‘This Has To Change’: Winless West Coast Road Trip Signifies Crossroads In UNC’s Season

BERKELEY, Calif. — For the second time in as many games, North Carolina players walked off the floor with heads down as the home crowd — still riding the momentum of an upset — chanted in celebration.

“You know it, you tell the story, you tell the whole damn world … this is bear territory.”

If the message Wednesday night in Palo Alto was that something had to change quickly, Saturday in Berkeley only amplified it: Something has to change — fast.

Faced with a 17-point deficit at halftime that grew to 20— the largest deficit at any point in its season— North Carolina couldn’t complete the second-half rally, putting an exclamation point on a disastrous West Coast swing.

“Today has really… we’ve really realized this has to change, so I think it will,” Seth Trimble said after the 84-78 loss. 

Entering Saturday, Cal sat 1-4 in ACC play and was coming off a 56-point showing against Duke on Wednesday — but the Golden Bears nearly matched that total by halftime against North Carolina.

On Wednesday night in Palo Alto, Stanford — without its second-leading scorer — out-scored North Carolina 29-17 across the final 9:50 of the second half to secure a comeback victory over the Tar Heels, who have looked like a different team since the start of the new year. 

“I think the struggles that we’ve gone through have inherited from — it’s nothing coaching related — it’s nothing team wise, there’s no beef with anybody,” Trimble said. “It’s just having that will and want-to and just putting feelings aside, just manning up, just going to play. Just manning up, coming to a realization that we’ve got to be some men to start winning some games in a row.”

North Carolina is 1-3 in its four games of 2026 and 2-3 in ACC play, its worst five-game conference start since 2019-20, when the Tar Heels finished 6-14 in the league.

In those four games, UNC is surrendering an average of 90 points per game, while allowing opponents to shoot 53.8 percent from the field, and 50 percent from 3-point range. 

“We’re going to get guys’ best shots every night,” Trimble said. “It’s going to be a war, and it’s going to be a battle.”

“And one thing that we have to do day in and day out is carry this with us and wear it like no other,” Trimble said, pointing to the North Carolina logo on his t-shirt. “Because there’s so many people in this world who would dream to wear it and they don’t get to. We just have to continue to realize how special this is.”

The Tar Heels’ nonconference schedule ranked No. 185 nationally, and it may be catching up with them. North Carolina entered ACC play No. 19 in adjusted defensive efficiency via KenPom. Five games later, the Tar Heels have fallen to No. 52. Consider that UNC ranks No. 248 nationally in effective FG% defense (57.8) vs. top 100 opponents.

What’s most alarming is that North Carolina hasn’t even faced the ACC’s top tier yet. 

Through five conference games, the Tar Heels have played the league’s third-easiest schedule, according to KenPom, and have allowed some of the conference’s worst offenses to score with ease. Wake Forest (104.7), Cal (103.1) and Stanford (101.9) rank No. 13, No. 14 and No. 15, respectively, in offensive efficiency in ACC play.

Ranked below all three is Notre Dame at No. 17 (100.0), ahead of its visit to the Smith Center on Wednesday.

With 13 ACC games left, North Carolina still has time to right the ship, but if the Tar Heels can’t handle business at home before heading to Charlottesville to face No. 16 Virginia, buckle up.

“Throughout the year, everybody goes through some bumps, whether it’s at the beginning of the year, middle of the year, you hope it’s not at the end of the year, and you have to find a way to work through it,” Hubert Davis said. “And so these are some bumps that we went through this week and in three of the last four games, and we’re going to have to respond and fight back. We have an opportunity to do this. I love these kids. Got an unbelievable, great team to coach. I love being around them, and we’ll figure it out.”