University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Falling in Love
November 30, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 30, 2005
By Adam Lucas
There was 1:26 left when Bobby Frasor and Marcus Ginyard did something they had no business doing.
Carolina was down by two points to Illinois on national television. In all likelihood, everyone they'd ever known well was watching the game somewhere, somehow. The Illini had the ball and it was the most critical possession of the game.
That's when Frasor and Ginyard did this:
"We were coming out of the timeout and the place was going crazy," Frasor said. "We really needed a stop. The crowd was on their feet and it was a great atmosphere. And Marcus and I looked at each other and said, `This is why we came to Carolina.'"
Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the building nearly bursting at the seams, the pressure that awaited the final 90 seconds, and two freshmen out there smirking?
21,273 people fell in love Tuesday night in Chapel Hill. Not because these Tar Heels can jump high or shoot well or dunk hard. But because they compete. Not friendly competition. Teeth-gritting, floor-burning, charge-taking competition.
This is how you fall in love with a team. It is a young team looking blindingly young on some possessions in the first half and then following up those headshaking moments with jaw-dropping plays on the other end of the floor. It is Frasor, Marcus Ginyard, and Wes Miller running through endless screens to follow Dee Brown, Illinois' highly touted guard who finished 6-of-19 from the floor and 0-for-6 from the three-point line with 5 turnovers and just 3 assists. Brown didn't play particularly poorly. He just couldn't find room to breathe against Frasor, Ginyard, and Miller.
"Everything that we do has to be fueled by the defensive end of the floor," said Miller, who played his second consecutive stellar floor game. "They run a lot of double screens off the baseline and you have to shadow them and be there on the catch because they can shoot the ball."
And then Miller said something else. Something that might make a few more people fall in love with this team.
"It's a really tough loss."
It bodes well that after fighting for 40 minutes, after turning in an effort that many in attendance probably never expected, they still weren't satisfied. Miller was slumped in a chair and Frasor was over in the corner agonizing over mishandling the rebound with 13.5 seconds to play that might have given Carolina a chance to tie or win the game.
He didn't get it, and he didn't exactly know why. "I thought I had it," he said. "I should have had it."
Even down 64-50 with 7 minutes to play, the Tar Heels didn't seem particularly frazzled. Instead, it was Illinois who began to look tentative. As Carolina closed to 64-55, Illinois head coach Bruce Weber stood on the sideline thinking about calling a timeout. He'd touch his hands to his shoulders in the signal for a 30-second timeout, then he'd remove them before the official blew his whistle. Then he'd touch his shoulders again, then he'd remove his hands. His team seemed to mirror his indecisiveness, and eventually they threw the ball away.
There was some concern about how David Noel would fit on this team of youngsters. Would he try to do too much? Would he try to play beyond his capabilities?
You might have seen the answer when he dove on the floor to pick up a loose ball midway through the first half and then saved it to Byron Sanders, the kind of hustle play you simply can't coach.
The definitive answer, however, came with under 4:30 to play. Noel had spent the last couple of minutes on the floor with four freshmen. Carolina ran a set play, Illinois adjusted to it, and Noel had a brief opening at the top of the key. But Ginyard had an even better opening on the wing.
What do you do? You're a senior and you've waited for the chance to take the big shot against Illinois on national television for three years. What do you do?
You pass it to Ginyard, who drains the three-pointer.
"It would have been very easy for him to take that shot," Ginyard said. "That's why Dave is our leader. He understands that the fact that he's a senior and I'm a freshman has nothing to do with it when we're on the court. All he knew was that I was open and he had the ball. That's why he's David Noel. That's why he's our leader."
He leads, Carolina follows, and so far the combination has been perfect. This is a team that scratches and claws on the court. And then, when they leave the court, they do things like this: Hansbrough was sitting in the tunnel after the game with his brothers. These scenes happen all the time in major college athletics--disappointed player keeps his head down and ignores the world while trying to wind down from a tough game.
A new acquaintance walked up to the group. Hansbrough stood, made eye contact, shook hands, and politely introduced everyone in the group to each other. A little thing that spoke loudly.
These aren't players. They're people. Roy Williams types of people.
Something very strange happened when the final seconds elapsed Tuesday night: fans stood and cheered. It wasn't a polite sound of clapping as the final buzzer sounded. It was a loud, resounding ovation that followed the Tar Heels off the floor, into the tunnel, and down the hallway to their locker room.
It was unlike almost any sound you've ever heard in the Smith Center after a loss.
It was the sound of a fan base falling in love.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.
