Maryland’s 82–80 win over North Carolina at Chapel Hill shocked the college basketball world. How could a team that lost at home to Ohio and American in consecutive games earlier this season possibly go on the road and beat the undefeated Tar Heels, the top-rank team in the nation? A look at both the game stats and the game itself offered some clues. The Terrapins came in knowing they had to slow down Tyler Hansbrough, a Player of the Year candidate who is averaging better than 21 points a game. That’s just what they did: Maryland frequently cut off Hansbrough’s angles, limiting his usual bull rushes to the basket. All told, Hansbrough went just 6-for-15 from the field, scoring 17 points for the Tar Heels. With Hansbrough limited, North Carolina looked out of sync for most of the game, taking bad shots and failing to make up for the struggles of their best player. The Heels shot just 38% from the field and 7-for-23 from behind the arc en route to their first loss of the season.

Carolina’s rough play while Hansbrough struggled underscored a trend that’s afflicted some similarly constructed teams over the past few years. High-power teams that trot out 20-point-per-game scorers have often fallen short of expectations come tournament time. In fact, it’s been years since a high-major team with a 20-ppg scorer has advanced to the Final Four, despite expectations often suggesting they should.

Last season’s poster child for this trend was Texas. The Longhorns’ biggest scorer was also the country’s best player: Naismith Award winner Kevin Durant. In his freshman season for the ages, Durant tallied 25.6 points a game, slicing up some of America’s best defenses along the way. The Longhorns weren’t necessarily a Final Four favorite, drawing a no. 4 seed for the big dance. Still, many pundits picked Texas to go deep into the tournament, with opponents overwhelmed by Durant’s talent. It didn’t happen: In the second round, the Longhorns ran into one of the country’s toughest defensive teams in USC. Durant still got his 30 points — but other than A.J. Abrams, no other Longhorn player scored in double figures or made any kind of significant offensive contribution. The Trojans whacked Texas 87–68, and that was that.

Higher seeds than Texas with 20-ppg scorers have also failed to meet expectations. Alando Tucker sprang for 20 a game last season for Wisconsin, which leaned heavily all year on its leading scorer en route to a no. 2 seed in the tourney. But in the second round, UNLV put the clamps on Tucker, holding him to just 4-for-11 shooting and the Badgers to just 5-for-21 from the three-point line. 74–68, UNLV.

But wait, there’s more: Nevada’s Wooden Award finalist and 21.6-ppg scorer Nick Fazekas couldn’t get his no. 5-seed team out of the first round of the 2006 tournament. No. 4 Syracuse and 21.4-ppg scorer Hakim Warrick suffered their own first-round upset in 2005. Xavier earned its highest tournament seed in school history in 2003, drawing a no. 3 that season on the strength of David West’s 20.3-ppg season. But the Musketeers got a rude awakening in the second round, as Maryland delivered a 77–64 knockout.

Perhaps the most glaring example of the 20-ppg scorer’s curse was the 2006 NCAA tournament. That season, Duke was widely regarded as one of the top five teams. Leading the charge was J.J. Redick, the no. 2 scorer in America at 27.4 a game, the Naismith Award winner, and the player most hated and most feared by other teams. Duke breezed through the first two rounds in fine shape. But in the Sweet 16, the Blue Devils ran up against a more athletic, though less polished, LSU squad. The Tigers’ Garrett Temple made it his singular mission to make Redick’s life miserable. The 6-foot-5-inch junior guard, who has a huge wingspan, chased Redick everywhere on the court, putting a hand in his face at every step. Shaken out of his normal rhythm, Redick threw up one of the worst performances of his illustrious career, shooting 3-for-18 from the field and scoring just 11 points. Shelden Williams picked up some of Redick’s scoring slack, popping for 23 points to go with his 13 rebounds. Still, with Duke’s best three-point shooter stymied, the Devils couldn’t adjust. LSU knocked them off 62–54.

There are exceptions to the 20-ppg rule, of course. Carmelo Anthony became Syracuse’s no-duh, go-to guy in his freshman season of 2002–03, averaging 22.7 points a game. In the NCAA tournament, the Orangemen jumped on Anthony’s back, riding all the way to their first and only national championship.

Still, look around the college hoops landscape, and you’ll see many more teams with 20-ppg scorers falling short. That includes the many mid- and low-major teams who had one prolific player and failed to make the big dance entirely. It might be that teams with one obvious go-to guy get caught standing around too much while their best player takes so many shots, or that, on the rare occasion when their leader gets neutralized, the rest of the team is unaccustomed to carrying the load.

Whatever the case, the most successful teams are often those with superior balance. The prevailing image of this type of squad might be the 1982 North Carolina Tar Heels team. Armed with a deep stable of seasoned players, including James Worthy and Sam Perkins, it was freshman Michael Jordan who nailed the shot that won the title for the Heels. No player on the Tar Heels even came close to 20 points a game that season. So who are the 20-ppg scorers to watch among top-rated teams this season? Hansbrough (21.3 ppg) heads the list. There’s also Eric Gordon of Indiana (22.3), D.J. Augustin of Texas (20.5), and Shan Foster of Vanderbilt (20.1). On the plus side, UNC’s Wayne Ellington has occasionally flashed the ability to take over a game, including his 36-point barrage to beat Clemson January 6. Meanwhile, Gordon, Augustin, and Foster all have high-scoring running mates. D.J. White of Indiana, Texas’ A.J. Abrams, and Vandy’s A.J. Ogilvy have the ability and the numbers to suggest they could carry the load if their higher-scoring teammates falter come March. Check back in a couple of months to see if the curse has been broken.

Mr. Keri (jonahkeri@gmail.com) is a writer for ESPN.com’s Page 2.