University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tournament Friday Almost A Holiday
March 8, 2002 | Men's Basketball
March 8, 2002
By Adam Lucas
TarHeelBlue.com
CHARLOTTE-The cool kids had a radio.
That's what most North Carolina natives remember about ACC Tournament quarterfinal Friday and the impact that it had on schools across the state.
The four-games-in-one-day format created a virtual holiday for many schools. There was always at least one kid, usually the one whose dad grew up listening to the World Series on a radio shoved in his desk and understood the importance of these things, who had a Walkman with an earpiece. This kid, for one day at least, was even cooler than the guy who could make 16 different sounds with his armpit.
For the second half of the day, this kid was the one you wanted to sit next to, even more than the cute girl who smiled at you during recess. After all, the feelings that girl inspired were a little unsure. But this kid had a direct line to the ACC Tournament. Sometimes, you have to have priorities.
There was an occasional reception problem. For example, at Farmington Woods Elementary, the best place to bring in the Tar Heel Sports Network was out on the soccer field. We didn't much care for soccer, since it was primarily for guys who couldn't shoot well enough to play hoops, but at least for that Friday, the field was useful.
Depending on the teacher, the updates sometimes had to be covert. Somewhere at every elementary school in the Triangle, there is a secret room where they keep the radios confiscated over the years during ACC Tournament Friday. "Bring it up front," the devilish teacher would boom. Some teachers didn't understand.
Some teachers did. Those were the ones who would wheel in a television on game day and let it play in the background. One year, there was even a rumor that a teacher had cancelled all scheduled schoolwork for Friday afternoon, in order to watch the games, which she reasoned was a mathematics lesson. Kids in that class were to be envied.
Some teachers even went beyond that. One English teacher at Apex High, Mrs. Whitaker, had the misfortune to teach me three of my four years there. On Thursday before the tournament, she'd come into class and look at me with a smile.
"Feeling a little sick, Adam?" she'd ask.
I'd smile back. "Yes, I think I may have to miss school tomorrow," I'd reply.
That Monday, I'd walk in with a note signed by my mother explaining my absence the previous Friday.
"Adam had an upset stomach and was unable to attend school," the note would always say. This enabled it to be an excused absence and therefore I was allowed to make up the work, which was important since somehow it would be letting Dean Smith down if you took a zero on a test just to watch the Tar Heels.
This was a huge step for my mother, who ordinarily was a stickler for honesty. However, after I attended my first Tournament in 1986, her annual reasoning was that the note was actually the exact truth. After all, she explained to her questioning friends, I was always so nervous about the games that I usually did have an upset stomach. Plus, going to the ACC Tournament was at least as much a cultural experience as a field trip to the art museum or the planetarium. Nowhere else could you see a guy with a cowboy hat and a rugby shirt waving a towel above his head and yelling, "Go Devils!"
Later today, across the state, attention will start to waver from the day's math or social studies lesson. It will begin to focus on something much more important: the kid with the radio.
Just one piece of small advice: if you hide the earpiece in your hand and rest your head on your hand, it makes it easier to listen. Or so I hear.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is a lifelong observer of UNC sports and can be reached at jalucas@bellsouth.net.
