University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: A Joyful Noise
March 13, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
GREENSBORO—Brice Johnson checked almost every possible category on Thursday afternoon.
He did the simple stuff. The 22 points, the seven rebounds, those at this point are just typical Brice Johnson numbers.
But he even found a couple new boxes to fill.
Almost prompt his coach to spontaneously combust? Yes, Johnson did that. During a timeout with 7:34 left in the first half, Roy Williams was apoplectic at Johnson's perceived lack of effort.
“I kind of deserved it,” Johnson said. “I didn't sprint back one time.”
This was perhaps the most hilarious comment of the day. Saying Johnson didn't sprint back “one time” is like saying Joel James has “a couple” facial expressions. From roughly the time Johnson unpacked his first bag on campus, Williams has been asking him to sprint back on defense. Sometimes, Johnson even remembers. Other times, he doesn't, which is often when you might notice Montrezl Harrell dunking the basketball.
Get involved in a lengthy discussion with official Mike Eades about the best way to defend the inbounds pass? Of course, Johnson did that. In the second half, one of the ACC's best referees became concerned that Carolina's big man was reaching over the baseline to defend Louisville's efforts to inbound the ball.
Of course it would be Johnson who would be cited for this. Brice Johnson is the guy who walks across the street against a red light in a group of twelve people and gets ticketed by the police for jaywalking. Remember when Illinois ran an entire offense predicated on moving screens in 2005? With his luck, Johnson would have fouled out of that game in the first two minutes, all for setting moving screens.
So Johnson did a little bit of everything. It almost seems like plays find him sometimes. There he was committing a turnover on Carolina's first possession of the second half, but almost before you could finish muttering, “Come on, Brice,” there he was recording an assist to Marcus Paige on a three-pointer. He turned it over with under two minutes to play attempting a big-to-big pass, but less than a minute later he was grabbing the decisive rebound that clinched the win.
While all this was going on—while his coach was jawing at him, while the official was counseling him, while Montrezl Harrell was steaming at him—Johnson played some terrific basketball. He was involved in almost all of Carolina's biggest plays in the electric 70-60 win that felt a lot closer than ten points. His jumper gave the Tar Heels the lead they would never relinquish with 6:43 left, and then his offensive rebound and hoop a minute later provided a little cushion.
And in the end, it was Johnson who seemed to use Harrell's aggression against him. The Louisville big man overpursued and went for a steal 30 feet from the basket with eight minutes left in a one-point game. Johnson calmly waited for Harrell to race past him, created some penetration and a passing angle, and found Kennedy Meeks for an easy basket.
With 4:23 left, it was Harrell who missed a pair of key free throws. Johnson, meanwhile, made eight of his nine charity tosses, including eight in a row after missing his first one 2:24 into the game. Think about that. Free throws can often provide a window into too much or too little emotion. Too amped, and they'll bound off the back rim. Lose focus, and you might leave it short.
But with everything swirling around him, Johnson calmly nailed eight in a row.
“I think he thrives on it,” laughed Meeks when asked to explain how Johnson manages to be involved in everything, good and bad, during a 40-minute basketball game.
Maybe he does. But there is something else:
“Brice is the type who, when someone gets on him, he responds,” Hicks said.
And he does. And he has, game after game as the regular season has turned into the postseason. Johnson is perhaps the most turbulent good player since a young Danny Green. Not the wise, mature, Danny Green who you remember as a championship-winning senior. But the young, I'm-open-this-seems-like-a-good-time-to-shoot Green who sometimes had only a casual relationship with defense.
Green, too, came from a background that inured him to a seemingly relentless barrage of instruction from Williams. Johnson was coached in high school by his father. You know how to find the meanest, toughest, most ornery coach around? Look for the dad who is coaching his son. You might think their conversations get heated. But you can't argue with the fact that Williams has found a way to coax big-time play out of the once unheralded big man.
What's next for Johnson and his hurricane of emotions, points, rebounds and in-game conversations? The Tar Heels will find out Friday night in the ACC Tournament semifinals against Virginia. Even his teammates are never quite sure what to expect. But they know that more than ever, it's ending up as a net positive. Less than two hours after Williams bristled at Johnson on the Greensboro Coliseum court, they were together again in a happy Carolina locker room.
There was the head coach, still in his gray pinstripe suit, jumping around in the middle of the room with his ebullient players.
And there, right next to him if perhaps a little higher off the ground, was Johnson. There the duo bounced, ready to stay around another day and see just how far they might be able to push each other.
