University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: No Joking Matter
December 27, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 27, 2007
By Adam Lucas
Thursday night around 10 p.m. is the time Bobby Frasor needed someone who knew the right thing to say. Someone to make a straightfaced comment that you realize only later was actually a joke. Someone who intuitively understands what to say and when to say it.
In other words, he needed someone like, well, Bobby Frasor. For all three years of his Carolina career, Frasor has done a remarkable job of concealing just how much he cares about the game of basketball.
He's the first one with a joke (not always a good joke, but a joke nonetheless) at a tough time--or any time, really--and the first to flash a smile on the court after a good play.
It's easy to misperceive that attitude as flippant. Some guys joke because they don't care enough. Frasor jokes because otherwise he might care too much.
That smile sometimes camouflages his worth to the team. Going into the Nevada game, he'd won the defensive player of the game award in four of Carolina's first 11 contests. He was sliding comfortably between the point guard and shooting guard, never complaining and consistently making the right plays at the right time.
How important could he be to the 2008 Tar Heels? Well, watch this two-minute second-half stretch as the Tar Heels poured it on against the Wolf Pack:
First, he executed a textbook box out to free Danny Green for an easy defensive rebound. Thirty seconds later he made the extra pass to Green for a three-pointer. Thirty seconds later he began a remarkable sequence in which he combined with Green and Lawson to apply pressure in the backcourt that prevented Nevada from advancing the ball past halfcourt on three straight possessions. First Frasor, then Green, then Frasor again picked up steals. Fittingly, the series ended with Frasor drilling a three-pointer from the corner in front of the UNC bench to stretch the lead over 30.
It was perhaps Frasor's best two minutes of the season.
Thirty seconds later, his season was over.
With a 31-point lead, the Illinois native was hustling (of course) and had battled through a screen (of course) to fill the passing lane and deflect a pass (of course) intended for his man. As he planted and gathered the ball, his left knee simply gave way. The diagnosis came quickly and depressingly: torn ACL, out for the season.
In some places, this will be only a footnote. After all, Frasor was averaging 3.0 points and 2.2 assists per game, not headline-worthy numbers. But the way to best measure his contribution isn't by looking at the stat sheet.
It's by listening to the sound of the locker room after the game: complete silence, none of the usual thumping music that accompanies a victory.
And it's by watching Roy Williams address the media with moist eyes. Frasor is Williams's kind of player and has been since he led the Tar Heels to 23 wins as a freshman point guard. He's a player who Williams has never, not once, had to ask to give more effort and he's also a player the coach called "as tough a player as I've ever coached."
And yet, for some reason, he's also a player who has now been bitten twice by injuries--a troublesome foot problem that essentially cost him his sophomore year, and now the dreaded ACL tear that will cost him his junior campaign.
"His leadership we're going to miss, his defensive play we're going to miss, and his sense of humor we're going to miss," Williams said.
At some point, thoughts will turn to how to fill Frasor's spot in the rotation. Because Frasor was playing two guard spots, his injury may eventually trickle down to everyone in the rotation under 6-foot-7. There are two easy possibilities that could potentially even co-exist: increase Lawson's minutes and/or increase Quentin Thomas's minutes.
By late Thursday night, the sophomore point guard--who absolutely took over the Nevada game in the final minute of the first half and has shown a greatly increased inclination for defense over the last two weeks--was already planning a conditioning adjustment.
"We always have sprints at the end of practice," Lawson said. "Instead of using my plus points, I'm going to run them without using those. I'm going to need to be able to do that kind of running at the end of this year."
Thomas, the Tar Heel who perhaps stands to gain the most minutes from Frasor's absence, showed exactly why he's the most respected player in the locker room. Not because he's a senior and seniors automatically receive respect. But because he reacts to situations this way:
The Oakland native was asked this question--you're a senior, so you're probably ready to step into a bigger role, right?
The easy answer here is for Thomas to agree that he's been through a lot in his Carolina career and say that he'll do whatever the coaches ask him to do. If that means a bigger role, so be it. But that's not what he said. He said this:
"It really doesn't matter to me what my role is. If it was up to me I'd go back in time and have Bobby not get hurt. It's not about an individual, it's about this team. And he's a big part of this team."
That's uncommon maturity for a 21-year-old. Thomas and Frasor bonded last year when they were both battling foot injuries, but even that common thread didn't enable the senior to know the right words to say to his teammate.
"The only thing I could think to tell Bobby was that we care for him and we're praying for him," he said.
The rest of Frasor's teammates were quiet in the wake of his injury. Even roommate Tyler Hansbrough was unusually subdued as he watched Frasor sit in his locker and struggle to compose himself enough to walk out of the Smith Center.
It would be typical Frasor to be joking about the play within a month or so. Too slow, as usual, he'll say. Or maybe explain how he was preparing to do a Hansbrough-esque 360 dunk after his steal.
But tonight, there were no jokes. Tonight, he limped out of the building on crutches, hobbling to head manager Preston Puckett's car with tears in his eyes.
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.
