University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Paige Looks Back
April 29, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
During a sophomore season that ended with qualification to have his jersey honored in the Smith Center rafters, Marcus Paige made big plays in arenas across America. But one of the transformational moments of his season happened in a room far removed from any bouncing basketballs.
As part of Carolina's trip to the Hall of Fame Tip-Off Classic in November, the Tar Heels stopped by the Basketball Hall of Fame on their way into town. It helps when you have your own personal Hall of Famer tour guide--the facility stayed open late for the team and Williams' induction speech was playing on a video monitor when they arrived.
Most of the players and coaches took a self-guided tour around the two levels of artifacts and displays. But Paige eventually found himself standing with Williams beside the trophy case that houses the Bob Cousy Award, an honor presented annually by the Hall of Fame to the nation's best point guard.
As Paige and Williams stood in front of the trophy that the head coach has seen presented to three of his players in the past decade--Raymond Felton in 2005, Ty Lawson in 2009 and Kendall Marshall in 2012--Williams delivered his message.
"Coach Williams told me he wanted to have that award as a realistic goal for my sophomore year," Paige said. "He told me he really thought I could win it. At the time, I wasn't even thinking about that. When he told me that, I realized I had a chance to put myself in that conversation."
Then he went out and put himself firmly in the conversation. Paige finished the season as one of six Cousy Award finalists, but the trophy was won by Connecticut's Shabazz Napier.
It's not the individual honors or the barrage of big shots that makes Paige the most animated during the course of a conversation just off the Smith Center court, however. Instead, it's the mention of how the season ended, with a disappointing 85-83 defeat to Iowa State in the NCAA Tournament.
Carolina led by eight points with four minutes remaining and had a three-point lead with 56 seconds on the clock. Even now, Paige still shakes his head when he thinks about it.
"The last three minutes were awful," he says. "I took a couple quick shots. We gave up a couple three-pointers. We pretty much had that game, and it all went downhill at one time. It was the most important game I've ever played in in my life, and it was tough."
The bitter ending to his second season at Carolina left Paige uninterested in watching much of the remainder of the Tournament. He watched the Final Four, but actively avoided any of the other games from UNC's regional, especially once he realized Connecticut, a seven seed (the Tar Heels were a six), had a good chance to advance.
"The whole experience," he says, "is fuel for going to Indianapolis next year."
Oh yes, Paige is well aware of the location of the 2015 Final Four.
"I've known where it would be since the day we came back from San Antonio," he says. "I haven't forgotten about the Iowa State game. I'll never forget that game. I still have the date written down; I'm weird about that stuff. I was even thinking about writing '3-23-14' on my shoes so I wouldn't forget that feeling."
Despite his disappointment, Paige has collected plenty of postseason honors, including a bumper crop of nine individual awards at Carolina's end of season team banquet.
There is one trophy, however, that is noticeably absent from his collection. It's the Cousy, and Paige is well aware that only two of six 2014 finalists will return to college basketball next year (Wichita State's Fred Van Vleet is the other).
"I talked about that in a meeting with Coach Williams after the season," Paige says. "We both knew I had an outside shot at winning this year. Next year, I have to look at it as my award to lose. That's the mindset I want to have going into next year."
Coming tomorrow: The unique method Paige chose to get over the Iowa State game and his strategy for assuming a leadership role this offseason.
