University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Looking Ahead
May 4, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
It's been a month, and on the morning of May 4, it didn't feel any better.
One month ago today, Carolina played Villanova in the national championship game.
Last week, the video wizards at GoHeels TV released the season highlight video for the 2015-16 Tar Heels. I'm guessing it's very good. I wouldn't know. I haven't watched it, because I know how it ends.
All of us know where we were and what we were doing on the night of April 4, 2016. I was sitting at the Tar Heel Sports Network courtside broadcast location, directly to the left of Jones Angell. They were incredible seats. The Final Four court is raised, so we were almost eye level with the hardwood. The very front row to watch Carolina in the national championship game. When we looked across the court, we saw the Tar Heel bench, and then we saw dozens of Carolina basketball lettermen.
It was one of the greatest spots in the entire world for a Tar Heel to watch the national championship game.
Sitting here, a month later, I don't remember very much at all about the first 39 minutes and 30 seconds of the basketball game. I remember everything, in excruciating detail, about the final 30 seconds and the aftermath.
That always seems to be the case. There have been three devastating losses in my life as a Tar Heel fan. I'm not talking about painful losses, like 1991 Kansas or 2007 Georgetown or 2011 Kentucky or 2014 Iowa State. I'm talking about devastating, wake-up-in-the-morning-for-a-week-and-groan losses.
There are three.
I don't remember the 1987 East Regional final against Syracuse, but I remember being in tears after the game, and telling my parents I wanted to punch Jim Boeheim. They told me that was not acceptable behavior. I still think it might have helped.
In 1998, when Carolina lost to Utah in the Final Four, I did not speak to anyone for the rest of the night. I walked out of the Alamodome alone, speed-walked to the Rams Club bus, and sat alone on the bus on the way back to the hotel, where I locked myself in my room.
And now, there is 2016.
I sat in one of the greatest seats in the world and watched Marcus Paige, one of my favorite Tar Heels to ever play basketball at Carolina, make an unbelievable game-tying shot. Right after it went through the net, there was elation, and then there was a heart-dropping moment: 4.7 seconds. That was too much time.
It was, of course. Jones called the final play perfectly. Our location was almost directly in line with Kris Jenkins' final shot. As Jenkins let the ball go, Jones said, “For the championship…”
On the release, it looked good. As Jones made his call, I tried to convince myself it was going to miss. It turns out you can do a lot of rationalization in 4.7 seconds. But it didn't matter, the ball swished through, and both Jones and I flung the pens we were holding into the air at almost the exact time.
It turned out that, unbeknownst to us, our courtside location was also directly in front of the families of the Villanova players. That meant every Wildcat, led by Jenkins, ran over to us to celebrate. They walked on the press table holding our papers. They screamed, and hugged, and smiled, and celebrated. They deserved it. They'd just won the national title.
It was the worst spot in the entire world for a Tar Heel to watch the celebration after the national championship game. My 11-year-old son cried, which simultaneously made me very proud of him and heartbroken for him.
A few days ago, I took Asher to a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field. This is probably the first year of my sports fan life that the Cubs have taken my mind off the pain of the Tar Heels rather than vice versa. We had a great time. We ate Giordano's pizza. We watched Jon Lester throw vicious cutters.
The game was close late, when Anthony Rizzo drove in the go-ahead run, and then the Cubs loaded the bases. We stood, and we cheered, and we couldn't believe it when the Cubs cracked a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth.
The player who hit the grand slam? Matt Szczur.
“You know the only bad thing about Matt Szczur?” I asked Asher after we had high-fived and Szczur got a curtain call.
“Nope,” Asher said.
“He went to Villanova,” I told him.
Asher's smile turned into a grim stare.
“Ugh,” he said.
I hesitated to even say the word “Villanova.” It felt ugly, and felt like it might always be ugly, like saying “Utah” to a certain generation of Tar Heel fans (that would be my generation).
Now it's the afternoon of May 4. And I think there might be hope.
Joel Berry, who turned into instant offense as a sophomore and has even more potential as a junior, is coming back. Isaiah Hicks, who relished putting post opponents in the torture chamber, as Eric Montross calls it, is coming back.
Oddly, though, it was Kennedy Meeks' announcement that he will return that finally made me consider the possibilities for 2016-17. It surprised me, and I'm still not exactly sure why it was the Meeks news that turned the page. We all know—Meeks included—he had an occasionally frustrating junior campaign. But Roy Williams' teams are better when they include a consistent post option, and Meeks gives the Tar Heels a two-headed post duo with Hicks.
That means freshman Tony Bradley can learn at a more reasonable pace. It means the Tar Heels have a strong core of veterans again. It means a motivated Meeks (who had 15 points and nine rebounds in the regional semifinals, scored ten in the regional final, and posted 15 points and eight rebounds in the Final Four) has another summer to commit himself to peak as a senior.
Justin Jackson's decision is still uncertain, but look at Carolina's potential roster. Go ahead, look. There's Berry, Hicks, Meeks, Theo Pinson and Nate Britt. That's five players with legitimate ACC experience. There's Kenny Williams, who showed some potential at the end of the 2016 season. There's rebounding machine Luke Maye. There's a three-player class of scholarship freshmen. There's Roy Williams, who did one of his very best coaching jobs in the just-completed season and continues to equally confound, infuriate and silence national naysayers. And if Jackson just happens to come back...wait a second--that feels a little like hope, doesn't it?
It's been a month, and for the first time it feels OK to say there will be basketball next season in Chapel Hill. Hold on: there's going to be good basketball in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels have a challenging schedule that includes the Maui Invitational and a date with Kentucky in Las Vegas. Now, finally, it feels OK to look forward to it. For the first time, Wednesday, I looked it up: the 2017 Final Four is in Phoenix. Let's dream a little.
I think I'll start by looking back, and by savoring the 39.99 games that came before those painful final seconds in Houston. Bring on basketball. Let's see if we can find that highlight video.
