University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Coach Rob
February 10, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
CHESTNUT HILL—Where to start?
Really, where? Carolina needed a furious late rally to beat a team that entered the game winless in the league, an opponent that less than two weeks ago looked completely outclassed in Chapel Hill, and that is not even close to the main storyline.
Instead, what we'll remember tomorrow, and in March, and next year, and five years from now, is the image of Roy Williams sitting on the court during a timeout with 14:35 left, and then being escorted off the floor—looking woozy—by head trainer Doug Halverson at the conclusion of the stoppage.
At that point, Boston College led 49-46, the head coach had to be helped off the court, and the Conte Forum crowd was actually increasing as the night progressed as word circulated on campus that the Eagles were on the brink of an upset.
“Everything was happening so quickly right then,” said Theo Pinson. “Coach went out, we weren't playing as well as we could have been, and we were down.”
In the Conte Forum video area, video coordinator Eric Hoots' cell phone was exploding. Tar Heels from across the nation and beyond were texting him to find out what was going on with their head coach. Within 30 minutes, he'd heard from Marvin Williams, Rasheed Wallace, Wes Miller, Jerod Haase, Harrison Barnes (who had a game with his Golden State Warriors starting in minutes), J.P. Tokoto, and Phil Ford, among others. That's Tar Heels from four different decades; that's also why Carolina Basketball is different.
On the floor, the Tar Heels were unraveling. They committed six turnovers in the five minutes after Williams left the sideline, and the Eagles stretched their lead to eight points.
"We were rattled," Kennedy Meeks said.
Then Coach Rob took over.
You might not know Steve Robinson. Since returning to Chapel Hill with Williams for the 2003-04 season, he has had an even lower profile than Bill Guthridge had as Dean Smith's right-hand man. Robinson is always the coolest guy on the bus, always in control, but he can mostly go out to eat in Chapel Hill and not be harassed even by the basketball-loving public. And now, in a game the Tar Heels could not afford to lose, he was completely in control.
With his team down seven and 7:30 remaining, he called a timeout to settle his group. His message was the same as it had been since Williams departed.
“Coach Rob did a great job of getting us back together and being positive the whole time,” said Joel Berry. “He told us this game was going to be ours. Every time we had a timeout, the first thing he talked about was emphasizing the defensive end and getting a stop, and letting him take care of the offense.”
“He brought the poise that gave us the poise to execute down the stretch,” Marcus Paige said. “As an assistant, his job is to get on us all the time, and sometimes you feel like you can't do anything right for Coach Rob. As soon as he became the next guy up, his whole demeanor changed. He made all the right calls down the stretch.”
Start with that timeout with 7:30 left. It led to an 8-0 run over the next 3:35, and Carolina had the lead with under four minutes left. Boston College wasn't done, taking the lead back at 60-59 with 2:15 remaining.
Timeout, Coach Rob. In the break, he called a play for—who else?—Paige, who promptly drained a three-pointer and very nearly turned it into a four-point play.
All that was left was for the Tar Heels to get those stops Robinson had been talking about for the last dozen minutes. Coach Rob subbed for offense, and Coach Rob subbed for defense, and the substitutions were masterful. Meeks collected a huge steal, and Paige harassed the hot-shooting Eli Carter, and Carolina survived…barely. You never know when turning points in a season might come. You never know when those moments might be that you look back on in March and point to as the fulcrum.
If this was it, then Coach Rob—who would, of course, disagree, pointing out in his postgame press conference that fellow assistants Hubert Davis and C.B. McGrath made important suggestions—deserves some credit.
“Coach Rob's demeanor put everyone else in a calm manner,” Pinson said. “We were down, but when Coach Williams went out, Coach Rob was so mellow and chill. He told us we could be really good, and if we got stops, we were going to win the game, because we have great scorers and he knew we could score.”
And he was right. When it was over, when the Tar Heels had escaped with a 68-65 decision, Robinson did—for perhaps the first time since his son, Denzel, scored as a Carolina walk-on--allowed himself a tiny little smile on the UNC sideline. But it was quick, and then it was gone. Dapper as always, he shuffled off to the locker room, where a bear hug from Williams awaited him.
“He's been like a brother to me for 21 years,” said Williams, who often says he has the best staff in America.
We never see them, though, so we have to take his word for it. Tonight, it looks like he is right. Because tonight, with no warning and no chance to really prepare for the moment, Robinson was exactly, precisely, completely what the Tar Heels needed. He was the voice of reason. He was steady when the situation was perilous. He was calm when others were frazzled.
He was, in other words, Coach Rob.
