University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Colorful History Turns Cordial
December 21, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Dec. 21, 2011
By Adam Lucas
Rick Barnes comes back to Chapel Hill tonight for the first time since 1998, and you're likely to hear plenty about his history against the Tar Heels. A quick historical primer on the Barnes-Carolina relationship:
Jan. 14, 1995: In a tense game at Littlejohn Coliseum, Barnes was ejected with 28 seconds left in Carolina's 83-66 victory. That served as prelude to the most famous blowup in series history...
March 10, 1995: In an ACC Tournament quarterfinal in Greensboro, Jerry Stackhouse and Dean Smith took exception to what they perceived as an overly physical foul by Clemson's Iker Iturbe with 3:10 remaining in Carolina's otherwise unremarkable 78-62 win. Smith and Barnes met near midcourt as officials discussed the play, with the situation quickly turning tense, including some finger-pointing from Barnes to Smith. This, naturally, delighted an ACC crowd that was thrilled to see the rookie Tigers coach challenge the league's acknowledged chairman.
With just a few seconds remaining, Donald Williams was nudged by Clemson's Bill Harder on a breakaway, nearly emptying the Carolina bench. The two teams were escorted off the court through separate tunnels. Smith and Barnes were later called to a peace summit by ACC commissioner Gene Corrigan, and each man was handed a $2,500 fine (given to charity) by the league.
March 8, 1996: After losing his first four attempts against the Tar Heels, Barnes got his first win in heart-pounding fashion, as Greg Buckner slammed through a dunk with less than a second remaining to give the Tigers a 75-73 win--again, in an ACC Tournament quarterfinal in Greensboro.
The game also included one of the high-flying Vince Carter's best dunks at Carolina.
Jan. 26, 1997: By this point, Barnes had guided Clemson to national prominence, and they entered the game at the Smith Center undefeated and ranked second in the country. Smith used the much taller Vince Carter to defend diminutive Tiger point guard Terrell McIntyre, and Carter harassed McIntyre into a 3-for-13 shooting performance. The game included more very physical play, including two Clemson intentional fouls, one of them a hammering of Shammond Williams by the frustrated McIntyre. Later that season, after a 76-69 Tar Heel win at Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson post man Harold Jamison described the gameplan against Carolina's Antawn Jamison as follows: "Everywhere he went, we bumped him. It was probably as physical as we ever played."
Jan. 28, 1998: The entire relationship came to its absurd apex when officials, well aware of the past bad blood, whistled Clemson for 41 fouls during an 88-79 Carolina win. Multiple disqualifications due to foul trouble required the Tigers to finish the game--which also included some words exchanged between Ademola Okulaja and Barnes--with just four players on the court, at one point leading Barnes to jokingly mime taking off his suit jacket so he could enter the game as a fifth player. Barnes left Clemson for Texas after the 1998 season.
Somewhat surprisingly in the YouTube era, there's not much online video available of the Clemson-Carolina meetings. We did unearth this Carter-centric reel from the 1998 game, which includes a postgame Dick Vitale-Carter interview that touches on the strange ending to the game. It's worth watching just to remember how springy Carter truly was in Chapel Hill.
March 20, 2004: It was a completely different era for both participants when they met in Denver in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Roy Williams was in his first season coaching Carolina, and Barnes had coached Texas into college basketball royalty. Already, the formerly combustible relationship had begun to thaw. "Looking back on it, it was just me being competitive," Barnes said at the pregame press conference. "But then again, I think Coach Smith's competitive. I don't know if I've ever coached against a guy that was more competitive than he was. So I think what happens in the heat of battle just happens."
2009 NCAA Tournament: Texas and Carolina didn't meet, but they were assigned to the same first- and second-round pod in Greensboro. The Longhorns played Duke on the same day the Tar Heels took down LSU, leading some observers to wonder whether Carolina fans would root against Barnes or against the Blue Devils. Judging by the fan response, there was very little choice: on the way to a national title, Carolina fans cheered overwhelmingly for Texas.
In his first return to Greensboro, Barnes was extremely complimentary about the Tar Heels. "If I could go back and change that day I would," he said. "The thing I most regret is I would not want anybody to ever think I disrespected Dean Smith because I grew up in this state. I hate that it happened. I'd like to think I've matured a lot more."
Barnes also said his daughter, Carley, wrote Smith a letter upon the Tar Heel legend's retirement. Smith responded with kind words for the family. "He was kind enough to say nice things about me," Barnes said. "He said it was time to move on and that your dad would have a great future in this game."
Dec. 19, 2009: With very little fanfare regarding the coaches, Texas thumped the Tar Heels, 103-90, at Jerry Jones's mammoth new stadium in Arlington.
Dec. 18, 2010: Continuing a trend the Tar Heels will look to break tonight--Texas has won three straight games in the series--the Longhorns claimed a 78-76 win at the buzzer. Barnes, yet again, was very gracious about his relationship with Carolina.
"As I've said before, if I could go back, there's a lot of things I'd like to change as a coach, maybe most of all what happened with Coach Smith because he's one of the best of all time," Barnes said after his win. "I wish it would go away and never have to deal with it, but I was young and made a lot of mistakes." While sitting in the Greensboro Coliseum interview room, the Hickory native made it clear he values Tobacco Road and ACC history.
"I love North Carolina. I love this building. I was in the room before the game and there was an NBA thing (on television), and I heard LeBron James talking about the Mecca being in (Madison Square Garden). To me, this place is Mecca, this place right here. I understand the Big Four here. I have unbelievable respect for Roy and his program."
Barnes's words and actions have been so congenial that it's to his credit that tonight's storyline is much more about the teams than the sidelines. There was a time when any visit by him to the Smith Center would have been major news; now, it's simply a battle between two quality programs in a pre-Christmas treat.
Tonight's tipoff at the sold-out Smith Center is at 7 p.m. on ESPN2, with the Tar Heel Sports Network on the air at 6 p.m. Fans watching at home or streaming at the game on their phone or tablet can get complete Tar Heel in-game analysis on a free live video halftime show with Shammond Williams that airs here on TarHeelBlue.com.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of six books on Carolina basketball, including the official chronicle of the first 100 years of Tar Heel hoops, A Century of Excellence, which is available now. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter and Facebook.
