University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Pursuit of Perfection
March 11, 2006 | Men's Basketball
March 11, 2006
By Adam Lucas
GREENSBORO--You know, maybe we take this whole comeback thing for granted.
We're spoiled, really. It seems easy. We throw around phrases like "8 points in 17 seconds" and "1993 Florida State" and "Virginia, 1983." These are parts of our birthright as Carolina fans. We know them, cherish them, cite them. Some of our most indelible images are Walter Davis's heave and George Lynch's dunk and Michael Jordan's steal and slam.
Here's the thing, though. Here's what you forget when all you remember are certain plays or the final score:
Comebacks are hard. Really hard.
That's what makes Carolina's rich basketball history so incredible. Things that shouldn't happen, happen. Imperfect players are, for one game, perfect. Turnovers are caused and last-second shots are made and celebrations begin.
It was hard not to appreciate that as you watched the Tar Heels try to claw back against Boston College Saturday afternoon. It was a bit of a new experience. This 2006 edition of Carolina basketball has provided so many emotions over the past month. Sheer joy. Exhilaration. Pride.
Saturday, it was something new: frustration.
The Tar Heels fell behind by 14 points in the second half and couldn't get out of their own way. They missed point-blank scoring opportunities. They blew defensive assignments. They missed crucial rebounding opportunities.
And yet, there it was. There was, after the Greensboro Coliseum had fallen almost completely silent during Boston College's second half run, a winnable game.
You felt it, right? Even after you'd fired your remote across the room after Craig Smith got an uncontested layup with two seconds left on the shot clock, even after you'd collapsed in your seat in frustration after yet another offensive rebound, there was hope.
There was a forced turnover and a Bobby Frasor three-pointer and a pair of Tyler Hansbrough free throws and a Hansbrough jumper. There was life.
Maybe...
Maybe not. There was also a very solid Boston College team. A team with more size and athleticism than Carolina is likely to see the rest of the season (and a team, apparently, with some great comedians, as BC's Sean Williams told the media with a straight face about Hansbrough, "He's a dirty player").
And there was a team of Tar Heels that could never make the one play they needed to complete the comeback. When coming back from a deficit, everything has to be precise. There is no margin for errors, because the errors are what created the hole in the first place. Scoring, rebounding, defense--everything has to be perfect.
"We gave up offensive rebounds and gave them a layup with two seconds on the shot clock," Frasor said. "But even more than that, it was just silly things. Not having the last shot at the end of the half. Not rotating over on a guy who is wide open for a three-pointer. Silly things." Silly things that kill a comeback.
Roy Williams did all the things you find in the Carolina basketball comeback handbook. He called timeouts. He tried to find a hot hand. He substituted five players at a time. He switched defenses.
The Tar Heels tried almost everything in their defensive playbook. Man-to-man, trapping, zone, three-quarter court pressure, full-court pressure. Every option invariably ended the same way: with a Boston College layup.
"We tried to mix it up with a few different things," said Danny Green. "We tried zone, we tried man-to-man, we tried a lot. They just got the ball where they wanted to get it and executed very well offensively. They hit a lot of shots and got a lot of layups and dunks."
To get an appreciation for the entire afternoon of basketball--which had a decidedly Georgetown-Syracuse 1980s feel to it--you had only to watch the final 2.7 seconds of the game. Carolina trailed by three and needed two things to have a chance at forcing overtime: a missed free throw and a rebound.
Tyrese Rice obliged with the missed free throw. But the Tar Heels couldn't corral the rebound. They were, once again, so close to having a chance at an improbable comeback...
And then it was gone. No 8 in 17. No FSU '93. No Jordan one-hand leaner dunk.
Instead, just a thud of finality. Consider this: at most, we'll have the chance to see this team play basketball only six more times this season.
That's if all the balls bounce the right way and all the rebounds carom in the right direction. That's if every possible element of every second of execution is absolutely perfect.
Saturday, it wasn't. That's what turned what could've been an unforgettable comeback ("Hey, remember that time in '06 in the semifinals...") into something entirely forgettable.
Someone will hoist a trophy Sunday afternoon. Someone will cut a net. One hour away, a team will practice. In search of that elusive perfection.
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.
