Lucas: Good Enough

By Adam Lucas

Theo Pinson did his best to preserve the dramatic nature of TBS' NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday night.

The network made the hotly debated choice to reveal the at-large teams in alphabetical order, a departure from past seasons. That meant Carolina discovered early in the broadcast that they were in the field, but didn't find out their seed or matchup until approximately a half-hour later.

Still, when the Tar Heels' logo went up as an at-large selection, there was clapping and cheering in the room. Pinson, as usual, made it a fun moment. The senior stood up from his chair close to the television in Roy Williams' den and made a dramatic production of wiping his brow.

"Whew," Pinson said, "we made it!"

It's never dull watching the selection show with the Tar Heels. This year felt particularly energetic, perhaps warmed up a little by the fact that TBS chose to show the Kevin Hart/Will Ferrell movie "Get Hard" as the pre-selection show programming, meaning the room was filled with laughter before Greg Gumbel ever arrived on the screen. The combination of a few funny lines and Wanda Williams' usual quality spread made for enjoyable pregame preparation for a team that—taking into account the change to daylight savings time—arrived back at the Smith Center around 4 a.m. this morning.

Some of the teams you'd expect to get big reactions did indeed receive cheers at Williams' house. Steve Robinson let out a big, "That's right!" when Radford showed up as an automatic qualifier, and Wes Miller's UNCG squad received a loud round of applause each time they were mentioned.

The room instantly picked up on the fact that Louisville had been left out, and was a little surprised to see Syracuse on the board. The Oklahoma (in)/Oklahoma State (out) choice was loudly discussed.

After nearly 20 minutes, the first bracket—the South Region—was ready to be revealed. That's when Joel Berry committed his only turnover of the evening. Just as "And here is the South Region…" was announced, Berry hit the rewind button, sending the room into a momentary frenzy. Showing good senior savvy, however, Berry was able to quickly return to live coverage, and no one missed a pairing.

As per usual, Wanda filled in a bracket by hand while her husband kept his own statistics on a napkin. During one commercial break, he announced the Tar Heels had played 22 games against the field, an impressive number.

Virtually everyone in the room had followed bracket projections closely enough to know that it was good news for Carolina when Duke was assigned the 2 seed in the East and sent to Pittsburgh. That turned out to be true when the Tar Heels showed up as the 2 in the West, starting in Charlotte, which generated a loud cheer.

No. 2 seed in the West Region. Turn up!!!#CarolinaSZN #WhyNot pic.twitter.com/sZsT63ONZj
— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) March 11, 2018

Once all the pairings had been revealed, Williams turned off the television and, as is tradition, addressed his team. During the show, when one participant's record against quadrant one opponents was mentioned as a team strength, the Tar Heel head coach pointed out his team had more than double that number of quadrant one wins.

When he talked to his team, Williams reminded them of some of their extensive season-long credentials. Then he read from an impressive list of statistics that compared the 2017 Tar Heel team with the 2018 version.

Field goal percentage: 2017 46.6%, 2018 46.0%.

Three-point field goal percentage: 2017 35.5%, 2018 36.4%.

Free throw percentage: 2017 70.1%, 2018 74.1%.

Rebounding margin: 2017 first in the nation, 2018 first in the nation.

It was, quite honestly, a little surprising. Williams' message was obvious: on paper, this team isn't that far removed from the 2017 national champions. Now he wants to find out if they have the same intangibles.

"We really had a big-time year," Williams said later. "We're a two seed and everyone would like to be a one seed. But there are 351 teams. The tournament committee that is full of very bright and intelligent basketball people think we are at worst one of the top eight teams in the country. I gave them those numbers to say to them that someone thinks we're really good. I think we are, too, but we have to go play. We have to be even more focused, even more dedicated, and even more prepared."

This week is spring break for Carolina, so the Tar Heel coaches have some flexibility in preparing for the trip later this week to Charlotte. After he dismissed the players, Williams met in the living room with his entire staff, figuring out this week's practice, treatment and travel schedules.

Williams left his players with one final thought. On August 22, he'd met with them in the same den after the team's 12-minute run and told them they were good enough to win a national title. At that time, there was some skepticism about Carolina's true potential.

Now, they're one of the nation's top teams. And Williams' message is still the same. "You're good enough," he told the team, "to win the whole thing. I believe that in my soul."

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Theo Pinson

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