Lucas: Us And Them

By Adam Lucas

This was supposed to be fun. And there were times that it was.

Sunday's return to Carmichael was not for the players. They know Carmichael Arena as the place where the women's team plays.

It was for you, or maybe for your dad. Or for anyone who could tell you that they sat right over there when Michael stole the ball from Rick Carlisle, or that they saw the Tar Heels beat Magic and Michigan State, or that they never ever gave up on the Heels, even when they were down eight points with 17 seconds left against Duke (there are hundreds of thousands of these fans, but strangely you never bump into someone who says, "Yeah, I was so mad I turned off ol' Woody on the radio and I missed every bit of the comeback").

Those are the people who still call it Carmichael Auditorium, and of the announced crowd of 6,272, it felt like at least 5,000 of them were there to relive the magic for just one day. The seats are nicer and the temperature inside is cooler and there's a video board but, still, it was Carmichael. Even the flip scoreboard was there, right down there in the corner where it belongs near the bench...except now the bench is on the other side. But it was close enough on this day.

About these Tar Heels. Like the old building, they had their moments. There was the beautiful symmetry of Kenny Smith having started the last regular season game in Carmichael, and his son, K.J. Smith, starting this one, with Kenny in the stands. That's the Carolina family come to life. There was a stretch keyed by Brandon Robinson--who hit a three-pointer, drew a foul and hit a pair of free throws, and had a pair of assists--where things felt right. Sure, Carolina had fallen behind Wofford by eleven points on a day when the Tar Heels played without two starters, including the team's most important asset, but they were going to do it. It was going to happen. Bobby Jones was sitting right down there on the baseline, right where he keyed that same 1974 rally against Duke, and he was going to be right there to see it.

It was going to happen. Roy Williams switched up his defense coming out of a Terrier timeout with 1:17 left, throwing a surprise trap on Wofford and forcing a turnover. That might not sound that impressive, but the visitors only had five turnovers for the entire game, so this was a big moment. And then Anthony Harris, who wasn't even in uniform a month ago, scored off an offensive rebound, and it was just a four-point deficit with 51 seconds remaining.

Right then everyone from Lefty Driesell to Terry Holland knew what was about to happen. Somehow, even on a day when they didn't play very well, Carmichael was going to help the Tar Heels pull it out again. Somewhere, Rhoda Osterneck was on her feet and holding that stuffed ram above her head.

But it didn't. Wofford burned off nearly 30 seconds and then Nathan Hoover hit a three-pointer, and that was the game. Carolina lost just 20 times in 20 years of playing at the old gym, and this would be number 21.

The defeat will overshadow the fact that in many ways, the Tar Heels actually played better on Sunday than they did in the two most recent losses. They moved the ball more crisply (17 assists on 23 field goals) and they competed with more intensity. But they lost.

"We're North Carolina," said Andrew Platek. "We have to be able to step up and compete and beat teams. We haven't done that in a few games."

A despondent Robinson said it best. When things don't go well, it is the seniors who always feel it the strongest. Everyone else can imagine a future when things get better. Seniors see only the immediate present, their last chance. "I just wanted to win so bad," he said. "That's why I'm so upset. This is our third loss in a row. I don't think I've ever lost three games in a row since I've been here."

He actually has, but it was his sophomore season, and he had a very different perspective than he has now. That three-game slide was early in the ACC season, so it carried even more weight than this current nonconference streak. But Robinson was a sophomore. The Heels would work this out. Of course they would. There was plenty of time. Now it feels heavier to him.

Roy Williams often says he's never been beaten by a building. Sunday afternoon, a building tried very hard to help him win a game. That it didn't quite happen was a stark reminder that the basketball world has changed--there was an era when a program like Wofford simply wouldn't have had enough good players to compete with even a depleted Carolina team--no matter how much we desperately want it to be the exact same way we remember it.

Sunday was for us. It was for anyone who ever set their VCR to record the Dean Smith show or who wore their socks high to emulate Phil Ford. But now it's over and the focus returns to them, to the 2019-20 Tar Heels, who are scuffling and are well aware of it. Their reward? They get to visit a Gonzaga team that doesn't care that they're wounded.

"That wasn't the championship game of anything," said the younger Smith after Sunday's loss. "There is only one thing to do. That's get back in the gym and keep working. We've got two big games ahead."

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Anthony Harris

Andrew Platek

Brandon Robinson

K.J. Smith

Related Videos