University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Being Elite
November 14, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
ANNAPOLIS—The main thing the Tar Heels will remember from the 2015 Veterans Classic is the peanut butter.
Right now, they're thinking about Kennedy Meeks' career-high 25 points or Joel Berry's solid floor game or Theo Pinson's stat-stuffing seven points, nine rebounds and five assists.
But what they'll remember a few years from now, when they're getting back together with former teammates in the summer at the Smith Center, will be the peanut butter. As part of the events surrounding the Veterans Classic, the players had the opportunity to eat lunch in the Naval Academy mess hall on Thursday.
They thought lunch might be an hour-long stop over a leisurely meal. Instead…
“I sat down,” Pinson said, “and the guy next to me was done with his food in five minutes. He said he had to go on to his next thing.”
“I've never seen 5000 people eat so fast,” said Sean May, who is working with the basketball staff this year and traveling with the team. “In eight minutes, all the food was gone.”
The most entertainment was provided when a new jar of peanut butter needed to be opened. At home, you probably unscrew the lid, then take a knife and break that white seal on top of the peanut butter, and then you're ready to eat.
Here's how they do it at the Naval Academy: one of the first-years takes the jar, yells “BEAT ARMY!” and smashes the jar on their head.
It's effective, if a little messy.
And that's what these trips are about. Carolina won the Carrier Classic over Michigan State in 2011. The images from that game—the sunset behind the carrier, the purple-pink sky in the background—are memorable. But the game itself is secondary to the tour the Tar Heels took of the living quarters the day before, when players and coaches tried to squeeze into the beds used by the sailors.
That's why coaches take their players on trips like this. Sure, the Tar Heels played on TV and got to face a quality opponent in a 91-67 win over Temple. But they also saw a group that is essentially their peers living a very different kind of life.
In the front row of the Alumni Hall stands on Friday night was Nick Frankfort, a Kinston native who is in his first year at the Naval Academy. His dad went to Carolina, brother went to Carolina, aunts and uncles went to Carolina, and he grew up loving the Tar Heels—when Roy Williams visited Kinston High to recruit Reggie Bullock, Nick was there and got the head coach's autograph. It's easy to picture him on the front row of the risers at the Smith Center.
But then he visited Annapolis before his junior year and fell in love with the place, which isn't hard to do when you walk around the campus. He earned an appointment and is in his plebe year, about which he says with wide eyes, “It's tough.”
He's thinking about a major in oceanography and concentrating on surface warfare or becoming a pilot. Not too many months ago, he was just a kid from Kinston. The Naval Academy takes those kids and makes them into people who rule the world. “Time management is the biggest thing here,” he says. “What I've learned is that if you're not doing something, you're doing something wrong.”
The midshipmen assemble for noon formation every day before lunch; the process of lining up takes nearly as long as the actual eating. There are too many things to do to waste time eating.
“It's a completely different lifestyle,” Pinson said. “My hat is off to them. I don't know if I could do what they're doing, getting up at 5:30 every morning and going to sleep past midnight every night.”
That's what Pinson will take home with him. There will be other opportunities to score points or get rebounds or hand out assists. When he's looking back on this season, though, there will only be one place where he saw people open peanut butter on their heads.
Thursday night, former Navy SEAL Clint Bruce—who played football at Navy and went on to play in the NFL before doing multiple tours overseas in the war on terror. He spoke for more than 15 minutes and never used any notes.
“It was great to hear about family and leadership and commitment to a team from people who live it every day,” Meeks said. “He talked about being elite, and that's what our team wants to do this year. He said in order to be elite, we have to be elite every play, every possession, every practice.”
And, of course, every jar of peanut butter.
