GoHeels Exclusive: Back In Time

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

Growing up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, Jeff Lebo always dreamed of putting on a North Carolina basketball jersey and running out of the home locker room at Carmichael Auditorium, just as he'd seen the Tar Heels do on TV.

But before enrolling at UNC in 1985, he didn't think he'd ever play at the famed facility.

One of Carolina's biggest selling points during Lebo's recruitment was the chance to play at the Dean E. Smith Center, then the Student Activities Center. Lebo's freshman season was expected to be played there. And it seemed all but certain that would be the case after the Tar Heels said an emotional goodbye to Carmichael after a win over Clemson in the 1985 home finale.

Due to a slight delay in construction, though, the Smith Center didn't open until midway through the 1985-86 campaign. That granted Lebo the opportunity to fulfill his dream and play five games at Carmichael, including UNC's 90-79 victory over NC State on Jan. 4, 1986.

"It was so special for me to be able to play part of that season in Carmichael," Lebo said.

The men's basketball team hasn't played a regular-season game there since then. But on Sunday, that changes, as Carolina welcomes Wofford to what's now called Carmichael Arena.

Before the Tar Heels return to the place where they've compiled a 170-20 record, including the win over William & Mary in the 2010 NIT, Lebo and Joe Wolf – an assistant coach and the head coach of the NBA G League's Greensboro Swarm, respectively – reminisced on that 1986 NC State game.

Heading into it, Lebo said he felt more anxious than usual. Not only did he want to win to honor the building's history and the legacies of the former players he watched play there, he wanted to win for Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge.

He certainly wasn't alone.

"(Smith) didn't necessarily say, 'Let's win this one because it's the last game,'" said Wolf, then a junior. "But as players, we knew it would have special meaning. Not only from his teachings did we go from possession to possession to win each possession offensively and defensively, but we wanted to make sure we left that building on a good note."

Neither Lebo nor Wolf recall the details of the game, which wasn't particularly memorable. UNC, ranked No. 1 in the AP poll since the second week of the season, trailed for most of the first half, but managed to enter the break with a 39-36 lead. The score remained close late into the second half. Behind Brad Daugherty's game-high 28 points, though, Carolina pulled away.

Fittingly, with an 11-point lead, the Tar Heels were stalling when the clock struck zero. What happened after that is what people remember most.

"There was so much hype about who was going to score the last basket in Carmichael," Lebo said. "And Coach V (Jim Valvano) at the end of the game after we beat them, in Coach V fashion, took the ball, dribbled through all the students who had run out on the floor and laid in a layup. He wanted to be the last one to score in Carmichael.

"That was cool to watch and be a part of. And he did a great job of deflecting the fact we kicked their tail; everybody was talking about his layup. I was hoping Joe would go down and block it."

For Wolf, who had also played in the first last game at Carmichael in 1985, finally leaving the facility evoked some emotion.

Wolf, from Kohler, Wisconsin, was 11 when his older brother Jeff arrived at UNC. Jeff played for Smith from 1976-80, during which Wolf developed an affinity for Carolina. His appreciation for Carmichael and all its quirks – such as the small wood door outside the locker room – then grew between his freshman season and when the Smith Center opened on Jan. 18, 1986.

"I was a fan first before I was anything else," Wolf said. "Then I got the privilege to play for Coach Smith for four years. That first and foremost is what I think when I look back on it. I was fortunate enough to play for Coach Smith, but also in two separate buildings."

Wolf and Lebo are two of only 27 Tar Heels who have played a game in Carmichael and the Smith Center. But on Sunday, a few more will join that exclusive club.

"I think as former players, the burden that we carried wasn't just to win when we went to North Carolina," Lebo said. "To me, the burden that we carried was to not let down the guys who built this place to where it was. Now, they (the current players) get a chance to go back and play in an arena that has so much history and great players who played in it.

"Hopefully they'll have an unbelievable atmosphere for that game; I'm sure they will. And they'll get a chance to kind of go back in time and feel what we felt playing in that place and they can be a part of that history and tradition."

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