT championship game, Williams' players are a win away from the program's 19th NCAA Final Four with Friday's 81-63 victory over Marquette.

"It has been a huge turnaround from last year," said forward Tyler Zeller, who scored 27 points. "The whole year, we were just trying to figure out how to fix what we were doing. We were struggling to win games . . . Definitely not the season we wanted. But now that we are in the Elite Eight, it is a great feeling. I'm proud of every one of my teammates. And I'm glad to be a part of this team."

Oh, how far the Tar Heels had fallen since winning their sixth national championship in 2009. After losing four starters from that title team, they went 5-11 in the ACC and lost 17 games in 2009-10, their worst season since 2002.

Three days before North Carolina lost, 79-68, to Dayton in the NIT final, Williams laughed at the notion that his team's struggles might be good education. He joked that his master's degree was education enough, but he also admitted that he's "learned things as a coach that I hope will be valuable to me."

Those lessons, over countless hours of self-reflection, have helped put the Tar Heels in position to pen one of the best comeback stories in recent NCAA history.

Gone are 2009 national title heroes Ty Lawson, Tyler Hansbrough and Danny Green (North Babylon). But these current Tar Heels are talented beyond their young years.

Growing pains were to be expected with a starting lineup of two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior forward who missed 33 games over the previous two seasons. The Tar Heels started the season 1-2, were pummeled by 20 points against Georgia Tech, lost twice to Duke and also lost starting point guard Larry Drew II, who transferred out in February.

"I think we had our batteries recharged and we were so much more effective with our concentration," Williams said. "We played better since this tournament started."