University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The Ride
February 28, 2009 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Feb. 28, 2009
By Adam Lucas
The most profound thing Roy Williams has said in the past year wasn't at a press conference, it wasn't at a podium in front of a large crowd, and it wasn't on his radio show.
It was last April in his office when he was reflecting on the just-completed 36-3, ACC championship, Final Four season. If that doesn't sound familiar, you might know it better as the "loss to Kansas" season.
"I've got to do a better job of enjoying the ride," he said, thinking back on a season that saw the Tar Heels employ a National Player of the Year, win heart-pounding finishes, and rule the league yet again. "And I have to do a better job of allowing the people around me to enjoy it."
This quote came back to mind as Carolina ran over, around and through Georgia Tech, 104-74, on Saturday afternoon. It was quite an offensive display against a fellow Atlantic Coast Conference foe, a clear statement that despite sharing room in the same league, these teams are not presently on the same level.
It was also--go ahead, admit it--kind of boring.
Almost 1,000 students couldn't be bothered to pick up their allotment of tickets for a game on a Saturday afternoon. With 3:30 remaining and the Tar Heels holding a huge lead, you could almost feel the remaining fans in a sleepy Smith Center asking if they were permitted to leave yet. Tyler Hansbrough's 40 points against Georgia Tech as a freshman thrilled us; his 28 points against that same program on this afternoon, well...they were nice.
It was understandable. After all, the Tar Heels are 25-3, and nearly half of those wins have been by at least 20 points. If you have season tickets, you've seen exactly two games that were decided by 10 points or less--the loss to Boston College and the 89-80 win over NC State, which was not as close as the score indicated.
But while you're trying to stay awake, consider this fact--before Roy Williams came back to Carolina, it had been almost a decade since any Tar Heel team made it to March with three or fewer losses. Since his return, it's happened in three of his six seasons.
The ride has been more smooth than any other program in the nation over these last two seasons. The wins have been plentiful (although, of course, we don't care about the regular-season games--unless they are losses, in which case we care a lot). There has been no NCAA scandal. Players graduated. The future President of the United States stopped by to hang out.
That's a pretty solid college basketball experience.
Every Friday, Lauren Brownlow sends me the week's best emails for the UNC Basketball Mailbag. Combining her emails with the ones I've received this week, I saw the following words used to describe this team: "disappointing," "selfish," "not fun," and "sickening."
This year's team might not play the kind of defense you want them to play or hit the glass the way you want or win all the games you want them to win. But as you get closer to college sports, you start to realize that it's often the players--the college kids--who have a much better perspective on exactly what's happening. They don't obsess it about it like we do. In most cases, they don't wake up thinking about it in the middle of the night.
"It's been a lot of fun," senior Danny Green said. "Each year is its own little ride, and each year I've enjoyed it. This year, we've had some guys hurt. We've had some slip-ups. We're not perfect, because nobody is. But we've tried to learn from our mistakes."
"Playing basketball is fun to me," said Ty Lawson, and at exactly that moment the familiar laugh of Mike Copeland cackled out of the back corner of the Tar Heel locker room. "It's always like that around here. We're having fun. We like hanging out with each other. One of the most fun parts of being on any team is what happens away from the court, and fans don't get to see that."
One day, if you have time, I hope you'll get to the Smith Center an hour before tipoff. That's where you'll remember how much fun it is to be around Carolina Basketball. There's no game like your first game, and it is always someone's first game. Someone is always awed to simply get a shaky photo of Bobby Frasor shooting a warmup jumper or Hansbrough stretching. That's where you'll see the fans standing in the upper half of the upper deck, closer to the sun than the court, taking a shot of the team running out of the tunnel just to prove they were there.
It means something to people, and if it didn't mean something to you you wouldn't be reading this. It's a big enough deal that people make dying wishes just to walk inside the Smith Center one more time. That's not an exaggeration. Players see it all the time. Away from the cameras, away from the crowd, they saw it again Saturday. Imagine being 20 years old--or, heck, even 58 years old, like the head coach--and knowing a quick word from you can fulfill another person's last wish.
Carolina Basketball does that.
Sometimes we get so close, so familiar, so--forgive me, bored--that we forget what powerful emotions that little orange ball and the 10-foot goal create for people.
If we are exceedingly lucky, there are six weeks left in this season. After that, there will be no more Frasor diving on the floor for a loose ball, no more screaming at the ref to please not let them murder Hansbrough, no more Green heat checks, no more Copeland's laugh.
Six weeks, that's all we've got. That gives you time to obsess, stress, shout, cry, beg, complain, cheer, and wish. And maybe even take a little bit of time to enjoy the ride.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
