Downfall leaves Tar Heels quite ordinary.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

CHAPEL HILL _ Matt Doherty admits it. Sometimes he thinks about the majesty that could have been his North Carolina men's basketball team, instead of the mediocrity it has become.

"Your mind wanders, sure," he said. "When you're driving down the road, going on a recruiting trip or on a plane, you think of things that were done in the past that may have impacted the future."

May have impacted the future? May have? The things that happened, the things that didn't happen, more than "may have" impacted the Tar Heels' future. They eroded it like a mudslide, taking down the mansion.

Bad luck has been at work. Bad recruiting, too. Julius Peppers' decision to focus on football didn't help, and Doherty, in his third year as a head coach, admits he is learning on the job. He says his team has been unprepared at times _ most famously in the first two games, as Hampton and Davidson zones bamboozled the Tar Heels. …