University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Amazingly Awesome
November 12, 2009 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Nov. 12, 2009
Adam Lucas, Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers will be at the Bull's Head Bookshop at the UNC Student Stores on Thursday at 3:30 discussing and signing copies of One Fantastic Ride.
By Adam Lucas
Approximately 8,000 Carolina fans decided not to attend Wednesday night's 89-42 thrashing of North Carolina Central. This is not about those folks, because everybody has those nights when you can't get a babysitter or have a meeting or just don't feel like going to the game.
So this isn't about those people. This is about the 14,576 who chose to attend a 9 p.m. nonconference game on a raw night when the rain came down sideways.
What makes a person bundle up and leave the comfort of home to fight traffic, find a parking place and cheer for the Tar Heels for two hours?
You could ask Buddy Davenport, a Matthews resident. Accompanied by his 89-year-old mother, who was watching her second-ever Carolina game in person, he'd left Charlotte at 3:30. After stopping in Lexington to get some barbecue, he was in his seat at the top of section 101 nearly 90 minutes before tipoff.
Say, Buddy, you know this game's on TV, right? Why not just stay home?
"I was a student from '74 to '77," Davenport said. "I remember all those times it was so tough to get tickets in Carmichael. And at that time I said, `If they ever build a place where I can get tickets, I'm going to get them.' So I did."
Roy Williams has his gameday routine--pregame with the team, grab a quick nap, throw t-shirts into the crowd when walking into the arena. Buddy has one, too. Park in the Craige Deck. If it's a 9 p.m. game, buy a Coke halfway through the second half. That's key, because it helps keep him awake for the nearly three-hour drive home. He packs another Coke in a cooler in the car for that last stretch that can be a little sleepy between 1 and 2 a.m.
"You know what, though?" Buddy said. "When I get home, I'm still keyed up from the game. I have to go online and read about it, and then I'm ready to go to bed."
He took his mother, Gladys, through the Carolina Basketball Museum on Wednesday. It was her first visit. Normally, Gladys watches the games on television or listens to Woody Durham on the radio (she doesn't get ESPNU, a little dilemma many Carolina fans can sympathize with).
"When I'm listening, I'm yelling, `Go, baby, go!'" Gladys said. "So to get to be here and see that museum and the Smith Center, it's so exciting."
Up near the top of section 231, my new friends Kim and Patrice were in their seats an hour before the game. Here's something you may not know about the upper deck: apparently Coach Smith is running the thermostat up there, because it's hot (if you don't get this reference, find Lefty Driesell and ask him). They didn't seem to mind, though.
Patrice's husband had been offered tickets to the game on Tuesday. She quickly accepted. But Patrice, didn't you know it was a 9 p.m. game on a weeknight?
"Sure," she said. "But I have to take them. How do you know if someone is going to call and offer again? You better take them when you can."
That's true, you better. Because then you're there for the next step in the evolution of a young team that looked noticeably more composed than they did in the opener against Florida International. The freshmen, like Dexter Strickland and John Henson, and the almost-freshman, Tyler Zeller, looked like they'd realized college basketball wasn't quite as complex as it seemed to them on Monday. Make the easy pass, run fast, and defend and you've got a chance to play a lot of minutes for Roy Williams.
Henson made two great decisions in transition and picked up three quick assists in a two-minute span. Strickland hit two straight three-pointers and then found Deon Thompson for a transition bucket.
There are going to be nights that this group looks lost. But there may also be nights that they do something remarkable. Did you see Henson's near-dunk on an alley-oop lob from Strickland late in the second half? Facing away from the basket, he caught it near the bottom of the net and nearly steered it through the rim backwards. It immediately went into contention for the title of second-best missed dunk in Carolina history (This is the clear leader and will never be equaled).
That's the reason you go to games like this. That's the kind of thing Grant Youngblood and his dad, Victor, will be talking about for years. After school at Wake Christian on Wednesday, Grant found out he was making his first-ever trip to the Smith Center. An hour before the game, he was in section 209 with his cell phone in his lap, texting as many friends as he could find.
Grant, what do you think of your dad, who let you stay up late on a school night and come to the Smith Center for the first time ever?
"He's amazingly awesome," Grant said. And then he went back to texting. He had to tell some more friends he was at the game.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of five books on Carolina basketball, including the just-released book on the 2009 national title, One Fantastic Ride. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter.
