For pretty much my entire life, rooting for the Tar Heels has come with accepting the fact that you are rooting for a team that is almost always going to be a favorite going in, and that the rest of the country hates seeing the favorite win. It’s a huge compliment to the program that Dean Smith built that as a Carolina fan, you had to accept that most people wanted you to lose.
One would have thought this would change under Roy Williams, but his almost immediate capturing of the 2005 title, along with the Hansbrough class that culminated with the 2009 title, and then the crew that was building to a 2012 title prior to Kendal Marshall’s injury basically took the sympathy away from the program.