University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Act Tough
February 4, 2012 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Feb. 4, 2012
By Adam Lucas
COLLEGE PARK--Dexter Strickland couldn't have known how Saturday was going to unfold. Or maybe he did. Either way, he showed up for the shootaround at the Comcast Center wearing a sweatshirt that read simply, "Act tough. We gon do it."
"Gon," in case you're a fellow member of the age group that knows Eric Montross as a Tar Heel player rather than a Tar Heel radio analyst, is short for "gonna." It's a quick, text message-friendly way of describing what's about to happen.
Through the previous 22 games, there was some question about when, exactly, the Tar Heels were "gon" act tough. They had 19 wins, sure. But they lacked a signature victory, lacked a win that made you believe they were anything more than a very talented team. There is nothing wrong with being a very talented team. That is enough to get very far. It is also not enough to get where everyone on the roster has been talking about since last summer.
Saturday's 83-74 win doesn't make the Tar Heels any more of a championship contender than they were before the ball was tossed in the air. That's still too far away to even ponder. For the first time, though, there was the suggestion that perhaps this group is more than a group of really good kids who have fun playing basketball together and happen to be very talented. You bring a group like that--that is only that--in front of 17,950 angry Maryland fans, they're going to get smacked in the face.
This group smacked back.
"That," Roy Williams said, "was a tough, tough win."
As instantly forgettable as Tuesday night's win in Winston-Salem was, this one was equally indelible. This one will linger--and you want it to linger, to be a frame of reference somewhere later in February or March or maybe even April.
This was one of those you can't explain to your friends who don't like sports. This was one of those where you get a Cheshire grin watching the Tar Heels run off the court after the game to a cascade of boos. It's part of what makes being a sports fan--and by extension, a Carolina fan--fun. Yep, our guys just went in there and did that to them. Isn't it crazy how much better your weekend became because of a few bounces of a basketball? Isn't it a little sick...er, great?
This was not toughness of the kind that makes you afraid to fight someone in a back alley. This was not violent toughness. This was the perseverance kind of toughness, the kind that makes you unable to accept the easy way.
What made it so satisfying was that there were so many opportunities for Carolina to give in. Tyler Zeller carried the team through the first 30 minutes of the game, when he was sometimes one of the very few who appeared to have ACC road game-winning grit. But he picked up his fourth foul with 11:49 remaining, and on that same possession the Terrapins built a 57-52 lead.
Here was an opportunity to act tough.
Harrison Barnes hit a jumper. Kendall Marshall found Henson for a dunk. Even without Zeller, who has been perhaps the team's most consistent defender, Carolina forced three turnovers in a row. Barnes fired in a three-pointer, punctuating it with a roar, which made you think maybe this was really going to happen...
And then Marshall picked up his fourth foul. There were over eight minutes left. It had been a mammoth effort to surge without Zeller. This was asking too much.
Or perhaps it was another one of those opportunities to act tough.
Without Marshall and Zeller for the next 90 seconds, Carolina outscored Maryland 4-2. As he grabbed his point guard to send him back into the game, Williams stared him down, pointed his finger, and said, "You've got to play smart!"
"Adversity came at us head-on today," Marshall said. "In the second half, we did a great job handling it."
Without Zeller, the Tar Heels held a 17-10 lead. How'd they do it? With a little bit of everybody. James Michael McAdoo made the aggressive post move that tied the score after Carolina had trailed for over 20 minutes. P.J. Hairston, who had just a few minutes earlier shot a three-point attempt cleanly off the side of the backboard and also missed a dunk, managed to wriggle inside for a key putback with three minutes left that gave Carolina a three-point lead.
It was not a tough shot. Matter of fact, it was an easy shot. You could have made it. I could have...well, let's don't get carried away. But making the shot wasn't the tough part. The tough part was seeing that earlier three-pointer bounce off the side of the backboard, and keeping enough focus to be in position to get the offensive rebound and turn it into two points.
Here, listen to Williams try to describe what helped his team win.
"John's 17 and 12, Z's 22 points, Reggie's defense, Harrison's big shots, Kendall's 16 assists..."
He could have kept going. That's when the wins feel best, when the team gets on the plane to go home and every single player is thinking about at least one big play they made that was indispensable. That's how you build toughness, when everyone believes they're essential--and they're committed to being essential.
Oh, and about that coach. You might have heard that he doesn't like to call timeouts. You might have even screamed at him to call a few more. But grant him this: when Carolina's offense clearly looked frazzled with 1:17 remaining, holding a four-point lead with a chance to provide the finishing blow, he calmly signaled for a timeout to reset the play. He diagrammed what he wanted, then he went over it again with Barnes as the teams returned to their positions.
The Tar Heels were in a shuffled lineup that had the Iowa native at the four. Williams explained the variations on the play and reminded Barnes he had Bullock and Hairston on the wings if he didn't feel comfortable.
Hey, Coach? There were less than 90 seconds left and Carolina needed a big basket. Comfortable? Barnes had his slippers on, sitting by the fire, sipping a warm cup of milk with his feet propped on the couch. If he'd been any more comfortable, he would have been wearing an argyle Snuggie on the court.
It felt necessary to ask Barnes if he considered making use of Hairston and Bullock on the wing. They can both make the shot. He knows that and they know that. But, well...
"Anytime I get the ball at the top of the key in space I feel confident," Barnes said. "You never know. They could've thrown a double-team at me and I would've passed it. But I felt like I had a good matchup and I wanted to capitalize...You have to make shots when they matter. You can't be worried about what your percentage is."
That, folks, is acting tough. Gon do it?
Just did it.
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.
