University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: They're Getting It
December 1, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 1, 2007
By Adam Lucas
LEXINGTON--There's a month until the first ACC game, three months until the ACC Tournament, and four months until the final college basketball destination in San Antonio.
What happened in Lexington on Saturday doesn't guarantee Carolina any results in any of those upcoming games. But what happened in Lexington does guarantee this:
The 2007-08 Tar Heels are getting it.
Getting it is an elusive quality. Some teams never get it. Some teams arrive at the first preseason practice already getting it.
Getting it has almost nothing to do with the quality of opposition being played. It has to do with the way you play, and with the way--as Roy Williams frequently says--you compete.
Danny Green got a career high against Kentucky, scoring 20 points. Forget that for a minute.
Consider how he got his career high. After a terrific sequence that stretched Carolina's lead near 20 halfway through the second half, the Wildcats were visibly staggered. The Rupp Arena fans saw it. Billy Gillispie saw it.
And Green saw it.
He lingered in the backcourt after a Tar Heel basket just long enough to take advantage of a lackadaisical pass, getting a deflection and then drawing a foul. He drilled the subsequent two free throws to provide his 19th and 20th points of the game.
"That's when we want to attack, when other teams are laying back," Green said. "We don't want to let up. Don't let them back in it. If they're down, kick them. That's a bad term to use but we want to keep them down. Get in there and get steals, get them in foul trouble, and keep them down."
Maybe you had to be inside Rupp Arena to appreciate the way the Tar Heels completely let the air out of a Kentucky crowd that had arrived hungry for any spark. They roared when their Wildcats left the floor at halftime trailing just 37-32--yes, this might be a rebuilding year, but for one afternoon on national television they were prepared to show everyone that they were still Kentucky.
Less than an hour later, the raucous cheers had turned to loud boos. In less than 60 minutes, the Tar Heels had taken over twenty thousand people and turned them against the home team.
That's a feat more impressive than simply winning the game. That's about taking an opponent's heart.
You do that with skill, of course. But you also do it with competitiveness.
Every Carolina team dives on the floor. Some players do it by crumpling to the ground, just trying for a held ball and trying not to scrape their knees.
This team--as Bobby Frasor did in the second half with a 19-point lead--dives headlong on the floor. On defense, Frasor launched himself onto a loose ball. After recovering the ball and transitioning to offense, he ran to the corner, spotted up, yelled, "Deon!" to get a pass from the Tar Heel big man, and drilled a three-pointer from the corner.
That's Carolina basketball. And that's getting it.
Sure, this team can still outscore and out-talent you. Trailing 27-20, Kentucky took a timeout with 4:18 left in the first half. They proceeded to have perhaps their three best offensive possessions of the day, getting a three-pointer and two baskets.
Meanwhile, Green was in the process of scoring eight straight points. For the first time all day the Wildcats were flowing on offense...and Carolina had added a point to the lead.
Timeout, Kentucky. Their shoulders visibly sagged as they returned to the huddle.
Eight minutes into the second half, Marcus Ginyard spotted up on the left wing and got an open look at a three-pointer. He shot a beautiful 21-footer, with the only problem being that he was just 20 feet from the basket.
No problem--Green was on the boards for the offensive rebound. He grabbed the ball, laid it back in, and then sprinted back up the court.
As he ran, he found Ginyard...and without missing a beat, pointed to him in the traditional Carolina recognition of thanking him for the pass.
"Hey, I do what I can to make a teammate look good," Green said. "I had to lay the ball in to make him look better."
Then Green looked across the locker room, where Ginyard was still getting dressed.
"Or maybe not better, but just make him look not as bad," Green said with a sly smile.
"It's cool," Ginyard said. "It was a good play. What can you say? He got it."
It's starting to look like he's not the only Tar Heel who gets it.
Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven is available now. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses 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.
