University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The Time Is Now
March 21, 2008 | Men's Basketball
March 21, 2008
By Adam Lucas
RALEIGH--Since the very first skit at Late Night on Oct. 12, this year has always been about what comes next.
Can't wait until the season opener. Can't wait until conference play. Can't wait until the Duke game. Can't wait until Ty gets back. Can't wait until the next Duke game. Can't wait until the ACC Tournament. Even before the last strand of net was (quietly) snipped from the Bobcats Arena rim--can't wait until the NCAA Tournament.
We're among friends, so you can admit it. In the past couple of days, your thoughts weren't entirely on Mount St. Mary's. You contemplated defensive matchups on Indiana's Eric Gordon or wondered how a hot Arkansas team could possibly be seeded ninth.
The great thing about playing for Carolina is that a big game is never far away. The bright lights are always on. Play poorly in one important contest and the next prime time showcase is only a few days away.
As Friday night's 113-74 victory officially came to an end, so too did the luxury of looking ahead. This is the part of the year when next time turns into no time.
"What I've learned is that in a tournament, if you look past anybody, you're going home," Danny Green said. "You'll never get to that next game you're looking ahead to."
The rambunctious cluster of Mount St. Mary's fans that stood for the full two hours in the RBC Center's lower level--spending a large portion of that time chanting and singing--is the last group the Tar Heels will see this year that is just happy to be there.
Upsets are over. I know, I know, you've got your bracket that says this team is a 1 seed and that team is a 9 seed. Forget it. By early Saturday morning, the only teams left in the NCAA Tournament will all have one important quality: they're all capable.
"We were just more gifted and talented, which is what it boils down to," Roy Williams said in the wake of his team's 39-point whipping, the program's largest NCAA Tournament win since a 45-point shellacking of Rhode Island in 1993.
From now until the last second of the season, it will not boil down to that again. It might boil down to defense or it might boil down to the transition game or it might boil down to shot selection. But being more gifted and talented stopped being good enough around 9:15 p.m.
This is not to say that Carolina was not good enough against the Mountaineers. You can't win by 39 and not be good. The offense was beautiful (113 points is tied for second in UNC's NCAA Tournament history, trailing only the 123 against racehorse Loyola Marymount in 1988) and the rebounding was dominating (the +26 rebounding margin set a school NCAA Tournament record).
The defense? Well, it could've been better, but some halftime refocusing snapped the Tar Heels back to attention.
It was plenty good enough to build a sizable advantage, good enough to allow a relaxed final 4:39 after Williams cleared his bench. There was Jack Wooten scoring his first five points of the season, Surry Wood slamming home an alley-oop dunk, and Marc Campbell handing out almost an assist per minute.
Enjoy those final few minutes. From tonight forward, you're more likely to spend the game's final minutes gritting your teeth than laughing and smiling.
Sometimes, last year, you wondered if the Tar Heels understood. Now, they do.
"Each year I learn something new about the tournament," Green said. "That's why our team is so mature now. Our juniors have learned a lot. Our sophomores are a year older. We have no excuses to not come out and be focused."
"This is what we've worked hard for all year," said Deon Thompson. "This is why I put in time in the offseason. This is why we go through conditioning. We still have a taste of that Georgetown game. We've worked to get here and get rid of that."
They've worked to huddle together in the obscenely cramped RBC Center locker room and watch their head coach take a blue marker to the white board and write, "32" in a small box in the lower left-hand corner of the board. As Quentin Thomas knows--the only player who has seen that number go from 32 to 1--the size of the writing will increase as the number of teams remaining decreases.
That's something to which the Tar Heels can look forward.
Without looking ahead.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
