University of North Carolina Athletics
Live Updates From the Smith Center (5:30 p.m.)
April 5, 2005 | Men's Basketball
April 5, 2005
By Adam Lucas
Crowds are gathering and the Smith Center maintenance crew has the Smith Center floor primed and ready to go. Doors to the buildng will open at 3:30 p.m. Jones Angell and Adam Lucas will have live Tar Heel Sports Network coverage beginning at approximately 4:30 p.m., and we'll have regular updates in this space as the team bus approaches. If you can't be in Chapel Hill, TarHeelBlue.com is the next best place to be.
2:50 p.m.: OK, we're live and running at our podium-side location on the floor of the Smith Center. Things may get a little hectic as the team bus approaches because we're multi-tasking here--both internet and radio coverage. But once the team takes the stage we'll be doing our best to give you the flavor of the event.
2:55 p.m.: It must be official: the maintenance crew just unfurled a "Carolina Basketball 2005 National Champions" banner behind the podium, which is also complete with two tables to hold the spoils of last night's victory and chairs for everyone on the roster.
3:00 p.m.: There are some new decorations outside the Carolina basketball office. As usual, it still reads, "Carolina Basketball National Champions 1924 1957 1982 1993" in the familiar classy print. But as of today, there's an addition: "2005" written in blue marker on white paper and taped right next to "1993." That'll have to do until the wall can officially be amended.
3:02 p.m.: Scoreboards are fired up and rolling. Carolna 75, Illinois 70, no time on the clock. It looks just as sweet as it did last night.
3:10 p.m.: There are hundreds, bordering on thousands, of Tar Heel fans already lined up outside the Smith Center. They're planning to throw open the doors at 3:30, with the team arriving somewhere in the neighborhood of 4:30. A quick count of cameras currently set up on the floor: 11 with more going up every second. It's a very odd feeling inside the building: everyone is still trying to recover from last night but there's also a buzz of activity as everyone tries to get ready for the team's arrival. We're about 20 minutes from the crowd storming into the building.
3:15 p.m.: We're sitting inside with every door shut. Yet we can distinctly hear the "Tar" "Heels" chant echoing from outside. Here's a guess: it's going to be rowdy inside the Smth Center.
3:25 p.m.: We have an update from Norwood Teague. 4:30 is now the conservative estimate rather than optimistic estimate for team arrival, as they've already almost landed at RDU. It does take a while to get a full basketball team and gear loaded onto the bus, but now the word is they'll definitely be here by 4:30.
3:35 p.m.: It just went from completely silent in here to buzzing in the span of about five minutes. Fans stormed into the building and it became a mad rush to grab seats, with the very earliest fans (including one guy who has a handmade championship trophy replica) grabbing spots on the floor right in front of the podium.
3:45 p.m.: We have life on the Smith Center video boards. The crowd is currently enjoying a video of season highlights, including the "Feliz Navidad" video that ran during holiday games.
3:50 p.m.: We have Tar Heels on the ground at RDU, which is being relayed live to us on the video boards. They're packing up the bus and will be here within a half-hour.
3:59 p.m.: Ah, the magic of television. Ivory Latta and some of the women's team are here, and they're watching the video board feed, seeing their friends from the men's team, and calling them on their cell phone to leave them voice mails saying, "I see you on the runway!" What did we do before technology?
4:05 p.m.: We're live on the Tar Heel Sports Network and the team bus is officially on the road.
4:15 p.m.: Our last commercial break before the team arrives. You look around the Smith Center and see a lot of hugging, a lot of smiles, a lot of national championship t-shirts. Many of these people may not realize it yet, but this is a day they're going to remember for a long time. "Hey, do you remember where we were on April 5..."
4:50 p.m.: We have Tar Heel basketball players in the Smith Center. All the players and coaches have taken their seats in a semicircle in front of a crowd that has grown to at least 12,000 fans. Woody Durham kicked off the event the only way he could: by reliving his call from last night, "The Tar Heels have won the national championship!" James Moeser is next on the microphone and then we'll have some comments from players and coaches.
5:00 p.m.: Woody Durham just introduced Roy Williams and I'm not sure Coach Williams is ever going to get to talk. He's being greeted by a thunderous ovation. "I don't have a lot to say because these guys said it all last night," Williams says before introducing the coaching staff he will once again call the best coaching staff in America. "The thrill of my lifetme other than my wife and my two children was being involved with our alma mater winning a national championship," the head coach says.
5:05 p.m.: Now the players are taking their turn with the microphone. Damion Grant, Jesse Holley, Wes Miller, and Byron Sanders were fairly brief with their remarks, offering the usual thank-yous to the fans. Reyshawn Terry is next and let's forget about his comments--the guy is wearing an all-white suit. He looks like he's an NBA Draft pick circa the late 1990s. Pretty strong statement from a player who will be very important to the Tar Heels next year.
5:06 p.m.: Wait a minute, Quentin Thomas has just challenged Terry for the sartorial title. Thomas is wearing a white vest with his picture airbrushed on the back. Poor old Marvin Williams (taking the mike to chants of "Three more years") can't follow that, he's just got the basic gray suit.
5:10 p.m.: One of the kids in the crowd has one of those Chik-Fil-A signs that read "Go Tar Heels." But she's scratched out "Go" and replaced it with "Thank you."
There are going to be a lot of people with great photos of Rashad McCants leaning on the championship trophy and delivering a big grin. McCants is the first player to bring up the memory of Burgess McSwain, the beloved academic counselor who passed away last summer.
McCants ends his comments with a simple observation: "You fans are crazy, man."
5:12 p.m.: Sean May, who was serenaded with a rendition of "Happy Birthday," just sent the place into hysterics. "We're going to try and come back and do this again next year," he said. Then he waited the exact right amount of time before saying, "And I'm going to try to get some of these guys to come back and do it with me."
So that may not be officially official, but it sure is nice to hear. Go ahead and print up that Naismith Award watch list for 2006 with Sean May's name at the top.
5:15 p.m.L Melvin Scott has altered his "Final Four" belt buckle to read "National Champions." Jawad Williams just delivered a pointed comment, turning to Marvin Williams and saying, "I hope all the young fellas come back for another year."
5:20 p.m.: And with that, the players are finished. Woody Durham is back on the microphone and passes it back to Roy Williams one last time.
"The thrill to me is being able to be involved last night and see Jackie, Jawad, and Melvin," the head coach said. "It was a great thrill to me because they were hugging and saying a little prayer and they allowed me to join in and hug them. And that was the greatest moment you can possibly have."
Williams went on to point out that the thought for the day on the first day of practice was, "It's amazing how much can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit."
And now maybe we know how much can be accomplished: a national championship.
5:25 p.m.: You knew he could dunk, knew he could rebound, knew he could shoot the occasional three-pointer. But now David Noel just led his teammates in an imprompto gospel rendition of what he claimed was an original composition. The words weren't too difficult: "Don't even worry, we're going to make it" repeated over and over. The sentiment, however, was tremendous (and the singing was surprisingly good).
5:30 p.m.: Every player (that wanted to) has spoken and the crowd is enjoying a film of the national championship game. Until next time, thanks for checking in. We'll have the last basketball mailbag of the season next Tuesday and plenty of post-championship coverage in the days to come. Make sure to check out the DVD for sale elsewhere on the site and keep your eyes open for what we hope will be a very enjoyable commemmorative book chronicling every second of the championship season in the months to come.
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.
