University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Sweet With Sugar
March 20, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
March 20, 2011
By Adam Lucas
CHARLOTTE--Less than an hour after Carolina's 86-83 win over Washington, one particular Tar Heel fan--himself a former basketball player--was still recovering from the heart-pounding nature of the victory. That gentleman, clad in a blue shirt (of course), looked a little tired.
In a back hallway of the Time Warner Cable Arena, he exchanged a fist bump and a knowing glance.
"Whew," said Michael Jordan, "they made me a little nervous."
Made you a little nervous? A little nervous? I was calmer when my wife gave birth. At least then there were sedatives within easy reach.
Hey, Michael--it's like this all the time with this bunch. The Tar Heels have now won eight games by three points or less, the most such wins in school history. Each time, you walk away thinking they can't possibly do it again, that the next one will catch up with them. And each time, they figure out another way to do it.
This one was different--as usual, Harrison Barnes had big baskets late with five straight key points, but it was Dexter Strickland who made the two biggest free throws of the season with 5.4 seconds left and a one-point lead--but it was the same, too. It was the same because of the gritty, all hands on deck method in which the Tar Heels captured the victory. Leslie McDonald picked up five big points early, Kendall Marshall set a Carolina NCAA Tournament record with 14 assists and John Henson notched yet another double-double. What kind of game was it? Tyler Zeller had a team-high 23 points and he'll be about the fifth guy anyone talks about after this game.
Sum it up this way: Strickland played a big role in holding high-scoring Husky guard Isaiah Thomas to 5-of-15 shooting (in fact, just two of those field goals came against Strickland). Given the opportunity to brag a little about his defense, the very first thing Strickland--who arrived back in the locker room to find 22 text messages and 190 tweets waiting for him--said was this: "It didn't start with me. It started with my teammates. It was my whole team being ready to support and keep him out of the lane."
In that locker room, it was jubilant. Short of Rick Fox stunning Oklahoma in 1990 or the 2000 team toppling Stanford, it may have been the happiest Carolina locker room ever after advancing to the Sweet 16. During the season, the Tar Heels have consistently downplayed the year-long drama that's enveloped them. The transfers and the injuries were never used as an excuse, and you started to wonder if they realized exactly what an unusual season it had been.
In the wake of the win, it became obvious--they know. One after the other, Henson and Zeller and McDonald and Strickland all mentioned something along the lines of, "With all this team has been through." Leave it to their point guard to sum it up.
"There are only 16 teams left now, and we're one of them out of over 300 teams," Marshall said. "Everything that we've been through, we overcame that. And we're still performing well. It's the best feeling I've ever felt."
So then you understand why the locker room was euphoric. Even on this day, there was one last bit of adversity, as Roy Williams had coached the game despite being significantly under the weather. It wasn't quite Jordan playing through the flu, but it was close, and his team was aware of his struggles.
"He fought through," said Henson. "That's the story of our season right there. He fought through it, and that's what we did. And I think a win always makes him feel a little better."
It sure looked like it. He entered the locker room after the game to a burst of applause from his team. The squad jumped around, and then he addressed one of the 16 teams with a chance to win this year's national championship.
"You guys who went through last year, I know you remember that feeling we had," he told them. "And I want you to remember this feeling we have right now, too."
"It's so much satisfaction," McDonald said about the feeling at that moment. "All that hard work we put in, everything we did--all of that was part of today."
It's tradition at that moment for Williams to write the number of teams remaining in the NCAA field on the locker room white board. With black marker, he wrote a "16" in the lower right corner of the board. His team wasn't ready for him to stop, however.
"Suh-weeeettt!" came a voice, which turned out to be Justin Watts doing his best Mike Copeland impression. "Sweet!" came the echoes from his teammates.
So Williams, as he asks his players to do, listened to the coaching. He added the word "Sweet" above the number he had first written.
"With shu-gaaaa!" Watts chirped, and his teammates echoed him.
So, really, Williams had no choice. And here's where you find out that although Roy Williams may indeed hate cool, as he often claims, he might have a little cool in there somewhere, too. He didn't write, "with sugar," like you and I would when we make out a grocery list. No, he wrote, "w/ suga," adding a dose of swagger (a bigger version of the JD Lyon Jr. photo that accompanies this column is available here). Next thing you know, he's going to sign up for a Twitter account.
His former recruit, a guy named Jordan, could have appreciated that. Jordan knows cool, too. But right now he had other concerns, like an NBA team to own and shoes to design and an empire to oversee. In what passes for his normal life, he very rarely goes anywhere alone, and now he was being followed by five other individuals. He had just one more thought.
"Hey," Jordan said, and now he was about to round the corner, off to wherever owners of teams go when they can go anywhere they want. "Keep it going in Newark."
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.
