University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The Man
March 2, 2006 | Men's Basketball
March 2, 2006
By Adam Lucas
We'll forget the 26 points.
Really, we will. It's hard to imagine right now, when it's so fresh in your mind--David Noel scored a career-high 26 points on senior day. Right now you don't think you could ever forget that, do you?
You will.
You will because that's not David Noel. That's not how we'll remember him. Years from now, when he's sitting over behind the bench with the rest of the alums and you point him out to your buddies, you won't say, "Man, he was a great scorer!"
Nope. You'll say, "He did all the little things."
And here's the secret, the thing that takes him from role player to fan favorite: he likes doing them.
So you can have all 26 of the points. You can have the 10 field goals, the 5 three-pointers, and even that lone free throw. You can even have that little midrange shot he hit from the baseline in the first half, the catch-and-shoot 14-footer that has become an important part of his game. You can have it, just as long as you remember how much hard work went into developing it--consider the last time you saw a player make that play a regular part of his arsenal in today's game.
"I've had to work on that all day, every day," Noel said. "That's the lost art of the game, the midrange game. It's a shot I did a lot in high school, but once I got here I was mostly in the post so I was scared to do it."
Thanks for the hard work, David. But all those extra shooting sessions still won't make it the way you'll be remembered.
Instead, consider this: with Carolina leading 49-28 with 17:40 to play, Noel has a wide-open look at the basket from the top of the key. He already has 19 points, just two three-pointers away from tying his career high. The game is in hand. It is senior night. We can excuse it, just this once, if he wants to play for the numbers. Maybe jack up a bad shot or two. Certainly he cannot be blamed for taking this shot, this wide-open three-pointer that will get him within one long-distance field goal of his career mark.
He doesn't take it. Instead, he sees Wes Miller to the left, and he fires the ball to the junior guard. Miller, naturally, drains it.
"This team isn't about who scores," Noel said. "It's about hitting the open man. Coach always says it's about percentages. So which would I rather have--me shooting the shot and little Wes going to the boards, or Wes shooting the shot and me going to the boards? Obviously I want Wes to shoot it."
It is easy to say those things. It is much harder to actually do them. And that's why, under Noel's guidance--not just talking, but doing--the Tar Heels sit 20-6, 11-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Want more? Two possessions later Virginia came down the floor. 6-foot-11 Tunji Soroye feels a mismatch. He doesn't see it, he feels it. He posts up and feels 6-foot-6 David Noel guarding him. Soroye is a basketball player, so he knows what this means. He has a 5-inch height advantage. It is time to call for the basketball and score an easy basket.
Soroye gets the basketball. Then something unexpected happens. Well, unexpected for him. Not for you. You've seen Noel guard most every good post player that's come through the Smith Center over the past four years. So even before Soroye releases the shot, you know what's about to happen.
Noel, giving up 5 inches, blocks the shot and it never reaches the rim.
He said it was one of the fastest days of his Carolina career. Usually the day of a 9 p.m. tip drags. Today it flew. Today he looked up and it was already 5 p.m., time for the last home pregame meal of his Tar Heel career. Then it was 7 p.m. and he was shooting around. Then it was about 8:20 and he was running through the tunnel.
"That's when it hit me," he said. "When I ran out of the tunnel I thought, `Oh my God, this is the last time I'll do this.' I fought back tears the first time we went through warm-ups."
Do they cry during warm-ups at other places? Not like this.
They also don't give ovations like the one Noel received when he grabbed the microphone to address the crowd (click on the "Senior Day Feature" link to watch the senior speeches) for the last time. After a well-deserved chastising from Roy Williams, the crowd enveloped the Durham native as he stood at center court. Imagine wearing the number-34 jersey and getting to soak in that moment. You are the player who has always been the "other guy." His first year, he was "the football guy." Then he was "Raymond's buddy." A role player. A valued reserve.
Never something every elite athlete wants to be: the man.
As he stood in the middle of the Smith Center court, listening to the crowd wash over him, a student yelled something. No, not just something. The exactly right thing.
"David, you're the man!"
He was. He is.
Then he proved it. Not by going out and throwing down a dunk from the free throw line or by tossing in a bunch of three-pointers. He proved it by saying this:
"I don't mind that people will remember that I scored a lot of points on my senior day. But I also want them to remember that I did the little things."
Whenever this magical ride they call the 2005-06 season happens to end, we'll remember you as a screener, a rebounder, and a passer. As a post defender, a perimeter defender, and a leader.
And, just maybe, as something else.
As the man.
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.
