University of North Carolina Athletics
Brownlow: The It Zone
December 3, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 3, 2010
By Lauren Brownlow
No one has a real name for this thing that comes over Italee Lucas during a game from time to time. It's this strange phenomenon where the senior seemingly can't miss. In the past, it might have led her to take bad shots or turn the ball over, almost giving herself a heat check to test her own limitations as she gradually increased her degree of difficulty.
In previous years, she has struggled to maintain the level of play she's shown that she's capable of. After a summer of hard work alongside her teammates, she found out what she can do when she plays a complete game and is in control. "In the off-season, I worked a lot on my defense and more aspects other than scoring," Lucas said. "I'm more focused on the little things and it's increased my offensive game."
She had 17 points in each half (7-of-12 in the first, 7-of-9 in the second) for a career-high 34, nearly half of Carolina's 79 points. Every time Iowa cut the lead down, she extended it.
It was twisting lay-ups, three-pointers that always looked on target, even crossover step-back jumpers. She used her shot fake beautifully, pulling in defenders only to pass to a wide-open teammate instead of forcing up a contested shot that - lets face it - she still might have made.
Lucas made the right plays, not letting the run she was on get the best of her. But she's still the same passionate and emotional player. Iowa cut it to six in the first half, she responded with seven unanswered. When Iowa cut it to one in the second half, she had eight of the next ten, including back-to-back three's. She held her follow-through on the second three in front of the Carolina bench, admiring it as her teammates stood and screamed along with the crowd.
"Sometimes, I see my teammates getting frustrated and I know they look towards me for that motivation, that extra push," Lucas said. "I look towards them too, so we feed off each other. If something like that gets our team going then that's what I'm striving for. We just feed back and forth, so that was a good push."
Even though she and her teammates spent Monday night on an all-night plane trip back from Honolulu, she never lost her legs, scoring four of Carolina's final six fastbreak points while hitting 3-of-6 second-half three's. "I don't really have a name for it," Cetera DeGraffenreid, who had eight assists (five to Lucas), said. "I know in the huddle she was getting everybody focused and ready to go. You just knew that she was going to come out there and be focused. She hit those three's back to back and she kept us in the game. We were just feeding off of her this time."
Everyone wants to know what being in that zone is like when you're not an athlete. Even she couldn't really put her finger on it. Few athletes can. And she downplayed the notion of being in any kind of unconscious basketball state. It makes sense - she was in complete control. And to her, she was only doing what was necessary rather than something awe-inspiring.
"You guys talk about a zone and what not, but my teammates just gave me good looks," Lucas said. "When the occasion comes like sometimes in certain situations, you have to step up your game more so than others. As a team, we have just been really focused these last couple of games. This game really showed our character and our toughness towards the end of the stretch."
What about the `It Zone'? a reporter suggested.
"Yeah, I'll call it the `It Zone,'" Lucas said. "It's the unknown."
That used to be true. But now, everyone knows what `It' brings: exciting plays, a fiery disposition and consistently stepping up and leading when her team needs it most.
Lauren Brownlow is the executive editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
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