University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: A Magic Trick
March 28, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
By Turner Walston
The play of the game –perhaps the play of the Tar Heels' Final Four run– started with Marcus Paige. But let's rewind a bit. At the 15:48 mark of the second half of Sunday's East Regional Final with Notre Dame, Carolina held an 11-point lead. The Tar Heels had the opportunity right in front of them to put the game away. And then, Notre Dame made their run. Helped by empty Tar Heel possessions, fouls and a Brice Johnson technical foul, the Irish reeled off 12 straight points in fewer than three minutes to take a 52-51 lead.
But Notre Dame would lead for only 21 seconds of the second half, as the Tar Heels settled down, imposed their tempo and ran away. Carolina answered with a 12-0 run of their own. Our play of the game comes in the middle of that run. Here now is an oral history of the play of the game from the players on the court and the coach and players off of it.
Isaiah Hicks had a ludicrous tip-in on a missed Theo Pinson free throw. He'd reached a hand up, and a volleyball-like bump had knocked the ball up and into the basket, making the score 59-52 for the Tar Heels. Notre Dame, who'd had a three-point answer on several occasions, went to V.J. Beachem in the corner. Beachem's three-point attempt clanged off the back iron and over to the far side, where Paige out-jumped Zach Auguste to get a hand on the rebound.
PAIGE: I was on the weak side, and Coach is always telling us [as guards], to get back in and help the big guys rebound. So I just jumped as high as I could, and I think Auguste still tipped it first. I stayed after it and me and him tipped it off each other three or four times . . .
ISAIAH HICKS: At first I thought he got it clean, but he didn't, and he was fumbling with it and stuff. I was running back and forth, because I didn't know what to do, and then once I saw him finally get it . . .
PAIGE: I was able to come up with it and save it to Kennedy.
JOEL BERRY: Marcus almost had the ball, then he lost it, then he had it again and then we almost lost it but we got it back.
Paige deftly wrapped a pass around Bonzie Colson to find Kennedy Meeks, who made one of his trademark overhead passes to Theo Pinson, streaking down the left sideline.
KENNEDY MEEKS: I already saw Isaiah out of the corner of my eye, but of course Coach doesn't want us to throw a big-to-big ball on the fast break unless he's closer to the basket, and I saw Theo running up so I just gave it to him
LUKE MAYE: He just outleted it, one of his great outlet passes to Theo.
THEO PINSON: I saw Isaiah Hicks. Once I saw Isaiah Hicks, I was like, just get it somewhere over there.
Pinson didn't hesitate, throwing a lob to the leaping Hicks, just out of reach of Notre Dame's Demetrius Jackson.
MAYE: Theo always throws a lob, so I was like, 'Oh, here it goes,' so we all got up off the bench.
SPENSER DALTON: We watched some film where Theo threw a real nice alley-oop in the ACC Tournament to Brice, so I just knew the alley-oop was coming.
KENNY WILLIAMS: From my view? I saw it coming the whole time. I knew Theo was going to throw it, first of all, and as soon as Theo threw it, I knew Isaiah was going to go get it, because Isaiah's just a freak of nature.
HICKS: Kennedy gave it to Theo, and I was like, 'OK, Theo's about to throw it,' so it's just all knowing each other. Kennedy had seen Theo open. It looked kind of weird because he didn't throw it right or something. I don't know. He was falling or something.
PINSON: I threw it super low. I was like, 'What am I doing? I throw lobs to Isaiah all the time, and one time in a game, I throw it low . . . I was mad at myself, because I didn't make [Jackson] commit enough . . . he almost got a hand on it, and that would have been a huge play, but it was a huge play by Isaiah. He definitely saved me on that one. I've got to thank him.
HICKS: I think he was going to throw it regardless. Knowing Theo, he was going to throw it regardless. He was going to throw it high but that came off low and Jackson actually tipped it. Luckily I got it.
Hicks caught the ball with two hands and brought it up, over and through the rim for the dunk.
DALTON: He just tossed that thing up and Isaiah jumped right over that guy and slammed it right on his head. It was pretty exciting all of us. The families next to us and the managers, we all just went crazy. It was awesome.
KENNY WILLIAMS: It was showtime.
JUSTIN JACKSON: I jumped out of my seat so fast. It's plays like that that can kind of change the momentum, can kind of get people more confident, because obviously Isaiah coming off of fouling out the last game and kind of in and out in this game, that kind of got him going a little bit and then got the crowd into it and it definitely got me into it.
MAYE: Every day in practice, we work on two-on-one break, and I just knew that it was coming.
PINSON: I just threw it up there, and he took care of the rest.
STILMAN WHITE: All I remember was everyone was just grabbing each other, holding each other back, because we were about to storm the floor right there. It was so much energy.
ROY WILLIAMS: And my part of it, I said, 'Get back, get back, get back.' I was clapping and screaming, 'Get back on defense!'
The Tar Heels did get back on defense, earning stops on Notre Dame's next two possessions and pushing the lead to 11. They would never look back, earning a 14-point win, the East Regional championship and a spot in the Final Four.
JOEL JAMES: For a while there, we were kind of playing to [Notre Dame's] tempo, slow and sleepy. We needed some energy. We tried to create our own energy off the bench, things like that and just didn't really spark the guys up, but once Isaiah caught that alley, the crowd got hyped and got into it and the guys on the court fed off that.
TOBY EGBUNA: Great play by Theo. Isaiah hadn't really been that into the game until that point, so it was kind of his chance to put his fingerprints on it, too.
JUSTIN COLEMAN: When he threw it up to him and Isaiah caught it and dunked it, we knew it was a game-breaker. We knew it was going to break open the game. I think that play was probably one of the best memories that you can have from one of these games. It was an awesome play.
NATE BRITT: It definitely was a bit of a relief, because the game was so slow, and it's hard to try to build momentum and go on runs like that with the game being that slow.
KANLER COKER: Can we say 'Carolina basketball?' That was amazing. I had a sense that something good would happen, especially when Kennedy made the outlet. He made it real quick, too, and chunked it down there, and then after that, it was like a magic trick. It was awesome.
HICKS: Those type of moments, that's what the team needs. Energy, energy energy. When you get out and run, that's what we want to do so plays like that just makes everybody want to run more.
And on they run, to Houston and the Final Four.
