CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - North Carolina men's basketball coach Matt Doherty has an almost eerie calm about him.

The second-year coach has every reason to be panicked - his Tar Heels are 3-5 heading into tonight's home matchup against North Carolina A&T, and games like this are hardly the certain victory they used to be in Chapel Hill.

		To receive information on The Maryland Army National Guard's free tuition program, complete the form below.     Name:     E-mail:     Address:     Phone:

In a down year for tradition-rich North Carolina, Doherty continues to focus on his team's potential for improvement as he puts the spin on ugly losses and narrow victories against what has normally been lesser competition.

"It doesn't do any good to get negative," Doherty said. "What can you do? I'm the leader of this program. I have to stay positive, or no one's going to stay positive."

Whether Doherty remains upbeat or not, the truth is evident - North Carolina is not as talented a team as it has been in years past.

Its senior leaders, Kris Lang and Jason Capel, have struggled with illness and inconsistency, respectively. The other starters are a junior walk-on and two freshmen.

And though the UNC coaches knew they would miss first-round NBA draft picks Joseph Forte and Brendan Haywood - plus key contributors Julius Peppers and Ronald Curry, who gave up basketball to concentrate on football - they had no idea the Tar Heels would struggle so mightily early on.

Doherty probably couldn't have imagined his team would start its season with home losses to two mid-major schools, Hampton and Davidson. He also couldn't have imagined that his Tar Heels would have to steal a 61-60 win at home from Binghamton - a program in its first season of Division I basketball.

This from the school that came into 2001-02 as the all-time winningest program in Atlantic Coast Conference history that had finished ranked in the Top 10 nationally 26 times in the past 35 seasons.

"I never envisioned this," said freshman Melvin Scott, from Southern High in Baltimore. "I dreamed coming here that we were going to be on TV every day. We were going to be winning. Everyone was going to love us."

Instead, the critics are out in full force.

Capel, despite good-looking statistics (14 ppg, 11 rpg), has not been the go-to player filling the scoring void left by Forte's departure. Lang has established himself as UNC's main offensive threat while battling a stomach virus and a knee injury, yet the team's best scoring performance came with him in street clothes.

North Carolina's three freshmen - Scott, Jackie Manuel and Jawad Williams - don't appear ready to be major contributors just yet. And nobody on the UNC roster has found consistency with his shot. Carolina's sub-40-percent efforts against the zone defenses of Hampton and Davidson were the principal cause of those losses.

Still, Doherty doesn't seem worried.

"You can't get upset about missed shots," Doherty said. "We're working hard, and we're getting some good shots. You get mad at lack of effort, lack of concentration."

But, at times, the shots have fallen. UNC hit 53 percent in a 92-76 win over then-No. 15 St. Joseph's on Saturday, quite a turnaround from the previous evening: A third mid-major school, the College of Charleston, beat the Tar Heels, 66-60.

"You know every night you put on the jersey, people are going to come at you with all they have," UNC forward Brian Bersticker said. "It's North Carolina. It's one of the greatest basketball traditions in the country."

But many of the streaks associated with that tradition are in serious jeopardy.

The Tar Heels have 31 consecutive seasons with at least 21 wins, and they have been to the NCAA tournament 27 consecutive times, both NCAA records.

The program has also finished in the top three in the ACC 37 times in a row, a run that may well end this season, especially with Duke, Maryland and Virginia in the top 10 nationally.

Still, there is no panic among the players and coaches themselves - just a level of frustration that grows with each loss and temporarily recedes after each win.

"We're down, hanging our heads," Scott said. "You think, 'What can I do to try to help this team?' Coach told us to keep our heads up. We've just got to play tough."