University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Expecting Big Things
October 9, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
It's always a good sign when entirely unreasonable expectations rule the preseason, because that means normalcy has returned to Chapel Hill. Top five in the country? Sure. A Wooden Award candidate on the roster? Why not. It's October and anything is possible, which is how it's supposed to be in Chapel Hill.
Media day was Wednesday afternoon at the Smith Center. There were no questions about discipline issues, no queries about anyone's eligibility and no off-court discussion, in fact, at all (pause here to knock feverishly on whatever wood is nearby).
There was just basketball. Really good basketball. Carolina has a signature player in Marcus Paige, an experienced core of talent and a heralded freshman class.
Paige was a second-team All-America pick last year, and will certainly be a consensus first-team preseason pick this year. That's good news, because Williams has had six seasons that featured a first-team All-America since he came back to Carolina, and only once did that team fail to advance to at least the regional final.
The Tar Heels are expected to reappear in the Associated Press top 10 when the preseason poll is released later this month; early polls suggest they might be in the top five (Dick Vitale has UNC fifth, with Yahoo! Sports picking Carolina sixth).
That should mark the end of an uncharacteristic two-year stretch of being outside the top ten in the preseason poll, with the media slotting Carolina 11th before the 2012-13 campaign and 12th last season. Fairly incredibly, that was only the second time in the last 48 seasons the Tar Heels had spent two straight years outside the AP preseason top ten (the other occurrence was prior to the 2002 and 2003 seasons). Think about that--for half a century almost without fail, the common expectation has been that North Carolina will field one of the top 10 teams in the country.
Sure, expectations can be heavy. In seasons like this one, it won't be enough for Carolina to just win games; they'll have to win attractively, and by a big enough margin (hint: it's never enough), and with enough dunks to please everyone. But that's why you come to North Carolina.
It's fun to walk into a gym and surprise everyone, like the Tar Heels did last year at Michigan State. The jubilation that accompanied that win, and even the raucous welcome home the team received from night owl fans, is something that only comes with a stunning upset.
There won't be many chances for upsets this year, and that's exactly where the Tar Heels want to be. Roy Williams has assembled a formidable schedule that might mark the toughest slate of his tenure in Chapel Hill. The Battle 4 Atlantis could be the most loaded Thanksgiving event in which Carolina has ever played, a trip to Kentucky on Dec. 13 is a national television showcase, and the trip to Chicago to face Ohio State could give the Tar Heels four top-25 battles before Christmas. That would be just the second time in Williams' 12 seasons at Carolina that the Tar Heels have faced four top-25 opponents before Christmas.
Those games, though, will be easy for the players to create motivation. What the upperclassmen will also have to convey is that for a team with big expectations, it's not just the showcase games that will be a challenge. That's what the 2012 club learned in a loss at UNLV, and what the 2007 team discovered in the Preseason NIT against Gonzaga. Beating North Carolina means something. Beating a highly ranked North Carolina team, well, that can end up on the cover of next year's media guide.
"No matter what, when you're UNC, other teams want to beat you and fans get excited about it," said senior Luke Davis, who sat out as a transfer during the 2011-12 season when that team began the year as the top team in the nation. "But when you come in top five, there's a little more of a buzz."
That's the buzz that makes stealing someone's brownies, as Williams likes to say about road wins, so much fun.
"The last two years," the head coach said, "there's been more junk than I wanted to deal with. It made the job not as fun, no question. It's confirmed that what I truly love is being on the court with the kids. The last two years, that's been my salvation."
This year, that salvation will include some of the biggest games on the biggest stages in the country. At least, that's the expectation.
