University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: First Time For Everything
April 5, 2009 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
April 5, 2009
By Adam Lucas
DETROIT--They have done it all. Since arriving in Chapel Hill about 44 months ago to begin summer school, this senior class has done a little bit of everything.
They have won three regular season Atlantic Coast Conference championships and two league tournament titles. They have been to two Final Fours.
But they have never played for a national championship.
They have won four games in a row at Cameron Indoor Stadium. They have walked on the beach in Santa Monica. While they were there, they also got some really bad haircuts in Santa Monica.
They have won the Maui Invitational. They have cliff-dived. They have frat house-dived.
One of them has had his jersey retired, but he's still wearing it. Another of them has battled back from injury. Another is currently injured. Another just might have had Saturday night's most valuable baskets against Villanova. And another is the guy whose importance you don't realize if you're not in the locker room, the one who always knows how to keep people loose.
They have won at least 30 games for three seasons in a row, the first time that's been done in 99 years of Carolina Basketball. They have been the underdog (in 2006). They have been the favorite (every year since). Overall, they have won 84.8% of their games.
Most of those 84.8% have been a lot like Saturday. Tyler Hansbrough has had double-doubles (18 points and 11 rebounds against the Wildcats), Danny Green has hit big jumpers--his three-pointer from the top of the key two minutes into the second half stopped a Villanova surge--and Bobby Frasor has done, well, everything else. He had exactly zero points on Saturday in the most deceptive stat line in college basketball history. He had seven rebounds, five of them offensive, and he was a key part of the ball movement that helped push the lead back to 65-51 by the time Frasor gave the tired signal with 10:20 remaining.
It all looked pretty familiar, because we've seen them do it for four years. They have won 100 games in three seasons, the best three-year stretch in Carolina history. They have won 123 games in four seasons, tied for the most by a four-year class. Green has played in 122 of those wins, the most in school history.
They have played Texas ping-pong. They have danced. They have spent lots of late nights at the Smith Center shooting jumper after jumper.
But they have never played for a national championship.
"It hasn't hit me yet," Green said. "I know our seniors are going to leave it on the floor. It's our last game. We have nothing else to play for. Why not let it be us?"
Yes, they have beaten Michigan State at Ford Field, something you'll probably hear about a lot in the next 48 hours. That game was 98-63 and it was a blowout almost from the very beginning. Luckily, they are old and wise enough that they know that game means nothing for Monday's game.
"I would never have guessed those same two teams would play on the same court for the national championship," Bobby Frasor said. "It's going to be nothing like that first game. They are playing really well. It's going to be a battle."
They have been in some battles. They have won by running and won by grinding, won with offense and won with defense. Sometimes--rarely--they have lost. One of those losses, the 2007 Georgetown game, was exorcised long ago, and another, the 2008 Kansas game, was partially purged by Saturday's game.
They have hung banners in the Smith Center, enough that the entire banner display had to be rearranged so everything would fit. But they don't have the one they all want. Hansbrough was in St. Louis as a fan in 2005 and watched the Tar Heels cut down the nets. He stayed until the ushers kicked him out, watching and dreaming.
"I remember watching all the excitement afterwards," he said Saturday night. "I talked to Marvin and Sean and Jackie and I saw how much winning the championship changed their life. It was exciting to be in high school and know I was walking into that kind of program. I've thought about what it would be like to do that myself. A night like that has been on my mind ever since I've been at Carolina."
Monday night, they'll all finally get their chance.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
