Lucas: Getting Their Legs Back

By Adam Lucas

Part of college life is living an unpredictable schedule. But even by the standards of higher education, Carolina is coming off an unusual week.

The Tar Heels played four straight late games in Brooklyn last week, some starting as late as 9:45 p.m. and none starting earlier than 8:30 p.m. That created some very late nights, because postgame recovery sessions—the Tar Heels stayed at the Barclays Center after the game to take advantage of the facility's cold tubs—meant the team usually didn't return to the hotel until after 1 a.m.

Then, after the earliest game of the four-game set, an 8:30 tipoff against Virginia in the title game, the team flew straight home, arriving at RDU around 2:30 a.m., which was actually 3:30 a.m. when taking into account the switch to daylight savings time. The Tar Heels finally made it back to the Smith Center just after 4 a.m., then reconvened at Roy Williams' house approximately 12 hours later to watch the selection show.

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't tired right now," Theo Pinson said on Sunday evening.

In addition to the obvious challenges of recovering from the unusual schedule, the Tar Heels are also recovering from a few Brooklyn bruises. Most notably, Cameron Johnson took a hard fall and was less than full strength for the remainder of the event (Williams said on his radio show last night that while Johnson was a little banged up, he would have practiced at least part of the time if the Tar Heels had practiced Monday). Joel Berry's ankle, in what has become an annual March event, is also a little tender.

That's why it was a break for Carolina to draw a Friday/Sunday pod in Charlotte, giving everyone an extra day to get back on a more normal schedule and try to get healthy. Roy Williams gave his team the day off on Sunday and Monday before returning to the Smith Center on Tuesday for a workout and then departing for Charlotte after practice on Wednesday.

Despite all the health and scheduling challenges, it's worthwhile to remember just how amazing it is that the Tar Heels are in a position to take a bus to their opening NCAA Tournament destination. On the first day of February, this was a team that was 5-5 in the ACC and just needed to make the tournament, much less earn a favorable seeding.

"I remember saying after the Clemson game that it wasn't a time to panic," says Joel Berry. "We came back from that game and we got better. We looked at areas where we needed to improve. Since then, you've seen the progression of this team and guys figuring out their roles. That's what made this team so much better. We're not asking anybody to be a superstar or to be something they're not. We've also gotten better defensively. It has taken a whole team effort, and that's what we've done."

It's been a season marked by doubt. At the beginning of the year, there was skepticism that the Tar Heels could measure up to last year's national champions. At midseason, at .500 in the league, there was some question about whether Carolina could compete in a tough conference. And even now, as a two seed and owner of more quadrant one wins than any team in the country, national prognosticators on Sunday night gave the Tar Heels very little chance of advancing out of the West region.

Realizing the challenges his team has faced all year, Roy Williams spent part of Sunday's selection show gathering at his home reminding his team of exactly how good they are. He read them statistics about the terrific year they've had, and about the nearly mirror image some of those numbers represent as compared with last year's national champions. His message was simple: "You're good enough."

"At the beginning of the year, with a lot of different guys and so many young players, I wasn't sure it would be this way," Berry says. "Hearing Coach read all those stats reminds me that we've had our bumps in the road, but we've also come a long way. At the beginning of the season, I didn't know if we could be in this position. But here we are."

Players Mentioned

Cameron Johnson

Theo Pinson

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