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University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: What You Wished For
March 26, 2005 | Men's Basketball
March 26, 2005
By Adam Lucas
SYRACUSE--It is supposed to be fun.
That's what you keep reminding yourself. This is what we waited for during those dark years, during 2002 and 2003 when we had to watch everyone else on television in March. We wanted these games, these down-to-the-wire, last-possession-wins-it, cheerleaders crying and bench players locking arms CBS specials. We missed it. We wanted to be a part of it.
Didn't we?
We did.
The score was 67-66 but you'll forget that almost immediately. A few years from now you'll be sitting around with your buddies and someone will bring up the Villanova game in 2005 and everyone will say, "Aw, man, the Raymond foul out game!"
You'll laugh a little, which is easier to do because the Tar Heels had the 67 and not the 66. And then you'll try to remember who it was that filled in so capably at point guard.
Keep it in mind: it was Melvin Scott. Senior Melvin Scott. Senior Melvin Scott who has quietly endured watching his minutes dwindle this season, senior Melvin Scott who instead of pouting has spent endless nights in the Smith Center hoisting shot after shot to try and stay in rhythm for when the Heels needed him.
Friday night, the Heels needed him.
Raymond Felton fouled out with 2:11 remaining. It was 64-56. How long can two minutes be? Sure, it would be nice for Felton to be out there at the end, but this isn't a crisis.
Is it?
Roy Williams grabbed Scott on his way to the scorer's table. "Come on," he said. "We need you. We need you to be big-time."
Melvin Scott has never had any doubts about being big-time. When he was struggling with his shot, he knew he was big-time. When he was losing his starting position to Jackie Manuel, he knew he was big-time. Even way back when he was a freshman and having to learn the point guard position after spending most of his life as a shooting guard, he knew he was big-time.
You can be forgiven, though, if you didn't know it. Because then it was melting down to 64-61 with 40 seconds left and all of a sudden this is feeling a little uncomfortable.
Jawad Williams knows how you felt.
"I felt like it was never going to end," he said. "Those last 40 seconds dragged out forever. There was always something, a time out, a foul, any kind of call."
There was a Randy Foye free throw that cut it to 64-62 and then there was Scott walking to the free throw line.
Remember, you wanted this situation. Up two points, 28.9 seconds, the Tar Heels playing for a slot in the final eight. It was the time in the game, as a partisan Big East crowd began to roar, when Dean Smith might have looked at his troops and said, "Aren't you glad we're in our position instead of theirs?"
Be honest: you were a little nervous when you saw it was Scott who was going to take the free throws. Even though a few years from now you will say, "Aw, man, Melvin was money in that game," at the moment he toed the line you were nervous.
Jawad Williams wasn't nervous. The senior leaned over to Felton on the Carolina bench and made a prediction.
"He's going to knock them down. Don't worry about it. Melvin's going to make them."
That is what a teammate knows, a teammate who has spent long nights in the Smith Center after everyone else has gone home. When Williams lost his shooting stroke last year, it was Scott who fed him pass after pass late at night. Later in the year when the same slump hit Scott, it was Williams who fed him pass after pass. So the seniors know each other, know without even speaking to each other.
"Everyone kept telling me, `You're fine, you're fine,'" Scott said with that trademark grin. "And I just wanted to tell them, `I know.'"
"When Melvin is relaxed and laughing, he always knocks the shots down," his senior classmate said.
Which is what he did, giving Carolina a 66-62 lead. It wasn't over until Kyle Lowry took his last-second 60-foot heave at the basket, a ball that, for that one second, with the clock already showing 0.00, looked like it might have a chance.
"I watched that shot all the way," Jawad Williams said. "I thought it might be the kind of shot that would hit the backboard and go in."
It did feel like that kind of game. It felt heart-wrenching and gut-dropping and hair-pulling and jubilation-shouting and dream-crushing and, finally, after all 40 minutes had been played, it felt something else, which is how you'll remember it a few years from now.
It felt good. And it felt like Carolina basketball.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. 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 the book, click here.
