Lucas: A Familiar Feeling

By Adam Lucas

ASHEVILLE—OK, now it feels like Maui.

On a day when the temperature never rose above 35 degrees, Carolina and Stanford played a game worthy of the Lahaina Civic Center, with the Tar Heels holding on to edge Stanford, 67-63.

It felt, looked and sounded very much like a game that would be played in March rather than on the first day of December, and Roy Williams' team won it with play that would be likewise welcome when brackets are unfolding.

They didn't shoot it particularly well from the field (46.2 percent). They didn't shoot it particularly well from the free throw line (62.5 percent). They treated the basketball as if it was covered with one of those hated midcourt stickers (24 turnovers).

And if you stopped right there, it would look very much like a substantial defeat for the Tar Heels.

But here's the difference: Carolina rebounded and defended with abandon, changing the course of the game with some terrific defense and big plays at both ends over the final six minutes.

"We kept trying to make it ugly," Williams said, "but we kept competing."

The ugliness might get most of the attention, but Williams' comment about Carolina's competitiveness is quietly a big compliment from him, especially at this stage of the season. It began after Jerod Haase called his final timeout with 6:37 left. Trailing by three and defending against a set play, Carolina stoned several Stanford attempted sets, including a frequent bugaboo, the pick and roll. All five defenders—RJ Davis, Garrison Brooks, Armando Bacot, Leaky Black and Caleb Love—had good stops on the possession, which ended with a wild drive and miss.

After a Brooks free throw, the Tar Heels held again, this time with Love and Bacot twice thwarting a high screen. Then, after an "offensive foul" on Bacot, Williams directed his team to trap the first pass across midcourt, and a Love-Davis double forced a turnover.

That led to two Love free throws, which tied the game, and Carolina would trail for just 17 seconds the rest of the game.

This was the kind of win that can help a head coach persuade his much deeper team of two very important factors:

Winning is more fun than losing.
You win games like this by doing what the coaches tell you to do.

A likely new believer: freshman Day'Ron Sharpe, who hasn't had a great offensive tournament so far. But in a tie game, he had a huge block with under three minutes to play, then tipped and stole the subsequent inbounds pass. After a confident Love swished a jumper, the Tar Heels would never trail again.

But let's also talk about what Sharpe didn't do—he didn't force his offense and he didn't pout. On a day there weren't a lot of shots available, he took just three attempts, but his four assists were twice as many as his closest teammate and his seven rebounds were the second-highest total in the game.

Do what it takes to win, even if it's not what makes the highlights. No one tuned in to watch Day'Ron Sharpe pass the ball. But they were winning plays.

Leaky Black can relate. A day after he took nine shots, Black attempted just five field goals. And while his decisive drive and basket with a minute left pushed the Carolina lead to 66-63 and will get plenty of attention, equally as important was the fact that he passed up a left wing three-pointer with two minutes left he would have taken yesterday. That sequence eventually led to a pair of RJ Davis free throws.

"Leaky was sensational again on the defensive end of the floor," Williams said, offering a second straight day of high praise for the junior who played 34 minutes. Do you happen to know how many times Jackie Manuel shot the ball in the entire 2004 Maui Invitational? The answer is 12, and yet Carolina couldn't have won it without him. Black has the ability to make the same kind of impact, and Asheville may be the example that shows him that it's possible. Texting back and forth with Manuel on Tuesday evening, the 2005 national champion offered this assessment of Black's potential if he commits to a Manuel-type role: "He would be unstoppable." Winners recognize winners.

Carolina was 2-7 last year in games decided by four or fewer points. They simply looked like a smarter basketball team in their first exposure to a close game on Tuesday. Up by three points with 16.6 seconds remaining, it was senior Garrison Brooks who who sprinted to Williams on the sideline to make certain he could relay the defensive call so the Tar Heels were on the same page about whether they would foul or let the play unfold.

Haase is building a very good program at Stanford and has a Pac-12 contender this year. He had the advantage of knowing all Williams' preferences in the closing minutes. But during a Hall of Fame career, Williams has made a habit of persuading players to make the unscoutable plays that decide games like this one. Black and Brooks didn't have to get on the floor early in the second half for a loose ball scramble that forced the Cardinal to burn a timeout. Sharpe didn't have to exert max effort defending a simple inbounds pass. Black didn't have to accept the personal challenge of guarding a highly touted freshman who will be one of college basketball's best players this season.

But they all did, which made this feel much more like a Roy Williams-coached team. And much more like Maui.

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

Garrison Brooks

RJ Davis

Caleb Love

Day'Ron Sharpe

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