University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Bring Back The Noise
December 7, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 7, 2006
By Adam Lucas
What do I miss most about not being able to attend games at the Dean Dome? I miss the whole experience. I miss riding to the shuttle stop with a Carolina flag flying from my window. I miss riding the shuttle bus, chatting with other fans and listening to the pregame show as we approach the dome. I miss walking up the stairs to the Smith Center, smiling as that edifice to basketball excellence looms over us all. I miss finding my special blue seat inside and settling down for a fun time. I miss the band signaling as the team is ready come down the tunnel, and the cheerleaders waving the huge flag and tumbling before the players. I miss the warm up drills, the National Anthem, the anticipation as tip off gets closer and closer.
Chris Goolsby
Ann Arbor, MI
Eight wins, twenty losses.
Somehow it sounds worse when you write it out. T-w-e-n-t-y losses. An 8-point loss to Hampton on opening night. A 4-point loss to Davidson. A 13-point loss to Indiana. A 22-point loss to Wake Forest. A 4-point loss to Virginia. An 18-point loss to NC State, a defeat made even more disappointing by the thousands of Wolfpack fans in attendance.
Want me to stop? No, the losses continue.
A 29-point loss to Duke. A 15-point loss to Maryland. An 8-point loss to Ohio (not Ohio State, but Ohio--the only thing the two teams had in common was that neither had Greg Oden at the time Carolina played them, although there was considerably less discussion of Oden when the Tar Heels faced the Bobcats).
That's a collection of defeats that would be painful in any single season. What makes the above list more excruciating is the fact that every single one of those games occurred in the Smith Center. Carolina went 3-9 at home that season and was collectively outscored in the Smith Center for the first and only time in the building's history.
It was unbearable. It was heartbreaking. It was agonizing.
It also had its positives.
Tar Heel fans returned from the 8-20 season wearing battle scars for the first time in the modern era. Suddenly, wins didn't seem so easy anymore. It was as if a light had just illuminated the rest of the college basketball landscape, and suddenly it was apparent that there were towns other than Chapel Hill that boasted quality basketball teams.
Today, the only NIT that interests Carolina fans is the preseason version. But the year after 8-20, thousands of screaming fans packed the Smith Center just to watch the Tar Heels play in the postseason NIT. It seems a little silly now, doesn't it? Worrying about NIT brackets and wondering if the game would be on television amid the endless NCAA Tournament previews seems like decades ago.
Carolina fans couldn't help it. They needed to see their team, even if it meant standing in line for a game against Wyoming.
Having lived in Illinois all my life I was introduced to the UNC basketball tradition by an uncle of mine from Carolina back in the early 80's. From Coach Smith through Coach Williams I have done whatever it took to see games (buying college sports packages or finding a local bar that would allow me to come in at a younger age and view). As time passed and my love grew I dreamed of sitting in the sea of Carolina Blue and seeing a home game--heck at some points I would have killed for tickets to a road game, but home seemed different. It infuriates me when I hear we aren't sold out. We should be appreciative and get the Dean Dome packed for EVERY game. I feel that the program is more then a team. It is the players, coaches, fans, and school/environment. We need to hold up our end of creating one of the best, if not the best, home environment in college basketball. To be in state and not take advantage is a shame. Don't forget what you have and represent for us Tar Heel fans that are there in spirit.
Robert Cook
Aurora, IL
The Tar Heels lost 9 home games in the 8-20 season. Roy Williams is into his fourth season as Carolina's head coach--and he still hasn't lost 9 home games. The winning has been exhilarating. It's been the miraculous comeback against Duke in 2005, it's been Jackie Manuel dunking over Julius Hodge, and it's been Rashad McCants's 3-pointer to beat Connecticut in 2004.
It's also become taken for granted.
Carolina beat Kentucky--Kentucky, that school that dug up some extra wins to pass Carolina in the race for the lead in all-time victories, the school that employed Adolph Rupp, the man passed by Dean Smith to become college basketball's all-time winningest coach--on Saturday and somewhere 600 tickets sit untorn.
The announced attendance was 21,147.
At any arena in the ACC other than the Smith Center, a crowd over 20,000 would be cause to call the fire marshal. The crowd of 21,147 is more than double the capacity at half the league's arenas. The Tar Heels have ranked in the nation's attendance top five every season except one (don't make me write the record again, you know the season) in the past two decades.
But even the Mona Lisa occasionally needs to be restored.
The thing I miss the most is the pre-game walk to the Smith Center. I always parked on the other side of campus and walked to the games. I sorely miss my ritual of listening to Woody Durham's pre-game show, walking across the campus I love, and listening to pre-game chatter of eager fans converging on the Smith Center. I miss the anticipation of hearing the Carolina fight song and watching the pre-game warm-ups. (I always arrived early and never missed a tip-off). Now, living some 3,000 miles away in Richland, Washington, I have never had the privilege of attending a game to watch Roy Williams coach, although I remember him there on the sidelines in '86, alongside Dean Smith.
Karyn Hede
Richland, Washington
"I'm a little mystified by what happened on Saturday," Roy Williams said this week. "We had Kentucky in there and we had 500 people who didn't show up. It wasn't a very enthusiastic crowd. It's really mystifying to me to play the University of Kentucky on a Saturday at 12 noon and not have a full house. When I watched the tape of the game, Billy Packer was talking about how great the crowd was on Wednesday night (against Ohio State). I honestly believe that was one of the best crowds I've been around in all my years in coaching. Then Billy said the wine and cheese came back on Saturday.
"I'm not mad at Billy. When my players are talking about it, something is wrong. And the players were talking about it."
Carolina begins a stretch of six home games in 25 days this weekend against High Point. None of them are conference games; none of them are even against ranked teams. Maybe you've already looked ahead to January, when the ACC battles rage again.
Try to resist the temptation.
Looking ahead means you'll miss Williams's 500th victory, which could come as early as Saturday night. Festivities are planned to mark the occasion. You'll miss an appearance by Sean May, Rashad McCants, and Raymond Felton, who will attend the Dec. 31 game against Dayton to watch the honoring of their jerseys. You'll miss the band playing and the Tar Heels diving on the floor during warm-ups and Williams standing on the sideline in the waning moments coaching the walk-ons just as hard as he coaches the starters.
For those of us lucky enough to spend significant time in the Smith Center each winter, those are commonplace occurrences. But there are people all over the country--and all over the state--who would relish just one chance to walk inside the nation's best basketball arena. If you have tickets and can't use them, find a way to get them into the hands of someone who would enjoy the game. The Rams Club operates a ticket exchange. The UNC Children's Hospital and the Chapel Hill Ronald McDonald House (both organizations the Tar Heel hoops team supports annually) almost always know of a family that would love the chance to forget their problems for two hours. At your church or your school or your Rotary Club, there's a Carolina fan who would love the opportunity to see a game in Chapel Hill.
Proclaiming "I was there" is one of the sports fan's most powerful memories. Don't miss your chance--or the chance to allow someone else to experience it--over the next month.
Adam Lucas's third book on Carolina basketball, The Best Game Ever, chronicles the 1957 national championship season and is available now. His previous books include Going Home Again, focusing on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.
