Lucas: Brooklyn Benefits

By Adam Lucas

BROOKLYN—Everybody comes to New York to accomplish something.

Maybe you want to see a Broadway show, or grab a slice of Junior's cheesecake, or see the view from the top of the Empire State Building. Maybe you moved here to work in finance or take a shot at acting.

Carolina arrived late on Tuesday night wanting to win the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, of course. But they also had some other work to do. NCAA Tournament seeding was questionable, with the possible seed range likely falling somewhere between a two and a four.

The tournament destination was also an issue. There are two spots available for ACC teams in the opening weekend in Charlotte. Virginia long ago sealed one spot. The loss to Miami followed by the loss to Duke left it appearing the Blue Devils had the edge for the other slot.

But after three wins in Brooklyn, including taking the season series two games out of three from Duke, it's difficult—but not impossible, because the selection committee is often unpredictable—to imagine a scenario where Carolina gets shipped out of state for rounds one and possibly two.

So the Tar Heels arrived at the Barclays Center on Saturday evening—after making the way through snarled New York traffic, even with a police escort, that took nearly a half-hour to go three miles—having already had a productive ACC Tournament.

They wanted one more goal. But Virginia is a very, very difficult team to play under the best of circumstances. It was apparent early in the body language of the Tar Heels that they had spent quite a bit of emotion in Friday night's win over Duke.

And, honestly, that might be OK. It's not 1974. The reality is that the game that would do the most to change Carolina's NCAA Tournament fortunes was played on Friday night, not Saturday. That would have been true whether the Tar Heels won or lost against the Cavaliers.

Roy Williams probably could have redlined his team a little more in the last couple of days. The Tar Heels didn't have a shootaround on Thursday or Saturday in an effort to stay fresh. In an absolute do-or-die situation, they probably would've pushed the schedule a little more. After leaning heavily on the starters at the close of the regular season, Three reserves played double-digit minutes on Saturday night; that's something that hasn't happened since the win over Pitt over a month ago in a blowout. In total, the reserves played 42 minutes, also the highest figure since Pitt.

Part of that total is attributable to Cameron Johnson's injuries. But there's a difference between game management and season management. Williams did his very best to balance the two on Saturday--and that's likely what most Tar Heel fans would prefer. Carolina wanted to beat Virginia. On Saturday, the Cavaliers were simply better, and maybe the Tar Heels couldn't have beaten them even by emptying the tank. But the goal was also to make sure there was enough left to beat whoever the next opponent(s) might be.

"You have to do better against Virginia than just hang in there," the Tar Heel head coach said, and for most of the evening, it felt like Carolina was just trying to tread water.

There will be some concerns in the next few days, most notably the health of Johnson, who was knocked around in multiple games this weekend. But the Tar Heels also saw the continued evolution of Garrison Brooks, who showed a willingness to compete at a posteason level, and the probable return of Luke Maye's shooting stroke.

Ask yourself this: do you feel better, worse, or about the same regarding Carolina's NCAA Tournament chances than you did a week ago? Three wins against good teams, two of them certain NCAA Tournament clubs, should mean the Tar Heels made progress. Do they have holes? Absolutely. But they're closer to playing their best basketball than they were last week at this time.

Here's the reality of basketball life in the year 2018: win the ACC Tournament but lose in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament? The year wasn't satisfying. Lose the ACC Tournament and make the Final Four? That was a great year.

The Tar Heels aren't guaranteed a Final Four spot, of course. They are probably more dependent on a positive draw than they have been the last two seasons, both of which ended in the national title game. But over the last four days, they put themselves in better position to be successful in the field of 68.

And that means they had a good trip to New York.

Players Mentioned

Garrison Brooks

Cameron Johnson

Luke Maye

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