University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Hopeful
January 20, 2012 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Jan. 20, 2012
By Adam Lucas
BLACKSBURG--As soon as the ball trickled out of bounds following a Harrison Barnes miss with 0.9 seconds remaining in the first half, all five Tar Heels on the floor--Kendall Marshall, Reggie Bullock, Tyler Zeller, Barnes and John Henson--simply looked at each other. That was all it took.
To that point, it had been a disappointing half. Virginia Tech had fired in eight of its 16 three-point attempts, building a 39-32 lead thanks to a 17-9 burst that was constructed largely on the same foundation used by Florida State in Saturday's 90-57 whipping. It had been a disturbing 59 minutes and 59 seconds of basketball.
But there were these 0.9 seconds left, and the Tar Heels knew exactly how they wanted to use it. Let's be honest, though--everyone knew exactly how they wanted to use it. The 9,847 fans, who were sniffing upset, knew the play would be a lob for John Henson. Seth Greenberg, who had referred to the long arms of Henson as "Inspector Gadget" during a pregame interview, was screaming "Lob!" on the Hokie sideline. Greenberg's assistants and most of the five players on the floor were echoing his warnings. On the ESPN broadcast, Jay Bilas said, "You have to watch the lob more than anything." It wasn't exactly a sneak attack.
As Roy Williams is fond of saying, though, he doesn't want to take what the defense gives him. Like the Honey Badger, he wants to take what he wants. What he wanted was a lob. It's a play Carolina runs at least once every single day in practice. Even in practice, though, it doesn't often work as flawlessly as it did in those 0.9 seconds.
Virginia Tech unwisely chose not to guard Marshall, who was throwing the in-bounds pass. Henson and Barnes created traffic for each other, and Bullock bulldozed through some tight contact from Robert Brown to come straight down the lane and set a screen for Henson, who soared unimpeded to the rim to slam home the buzzer-beating dunk.
"It's all about execution," Marshall said. "It was great execution on our part and it was a great way to go into halftime with all that momentum. It was a big boost."
Marshall got the assist and Henson got the emphatic dunk. The play was a textbook example of five players working together, with some of the highlights coming away from the ball, with a small element that had been a big point of emphasis from the head coach all week. Bullock had to expend some effort just to get to the screen, and then had to make firm contact with 6-foot-7, 218-pound Jarrell Eddie to make the play work.
"Coach has been talking all week about setting good screens to get teammates open," Bullock said. "I got a good piece of him, and it was a hard screen."
Henson punctuated the play with six emphatic claps as he strode to the locker room. Finally, Carolina had some bounce and some life. Just a few seconds earlier, the Tar Heels had been reeling. Now, watching them sprint off the court, they suddenly looked confident again. It was just one play. But you have the feeling that when we watch that end-of-season video with all the year's best highlights, the alley-oop dunk will be one you remember, one that retains some significance beyond just two points.
"It gave us a little hope," Henson said. That's exactly what it did. For a team that needed a reason to hope, a reason to feel good, it was the perfect halftime sendoff.
It was not the Final Four, but the play had every bit the momentum-turning quality of Dwight Stewart's halfcourt heave against the Tar Heels in the 1995 national semifinal. There was just something about the definitive way it unfolded that portended immediate change.
The change came via Carolina's defense. Formerly open three-pointers turned into contested desperation heaves. Virginia Tech's first-half three-point marksmanship of 50 percent dove to 33.3% in the second half. For the night, Carolina forced the Hokies to melt the shot clock under 10 seconds on eleven different possessions. That's solid early possession defense.
Even more impressively, the Tar Heels held throughout those sometimes frenetic final 10 seconds. On those 11 possessions, Virginia Tech managed just three points--a fortunate banked-in three-pointer by Erick Green.
"We've been doing a good job of putting teams in position to get the shot clock under 10 seconds, but sometimes we foul a shooter or give up an offensive rebound," Marshall said. "Tonight, we did a better job. And when a team works that long offensively and they're not getting anything, it breaks their backs a little bit."
"For us it was totally, totally, totally our defense in the second half," Williams said. "We were so much more active."
Part of that activity was due to the effort of Dexter Strickland, who left the game in obvious pain midway through the second half after landing awkwardly on his right knee. After the game, the junior said it was feeling somewhat better but added, "It's really sore." He will be reevaluated Friday and indicated he planned to get x-rays.
If the Tar Heels ran to the halftime locker room with a sudden dose of hope, as Henson said, they'll need to remain in that state for the next 24 hours. Strickland, about whom Williams said two months ago, "Dexter is one of those guys that if you didn't have him, you'd all of a sudden realize what you were missing," can't be hurt. Not now. Not this team. Not with one Tar Heel, Leslie McDonald, already out for the year. Carolina has depth at shooting guard, but Strickland's backup point guard minutes are essential. Freshman Stilman White has played a combined nine minutes against ACC competition.
Strickland's uncle is fond of carrying a Lil' Penny doll painted in Strickland's likeness, complete with a Carolina number-one jersey, to games. Right now, here's hoping he's rubbing some magical elixir--not Epsom salt, Ty Lawson!--on that Lil' Dexter figure for good mojo.
Until Strickland's status is known for sure, don't walk under any ladders and avoid black felines. No one in the Tar Heel locker room was taking any chances with the sudden turn of good fortune that seemed to have arrived with Henson's slam. As the players dressed to make the combination bus/plane trip back to Chapel Hill, Marshall and Henson asked Williams what attire was required.
"Suits," the head coach replied.
"Coach, we wore suits after the Florida State game," Marshall said.
Williams paused less than--well, it was probably less than 0.9 seconds. He is not, as he often points out, superstitious. He is just careful.
"OK," he said. "It can be suits or sweats. You have your choice."
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.
