University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Heat Check
November 30, 2008 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Nov. 30, 2008
By Adam Lucas
When Danny Green pulled up and launched a three-pointer from the Smith Center's midcourt logo, there was only one possible reaction. Look, you know Carolina Basketball. And in Carolina Basketball, people don't shoot from the logo. Tayshaun Prince shoots from the logo (sorry, bad mental image). The ball being 30 feet from the basket means it's time to establish post position, not time to jack up a shot.
But Danny Green did. And what's more, his coach liked it. What, in the wide world of Carolina Basketball, was that?
"It was a heat check," Green said with a wide grin. "When you're hot, you start wondering if the next one will go in. You have to test yourself. You start wondering where you can shoot it from and still make it. You shoot it, knock it down, and hopefully keep getting open."
Understand this: Green was able to gauge his heat only because Carolina had UNC-Asheville thoroughly outmanned from the opening tip, and the game hadn't been in doubt since roughly the second media timeout. A Smith Center crowd of 18,054 was trying valiantly to stay awake, when suddenly one of those unscripted moments that makes basketball great began unfolding.
Green started with shots from a normal distance, with his toes just behind the new college three-point line at 20 feet, 9 inches. By the time he was finished, he'd dropped in six three-pointers in just nine minutes of second-half playing time.
How hot was he? So hot he walked into the Carolina locker room with ice on his right thumb. The official diagnosis was a sore tendon; it looked more like a smoking trigger finger.
By the time he was warmed up, there were 12 minutes left and the Tar Heels had a 50-point lead. This meant the only drama remaining was whether Green would run out of bullets before Roy Williams's heart could no longer handle watching his players launch 30-foot jumpers.
The Carolina head coach is known to stop practice after a particularly bad shot that somehow goes in to ask, "Does anyone know why that was a good shot?"
Sometimes, he is greeted with blank stares.
"Because it went in," he says. "That's the only reason that was a good shot."
When Green fired his sixth three-pointer from the general location of Asheville on the map that graces the Smith Center court, his teammates--and fellow long-distance shooters--had an immediate reaction.
"Oh, man," said Wayne Ellington. "I hope that goes in. For him."
"Let's just say," said Will Graves, "we're very glad that first deep one went in."
I walked off Green's jumpers after the game with Eric Montross, who might not be a three-point marksman but is very handy when it comes to measuring long distances. His conclusion: Green's longest shot was easily 29 feet, perhaps 30.
"Really, I wasn't expecting to shoot from that deep," Green said. "Bob (Frasor) handed it off to me and I happened to be that far. I figured, `Why not?'"
Why not? How about because your head coach might make you run from now until Silent Sam walks down Franklin Street if you miss it?
But the shot banged through, and Green threw his palms up, Michael Jordan-style, at the UNC bench. When he looked over, Williams was looking back at him, palms up. What could he say? He and Green both knew the verdict: it went in, so it's a good shot.
On the next Bulldog possession, Green grabbed the defensive rebound and the crowd immediately chorused, "Shoot!" But he was 80 feet from the hoop, so he needed to get a little closer.
Emphasis on "little."
Green brought the ball upcourt and, well, let him tell it.
"I heard the crowd," he said. "I was thinking, `I'm not going to shoot it, no way.' But the (defenders) all kept going away. Nobody stopped the ball. They left me open, and three guys ran away from me. I was looking around thinking, `Who should I pass it to?' But they ran away, so I thought I might as well shoot it again."
Of course, Green's version might be a little hazy, since perhaps the smoke coming from his right arm prohibited him from seeing Frasor wide open on the left wing, or Ed Davis posting up under the basket. The ball rimmed out.
"You know why he didn't hit that last one?" said Graves, a Greensboro native. "He was standing near Greensboro on the floor. The people in Greensboro only want Will Graves shooting from that deep."
Eventually, Green left the floor, subbed out for Ellington. It was only then that he was able to sneak a look at the Smith Center video boards, where for the first time he realized exactly how far he'd been slinging the ball.
Upon seeing the video proof of his magic, what was his first thought?
"Uh oh," he said. "Good thing they were going in."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
