University of North Carolina Athletics
Today In UNC-Duke History: March 5, 2011
March 5, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Prior to this year, the 2010-11 season probably held the lead as the most tumultous campaign of the Roy Williams era. The Tar Heels were coming off 17 losses in the previous season. Two players had transferred over the summer, and Carolina stumbled through early-season losses to Vanderbilt and Minnesota, then displayed some on-court and off-court struggles in a blowout loss at Georgia Tech. Soon after that defeat, one player essentially pulled a midseason disappearing act, departing without even informing his roommate.
That left Williams with a team that included just eight scholarship players and was heavy on underclassmen. Beyond junior Tyler Zeller and seniors Justin Knox and Justin Watts, the main contributors were freshmen Kendall Marshall and Harrison Barnes and sophomores John Henson and Dexter Strickland.
It turned out, however, that the young guys were pretty good. Following that loss in Atlanta, the Tar Heels won 14 of the next 15 games. The crowning moment--literally and figuratively--was the win over Duke at the Smith Center, which sealed the ACC regular season championship.
Carolina had controlled the first half of the initial meeting between the two teams, but had been unable to hold the lead in a 79-73 loss at Cameron Indoor Stadium. This time, they had more than enough firepower to hold on. Barnes scored 18 points and Marshall added 15 points and 11 assists to lead the 81-67 victory, and the sellout Smith Center crowd stormed the court before being urged off the court by Williams, who wanted his team to cut down the nets to celebrate the regular season title.
"The last 10 months haven't been very easy lots of times," Williams said. "But that crowd in that locker room has been fantastic. As a coach, where you get your strength is your relationship with the players. As a coach, you get your strength from how they allow you to coach them. This group has just been phenomenal to work with."
The Tar Heel defense held Duke star Kyle Singler to 3-for-14 shooting from the field, forcing Nolan Smith (30 points) to bomb away to keep the Blue Devils in the game. Overall, though, Duke shot just 6-for-27 from the three-point line, with all six made three-pointers coming from Seth Curry.
"From where we started at the beginning of the season, it just feels like daylight and darkness," Barnes said. "We came together as a group and overcame a lot of adversity and just kept continuing to get closer as a unit."
The unexpected highlight of the game was a late-shot clock drive and dunk from Strickland over Singler that seemed to release almost two years of frustration.
Here's how the play looked from the front row of the risers. This remains one of my favorite fan vantage point videos of the social media era, because it perfectly captures the what-is-he-doing-oh-wait-YESHEDID nature of the moment:
Adam Lucas is the editor of CAROLINA.
