Lucas: Natural Sound

By Adam Lucas

CLEVELAND—North Carolina and Kentucky had played 40 games of basketball prior to Saturday afternoon. There have been buzzer beaters and blowouts, epic individual performances and Final Four berths earned. There was Tayshaun Prince from the logo and David Noel driving baseline for a thunder dunk at Rupp Arena.

Just in case you've forgotten, there was also Luke Maye.

But in those 40 prior meetings, there has never, ever been a matchup like this one. Carolina prevailed, 75-63, in a game that will be remembered by those who were there more for what it sounded like than what it looked like.

That's partially because it didn't look very artistic, of course. Carolina shot 42.6 percent from the field, 25 percent from the three-point line and 62.1 percent from the free throw line—and those are the winning stats.

But especially this year, we've seen the Tar Heels win some games like that before. We've never seen—or heard, rather—one that sounded like this. For the first time this season, no outside fans were allowed. That meant no family members of players. No VIP guests of the arena. No wives of coaches.

Just the teams and a very small handful of media. When the game tipped off at 2:11 p.m.—after no national anthem and no player introductions—there were fewer than 50 people in the 20,562-seat Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse other than the two participating teams.

Also for the first time this year, the game operations staff made the choice not to use any ambient crowd noise during the game. So whether it was reserves on the bench cheering a powerful post move or a head coach instructing a player on the finer points of setting a screen, nearly every single word was audible.

When Kentucky's Olivier Sarr flattened Caleb Love on a first half screen and was called for an offensive foul, John Calipari loudly asked him, "Why would you move?" and continued to question the Wake Forest transfer all the way to the bench. After Tar Heel freshman Puff Johnson committed a second half foul, he told Roy Williams what he had done, and the Hall of Fame coach replied, "Well, then don't do that!" The Kentucky bench called Armando Bacot by name when he was shooting free throws in the second half; the Wildcat staff correctly called out a Tar Heel offensive set and the action Carolina wanted to run with five minutes remaining (it didn't matter, as Love still found Garrison Brooks for an alley-oop dunk that gave Carolina a seven-point lead).

Kentucky reserves spent most of the game eschewing the socially distanced bench area and instead gathering around the baseline at their end of the court. Late in the second half, they were told to sit down and shortly thereafter the Kentucky bench received a bench warning that was likely more because their loud volume level echoed off the empty seats than because they were saying something egregiously out of line.

It felt more like one of the preseason closed scrimmages, with coaches able to bark instructions mid-play to get an immediate reaction, than the final nonconference game of Carolina's 2020-21 schedule. It's hard to explain unless you're there, but thousands of strangers screaming feels like normal noise. Being able to hear every word from the opposing team feels much more personal, and both teams played that way in a physical, intense game.

This is college basketball in 2020. In the past week, the game time changed, the opponent changed, and then the game time changed again, before the game was finally played in front of an empty arena.

All that will be reflected in the record book, however, is that Carolina found a way to outslug Kentucky in a game slowed to a crawl by 55 foul calls, including an incredible 34 in the second half, as both teams nearly arrived in the bonus before the first media timeout. In that physical and unusual setting, it was encouraging that Carolina's freshmen played some of their best basketball of the season.

Since the summer, it's been obvious this is a competitive group. Saturday, they showed it. With RJ Davis slowed by a bruised knee that limited him to three minutes in the second half, Caleb Love had six assists and only two turnovers, Day'Ron Sharpe had 11 rebounds, Puff Johnson hit a key floater in a three-point game in the second half, and Kerwin Walton had the best game of his Tar Heel career with 13 points.

The Minnesota native hit all three of his three-pointers, all four of his free throws, and pumped in 13 points in just 14:29 of game action, showing the type of instant offense that could make him an important asset. Williams deployed a wing platoon, using Walton and Johnson to build the lead, and then Andrew Platek and Leaky Black to hold that advantage with their more advanced defense. After the win, Platek ran off the court beaming with his arms around Walton.

"I can relate to Kerwin because Coach has been on me for four years for some of that same stuff," Platek said. "I just tell him, 'Next play, next shot.' It's not all sunshine and rainbows every time you step on the court. You're not going to make every shot, but you're going to think you are."

The Tar Heel freshmen, in other words, are learning. Williams stopped practice on Friday afternoon with Carolina working on a late game situation drill. "What can we not do in the final four minutes of the game?" he asked his team.

"Turn the ball over," they answered.

And on Saturday, protecting a lead that was 56-54 with 6:21 remaining and with Love in control, they turned it over just twice the rest of the way—once a shot clock violation that still accomplished killing 30 seconds, and once on an offensive foul whistled on the point guard. Both were dead ball turnovers and both were manageable.

Which made the closing seconds much more enjoyable. With Walton at the free throw line with 13.1 seconds remaining, the arena was stone silent. After each swish from the freshman, the Carolina reserves exulted, "Woooooooo."

The deep voices rolled up the lower level. It sounded like a Carolina victory.

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

Garrison Brooks

RJ Davis

Puff Johnson

Caleb Love

Luke Maye

Andrew Platek

Day'Ron Sharpe

Kerwin Walton

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