University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Going On Instinct
January 4, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 4, 2007
By Adam Lucas
Quentin Thomas had no good explanation for his most exciting play of the night.
Forget for just a moment that it was exciting merely to have him on the court. If you're scoring at home, Carolina has gone from three point guards to one point guard to one potentially injured point guard back to three point guards...all in the span of about one month.
Neither Thomas nor Bobby Frasor was content to make a quiet return to the lineup. That's how these things are supposed to happen. Work them in, steal a few quiet minutes, get the feel of the game again, and maybe look fully operational in a couple of weeks.
Neither player followed that script. Most of the suspense regarding Frasor's status was removed when he trotted out for warm-ups wearing the ankle braces he hadn't been wearing when he was dressing out with no thought of playing. He still received a thunderous round of applause when he checked into the game for the first time with 14:35 left in the first half.
Maybe that was when he was truly back. Or maybe it was when he gunned in a 3-pointer two minutes later. Or maybe, as his buddy Tyler Hansbrough said, it was one possession later.
"I knew he was back when he hit that high arching shot off the dribble," Hansbrough said. "That put an exclamation point on him being back."
Frasor last played on Dec. 2. Wednesday night, he somehow appeared to have missed over a month of action without missing a step. Everything was how it was supposed to be in Carolina's 102-64 romp over Penn--from his jumper to his no-look pass to Hansbrough for a dunk to his lob pass to the big man earlier in the second half.
The lob pass wasn't perfect. But that's typical for Frasor.
"I've never been the best lob passer," the Illinois native said with a smile.
The pass, which gave Frasor his first assist of the game, almost sailed out of bounds before Hansbrough reeled it in and deposited it for a basket. By that point, Carolina had built a 62-43 lead, so there was time for a little bit of fun.
"Hey, I'm not Brandan (Wright)," Hansbrough told Frasor on his way back up the court.
Frasor just tapped his chest, acknowledging his error with a big smile.
In many ways, Frasor was the ringleader of last year's freshman class and was assuming that role with the entire 2007 team when the injury dropped him in December. So maybe it wasn't a jumper or a pass, but a moment on the sidelines when he truly returned. With Carolina sitting on 98 points and needing another pair for the magical 100 mark, Frasor was in the middle of a delighted Tar Heel bench as the reserves searched for the century mark.
Dewey Burke had already made one 3-pointer. When he passed up another on the next possession, Frasor crashed his foot against the hardwood, expressing mock frustration at Burke's hesitation. There was no apparent concern for his foot, but there was an apparent release of a significant buildup of emotion.
"These last few weeks have been really tough on him," Marcus Ginyard said. "He's done a great job of putting a smile on and looking at it as positively as possible. If he could do something in practice, he was doing it. He did everything he could possibly do even though he wasn't playing in games."
In most cases, Frasor joined Thomas on the sideline during practice, the duo pedaling a stationary bike while their teammates sprinted.
The California junior, as seems to be his habit, snuck into the game without many fans noticing with 7:15 left in the first half. He quickly proved to have been studying the team intently from the sideline, as his first two passes found the red-hot Wayne Ellington for a pair of assists.
"My main issue was getting back out there and feeling comfortable," Thomas said. "After an injury a lot of people are very timid, and I can honestly say when I first stepped out there I was kind of timid because I was hoping there was no pain."
By the second half, when the Tar Heels were turning deflections into points fast enough to earn cheap biscuits, the timidity was gone. And with two minutes left, Thomas added a bit of dazzle, dribbling between his legs at the top of the key, drawing a pair of Penn defenders, and then whipping a pass to Ginyard for an easy dunk.
"Had you been standing there a long time?" Thomas asked Ginyard during the next timeout.
"Nah, I just got there," the sophomore said.
Thomas smiled when recalling the play.
"I couldn't tell you how I saw him," he said. "I really don't know. Instinct, I guess. My guys know I love to pass.
"Instincts stay with you. I don't think you lose that instinct even when you miss some time."
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.
