The Sunday Slide: How "Back" is North Carolina?

Rumors of North Carolina’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Anyone with a level head knew of the Tar Heels’ injury-related shortcomings a year ago. And to their credit, other teams facing the same set of circumstances probably wouldn’t even have sniffed the NCAA tournament.

That’s a credit to the players, but also to Jenny Levy and her staff for recruiting. You can’t reach the tournament like they did without depth.

Much of that depth is still in Chapel Hill. And those injured difference-makers are back. Oh yeah, and so is an insane class of freshmen.

It was so refreshing to see Brooklyn Walker-Welch back to her dominant ways this weekend after missing all of last year. Against Florida, she kickstarted transition, ran the length of the field in a clunky leg brace, passed to an offensive player and then hung around to find open space on the crease. She buried it.

Walker-Welch brings incredible defensive skills but also high lacrosse IQ. She’s a leader in every sense. You can replace starting spots, but it’s hard to replace that knowledge.

It’s probably too early to say North Carolina is all the way back. They’re quite talented but also quite young in a lot of places. But if this isn’t the year, then you don’t want to get in North Carolina’s way next year. Or probably the year after that.