Lucas: Family In Town

By Adam Lucas

LAS VEGAS, Nev.—They tried to just watch. They really did.

But Luke Maye, Kenny Williams and David Noel couldn't help themselves. They'd spent too much time at all hours in the Smith Center, too much time in those huddles with Roy Williams, to just sit and watch as Carolina tried to grind past UCLA on Saturday afternoon in Las Vegas.

The trio—seated beside Sam Perkins, who was born cool and remains so almost 60 years later, so he was a little more reserved—were in town for a G League showcase. Kenny Williams, in fact, had a game later on Saturday afternoon. Maybe watching the Tar Heels in person isn't the usual pregame preparation for a professional basketball game. Williams couldn't help it. He had to be there.

After watching warmups, Williams looked at Maye and then turned to a member of the Carolina traveling party. "You think they've got a 24 or 32 jersey back there?" he asked.

Wouldn't that have been nice? Williams and Maye have spent the last month learning what it's like to be one of us, to have to sit helpless watching on television while the Tar Heels repeatedly don't do what you're yelling at the screen for them to do. Throw it inside! Make the shot! Guard someone! Why can't they hear me?

"It's so much harder to watch on TV," Williams said. "The nerves are crazy. When you're on the court, it's fine because you know what you can do about it. Watching on TV, man, it makes my stomach hurt."

What he learned on Saturday is that watching in person isn't much easier, at least not at this point in the season. The Tar Heels stopped and started and struggled while the coaches stomped and yelled and begged, and it all turned into a 74-64 victory.

Whew.

It wasn't easy, of course. The Bruins opened the second half on fire and closed to within one point, and then what happened?

"Anthony Harris," said senior Brandon Robinson of the freshman who was playing in his fourth college game. "He came in and stepped up big-time. He gave us a spark on defense at the end of the first half, and he played his butt off in the second half. He was making shots and making plays."

That defensive sequence at the end of the first half energized the Carolina bench more than any one single effort in the game. UCLA, a team full of drivers, had spent most of the first half taking the ball to the rim with reckless abandon. Calls of, "Driver!" were barked from the Tar Heel bench on virtually every possession, but Carolina defenders simply weren't getting many stops. It reached the point that Noel—now coaching in the G League—was very nearly diagramming plays on a clipboard during a timeout as he tried to explain to his fellow Tar Heels his frustrations.

So it wasn't much of a surprise when the Bruins' Prince Ali got the ball on the left wing and immediately tried to take it straight at Harris. But the freshman moved his feet and kept Ali out of the lane. Ali regrouped, then tried again. But again Harris denied him. UCLA eventually turned the ball over.

The play sparked every single Tar Heel--current and former--to bounce out of their seats. It was reminiscent of, well, of one of them.

"Anthony adds a Kenny Williams effect," Garrison Brooks said after the game. "He gets the job done no matter what."

That's an impressive name drop. But even more eyebrow-raising was Roy Williams' postgame commentary on the weight room work done by Harris and fellow freshman Jeremiah Francis (12 points and four assists in 28 minutes and continues to be the engine behind a slowly improving UNC offense). "Tyler Hansbrough has always been the model (in the weight room)," the head coach said. "What Jeremiah Francis and Anthony Harris have done since they came to school in June is Tyler Hansbrough-like. As freshman, they came in and put in the work and it was at a high, high level. What you see now is the reward for them busting their butt."

Understand this: no one, not even Williams' grandkids, gets compared to Tyler Hansbrough. And Harris and Francis are in their fourth college games and we've already got a Hansbrough reference? The Tar Heels might have something here.

At some point soon, they might even be able to pause and understand the elite family they've joined. Perkins, Noel, Williams and Maye were members of three different Carolina championship teams with a span of 35 years. And yet that same Tar Heel connection enabled them to sit down on a Saturday afternoon, watch their Heels, and interact with each other throughout the game as if they'd all been teammates on the same squad last season.

Williams was the most vocal, constantly imploring the younger Heels to talk on defense. Maye, as you'd expect, was a little more quiet, but he'd occasionally offer some advice. "Post hard, Mando!" he shouted at freshman Armando Bacot on one first half sequence. Bacot did, took an entry pass, and scored. "Hey!" Maye cheered, and you half expected him to add, "See? Do what I tell you to do!" to complete the Roy Williams impression.

The Carolina Family just doesn't stop, ever. When Harris checked out of the game for the final time with 20 seconds remaining, he ran to the Carolina bench to high-five his team. In so doing, he ran past Kenny Williams, who had an arm outstretched for his own high five. "Hey!" Williams shouted. Harris dutifully rerouted and slapped five with the 2017 national champion. Even UCLA coach Mick Cronin had to pause in the postgame handshake line because the Tar Heels were so busy receiving congratulations from Kenny Williams, Maye, Noel and Perkins.

Kenny Williams now gets paid to play basketball, the culmination of a dream he's had for most of his life. In a couple of hours, he'd go to his job, and he's one of the very few people on earth who gets paid for putting a ball in a hoop. He knows he's fortunate, and he admitted as much midway through the game. "It's fun," he said. He couldn't resist a look down at the Carolina bench, where the Tar Heels were tightly gathered around Roy Williams. "But it's nothing like this."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Garrison Brooks

Jeremiah Francis

Anthony Harris

Luke Maye

Brandon Robinson

Kenny Williams

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