University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: All Smiles
February 7, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2004
By Adam Lucas
WINSTON-SALEM--Frankly, Melvin Scott's smile seemed completely inappropriate.
This was no time for smiling. Carolina held a thin 70-68 lead over Wake Forest, there were 90 seconds remaining, the Tar Heels had watched a seven-point advantage nearly evaporate, and the Lawrence Joel Coliseum crowd was about to yell the tie-dye right off their shirts.
There was nothing especially humorous about the moment. And yet as Raymond Felton brought the ball up the court, Scott ran down the right side in front of the Carolina bench with a wide smile, even darting his eyes into the crowd to take in the raucous fans.
The question has to be asked: Melvin, with the game hanging in the balance, with the Heels a thread from 3-6 in the ACC, what in the world were you smiling about?
"I knew something the crowd didn't know and the Wake Forest guys didn't know," he said.
And what was that?
"That we were going to pull this one out."
That, ladies and gentleman, is how Carolina basketball is supposed to be. There was no reason to believe the Heels were going to win. Tough loss less than 48 hours earlier, a building that has recently been unkind, another big early lead dwindling to nothing, a team that has been poor on the road--by all rights, Melvin Scott should have been in full-blown panic mode.
But he smiled.
He turned out to be right, of course. Raymond Felton drained a three-pointer to provide all the cushion Carolina needed, and they went on to a 79-73 win that makes the NCAA Tournament look like a much more plausible scenario.
And, more importantly for the program, it was a true Tar Heel road victory. This was how the Heels used to win road games--bounce into a hostile ACC venue, come out early for shootaround, look at all the "spontaneous" signs that are actually sitting in the seats when fans arrive, take a bit of abuse from the home school (Wake set up a row of ticketed seats directly behind the Carolina bench, prompting one security guard to exclaim, "What are all these chairs doing here? We never have these here."), jump out to an early lead, and then get the win.
The victory was so complete that the Heels actually got to enjoy something they haven't heard very much on the road--complete silence. During the media timeout with 7:22 remaining and Carolina holding what appeared to be a safe lead, the Lawrence Joel crowd was deader than Janet Jackson's career. A couple small pockets of Tar Heel fans even got a "Tar...Heels" cheer going.
It was gutsy. And it was beautiful.
It seemed that everything they did on Saturday, Carolina did in a big way. Raymond Felton played flawlessly, engineering the Tar Heel offense with zero turnovers. Scott propelled the team in the first half with some hot early shooting. And Sean May forcefully announced his return with a two-handed dunk in the second half. The sophomore center has been the subject of much criticism lately, but he posted 18 points and 10 rebounds against Wake and unleashed about three weeks worth of frustration with his jam that came off a pass from Rashad McCants.
"Oh, man," May said. "Lately it's been hard. I hadn't been getting those easy layups like I was at the beginning of the season. I went up there to rip the goal down but I'm not strong enough yet. It felt great to get an easy bucket and get some emotion out."
Don't forget to give some credit to those guys on the Carolina bench wearing suits. About two weeks ago, they began sprinkling in more elements of the point zone during practice, looking for a way to jump start their team's defense and also provide a sliver more rest for the exhausted starters.
Saturday, it paid off. The Heels played the point zone significantly more than they have in any game this season, and it appeared to take Wake Forest by surprise. More importantly, they didn't relax in the zone--in the second half alone, three different Tar Heels sprawled on the floor for loose balls.
The defensive switch also allowed a very shallow team--that grew even thinner when Jawad Williams was limited by a bad back that required him to stretch out in front of the bench--to catch their wind. There have been games this season when Raymond Felton was exhausted with three minutes to play. Saturday, he still had enough legs to make the clinching three-pointer.
Which made Scott's wide smile even wider. And Carolina's road win even more, well, like the old days.
"We're at the University of North Carolina," Scott said. "It's supposed to feel like this."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly, click here.
