By Eddy Landreth
Staff Writer

Now is the time for action. Florida State ended the Tar Heels’ hopes for an ACC Tournament championship with an 85-82 victory against UNC in the title game of the annual tournament on Sunday.
UNC is No. 4 in the final Associated Press poll. The top-seeded Tar Heels open NCAA Tournament play on Friday at 4:10 p.m. at the Greensboro Coliseum against the winner of Wednesday night’s first-round play-in game between Vermont (23-11) and Lamar (23-11). The winner will fill the 16th seed’s position. (The game was played after The Citizen’s deadline Wednesday night.)
The Tar Heels earned their way to this position by visibly raising the level of their concentration, intensity, focus and execution throughout the final month of the season.
The peak, thus far, occurred at Cameron Indoor Stadium in the final regular-season game, with Carolina defeating Duke 88-70 on senior night.
Unfortunately for the Tar Heels, they suffered a poorly timed injury when junior forward John Henson fell on his left hand early in their opening game of the ACC Tournament against Maryland.
He tried to play but the pain was too much. So he sat out the rest of the event while his healthy teammates continued to play.
Carolina has endured a long, sometimes trying season. Two of the players the Tar Heels planned to lean on, guards Leslie McDonald and Dexter Strickland, suffered season-ending knee injuries at different times.
So this has been a season sometimes filled with painful lessons. To their credit, the Tar Heels did not let down for any period of time.
“My team played on,†coach Roy Williams said.
The time has arrived for the Tar Heels to apply the season’s lessons and subtle nuances, as well as glaring education at times.
The manner in which Carolina has played since arriving at Cameron Indoor Stadium has been impressive. Even when the Tar Heels fell behind to Florida State in the tournament title game they maintained their poise and played hard.
Even freshmen James Michael McAdoo and P.J. Hairston leaped forward against Duke and later in the ACC Tournament. Both have plenty of room for growth, but each made enough progress to be visible and play a role in the Tar Heels’ improved play.
Aside from Henson and his wrist, the most important area for this group the rest of the way is how this team handles each game mentally. Their collective confidence and forcefulness clearly separated them at Duke. In their second game of the ACC Tournament, those traits helped the Tar Heels hold off an inspired N.C. State team, and then on Sunday fueled a comeback that nearly ended with a championship.
Place Henson back into the lineup close to full speed, which means double figures in scoring and rebounds, along with a significant impact on defense, and these Tar Heels could rise to the level of being the best team in the nation.
There are no guarantees, but it is clearly possible.
The players appear to be taking direction from the coaches as well as they have at any point this season. They are playing together, and their performance encompasses more than just effort. There is a collective desire behind what this team has been doing, the kind of team determination capable of pushing the Tar Heels to the top of the heap by the end of the first Monday night in April.