Lucas: Stay Cool

By Adam Lucas

CLEMSON—Hold on just a second.

Carolina's 81-79 win at Clemson seems like the kind of victory that will be too easily dismissed, and maybe even grumbled about. Let's review what happened on Saturday night at Littlejohn Coliseum.

Sellout crowd in the biggest home game of the year for Clemson. With a week left in the regular season, the Tigers desperately needed a victory for their postseason credentials. Marcquise Reed made ten of his 16 shots and scored 24 points. Clemson played the Tar Heels nearly even on the glass, as Carolina had just a 39-36 rebounding advantage. The Tigers had more points in the paint, more bench points, and—for a team that doesn't really like to run—more fast break points.

Carolina's bench shot 1-for-11. The Tar Heels went eight minutes and seven seconds without a field goal in the second half. In the first half, there was a six minute and 12 second stretch when Carolina managed just one field goal, which means that during a combined 14 minute and 19 second portion of the game—that's 35 percent of the game—the Tar Heels put the ball in the basket exactly one time.

Oh, and in this season when the importance of the absence of one player has been frequently highlighted, Carolina also played the final 20 minutes and 55 seconds of the game, on the road, without their Hall of Fame head coach.

And despite all that, Carolina won.

They did. Somehow, and walking out of Littlejohn no one wearing blue or orange was exactly sure how, they pulled it off.

Here's the explanation: Carolina had seniors. And Carolina had Steve Robinson.

Let's take you back to the moment that there were 55 seconds remaining in the first half. The Tar Heels had a two-point lead thanks to one of Coby White's six three-pointers on the evening. Sterling Manley was at the scorer's table—I know this is an odd detail to remember, but it was notable that Manley was checking in after missing 16 games, so the focus was there.

But then, a few feet to the left of the scorer's table, something was happening on the UNC bench. By now, we've seen this before, but never quite like this. This was one of the scariest moments in Roy Williams' tenure in Chapel Hill, largely because a police officer was immediately on the scene. We're not used to seeing a policeman in the middle of the Carolina bench during a basketball game. His quick response was greatly appreciated, but it was also extremely unsettling.

Now imagine you're a 19-to-22 year old college student and suddenly there's an officer of the law tending to your head coach during the course of the game. Athletic trainer Doug Halverson, as always, was quick to respond and knew exactly what steps to take, but still...

"When something like that happens," even the unflappable Robinson said, "it shocks you."

While the coaches were tending to Roy Williams, there was another huddle on the Littlejohn court a few feet away from the bench. That one was being led by Kenny Williams, who called every player over to him.

"I was telling them he was going to be OK," Kenny Williams said. "Coach has been through that before, and I've been here when it's happened in a game. I told them he would be OK and we have to come together because we had the momentum going into halftime. I told them we had to close out this minute as best we could."

There is your regular reminder that in the game of college basketball, there is absolutely nothing like an experienced senior. After Kenny Williams refocused them in the face of immediate crisis, Carolina actually added two points to its lead over the next 55 seconds, in a game the Tar Heels ultimately won by…two points.

The senior, of course, eventually made a much more noticeable contribution by drilling three of four free throws in the game's closing seconds. But his most important contribution might have come much earlier in the game, while everyone else was watching his head coach climb to his feet.

Williams was one of three seniors who helped the Tar Heels win. Cameron Johnson scored 19 points and swished six three-pointers, including an enormous one while well-covered with minutes remaining. Luke Maye had another double-double. And with 10.3 seconds left, with Clemson applying full-court pressure, it was Maye who inbounded the ball and eschewed a safe pass in the backcourt, instead finding Kenny Williams streaking down the court.

It's worth noting that Williams was lined up on the free throw line while Clemson was attempting a free throw. It's not as if he snuck behind the Tigers while they were on the line and they didn't see him. Shelton Mitchell made the free throw to cut the lead to one, Maye caught the ball out of the net, Williams started sprinting, and Maye—who comes from a family of golden arms—fired the perfect touchdown pass.

"We do that in practice all the time," Maye said. "Kenny and I have a great relationship. We know where each other are going to be on the floor, and he made a great catch."

"Luke and I just have this connection," said Williams, who would probably want it to be said here that he looked an awful lot like Antonio Brown, the erstwhile star receiver of his favorite team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. "We've done that plenty of times. If he sees me going long, he trusts me to go get it."

That trust is what makes the difference. They've done it before and firmly believe they can do it again, and Maye knew even before he stepped behind the end line to throw the pass that Williams might be jetting downcourt. It was such a little play, but so absolutely essential to the win.

Robinson's pulse barely seemed to fluctuate as he watched the flight path of the ball. He worked flawlessly with Brad Frederick, Hubert Davis, and the rest of the staff over the final 20 minutes of the game, calling repeated halfcourt offensive sets that were productive during the crucial stretch of the game.

Much like we don't realize what a good win that was given all the circumstances, we don't realize how good we have it with Robinson sitting in the second chair.

"This is nothing new to Coach Rob," Kenny Williams said. "He's done it before, and he's been a head coach. The moment is not too big for him. That's Coach Rob for you."

It feels like most Carolina fans are at least somewhat aware of how absurd it is that we've had both Dean Smith and Roy Williams leading the Carolina basketball program. But almost no one fully understands how incredibly lucky we've been to have both Bill Guthridge and Steve Robinson.

The players know. You could tell by the way they talked about the second half, by how completely unsurprised they were that Robinson had pulled all the correct strings. And then Williams used the perfect description, the one that was coined by a Tar Heel and was now being applied to a Tar Heel. The originator of the phrase, Stuart Scott, would have been very happy to hear these words describing another Carolina victory.

"Coach Rob was," Kenny Williams said, "as cool as the other side of the pillow."

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Cameron Johnson

Sterling Manley

Luke Maye

Coby White

Kenny Williams

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