Lucas: Beyond All Reason

By Adam Lucas

Every time. Every single time, they pull me in.

Full disclosure: I was not sure I wanted the 2017-18 Carolina basketball season to begin. Last year was just too much fun. Starting a new season meant it might not be entirely socially acceptable to watch that one video of the postgame emotion every single day. It meant it might not be OK to greet every human wearing a Kentucky shirt with a shout of, "Luuuuuuuuuuke." I wasn't ready to give up either of those perfectly defensible activities.

But then the Carolina-Northern Iowa game happened. No Joel Berry II. No Cameron Johnson. Roy Williams deployed 13 players on Friday night against the Panthers. Ten of them didn't play a single minute in the national title game.

And yet the Tar Heels still rolled to an 86-69 victory. But forget about the win for just a second. This one was more about introducing a group we'll get to know over the next five months. Eventually, those Jalek Felton spin moves won't be quite as startling, and we'll just nod and say, "That's Jalek." Soon, we'll be used to Garrison Brooks' ability to find Luke Maye in the post for a hoop and maybe even Seventh Woods' crossover will seem familiar.

But they really pulled you in early in the second half. That's when Kenny Williams threw himself on the court in pursuit of a loose ball, and suddenly found himself joined by freshman Brooks scraping his skin across the hardwood. Five minutes later, Williams took a charge on the baseline, was pulled to his feet by teammates, and then leaped in the air and glided down the court as though he was celebrating a posterizing dunk.

"I don't know why I like doing that stuff," Williams said. "Taking charges and jumping on the floor, that's probably not good for my body. But it gets everybody energetic. When the crowd and bench get going, that's when everybody gets going, and then that's when the shots start falling. It's like a ripple effect. Once you see someone dive on the floor, everyone wants to. One time I dove at halfcourt, and you could see Garrison come right behind me and do it. That's how it happens. If you have somebody who sets the tone on defense, it becomes contagious. Setting the tone on the defensive end is big, and that's my role."

Ah, yes, excuse me. Is this where I officially sign up for the 2018 Tar Heels? Put me down for that, please. I'd like some tone-setting and floor-burning and charge-taking. I want to see 35 more games of that, as soon as possible, and I might even cut back to only watching the 2017 highlight video every other day.

In one of the rare non-video watching moments of this summer, I read a book called "Beartown." It's largely about hockey, but that's not the important part. The important part is this line, spoken by a character midway through the story:

"Never trust people who don't have something in their lives that they love beyond all reason."

That's it exactly. The way we feel about Carolina basketball doesn't always make sense. For some reason, we wear our lucky shirts and sit in our lucky seats and do our lucky hand motions (my wife, for absolutely no explainable reason, waves three fingers in the air after every Tar Heel three-pointer, and if she doesn't do it I get worried because, you know, that's her thing) because that helps the Tar Heels. We'll stay up late when they go on the west coast in a couple of weeks and we'll be bleary-eyed at work but what else are you going to do—let the Heels play a game and not watch them? Don't be ridiculous.

It's completely beyond all reason, and we all have someone in our lives who doesn't understand it. The people we trust, though—those are the ones who love it just like we do. Those are the ones we text with during the games and call after the game and email links to funny memes. On the drive home, my wife and I talked about the performances of the freshmen with my son. Brooks might be able to do this. Felton could be that. They are our new guys. Well, hold on. One game in, they are just our guys.

This is what we do with our people. You know them. They're the same ones who watch Kenny Williams dive on the floor and immediately get a little tingle, because they know Carolina basketball right when they spot it, and that was it, right there.

Friday, I wasn't sure I was ready for basketball. Two hours in the Smith Center later, I still don't know what #CarolinaSZN means, but if it means we get to watch more of that team, then yes, please.

Carolina beat Northern Iowa, 86-69, and they're still going to add Joel Berry and Cameron Johnson to this team. There are highlights yet to come, dunks we can't imagine yet or big three-pointers we haven't even considered here in November. It will be thrilling and heartbreaking and exasperating and we will love it, every single play of every single game.

We will love it beyond all reason because that is what we do. It's time again. Shine the trophies and polish the rings. We've made it, folks. It's basketball season again in Chapel Hill. It will be...wait a minute. I don't need to tell you what it will be. My people understand.

Players Mentioned

Joel Berry II

Garrison Brooks

Jalek Felton

Cameron Johnson

Luke Maye

Kenny Williams

Seventh Woods

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