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University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: J.D. Lyon Jr.
Lucas: Maybe
March 11, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Carolina's opening ACC Tournament win conjured some hope.
By Adam Lucas
GREENSBORO—We know better.
We are rational and wise Carolina basketball fans who have seen plenty of Tar Heel teams over the years, and we know about March. We know that you do not just limp through the regular season and finish in last place and then turn it on at the ACC Tournament and win five games to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament. This does not happen. This has never happened in the history of the conference.
But still…
Did you see the Tar Heels in Tuesday evening's 78-56 demolition of Virginia Tech? There was just enough there to make you wonder if maybe, just maybe…well, you know. There was Brandon Robinson going 5-for-6 from the three-point line and those five makes ripped through the net while barely even grazing the rim. There was Armando Bacot with a double-double and Garrison Brooks with 20 points.
There was, in other words, a much better representation of the team we all expected when the season began. The Tar Heels even played a little defense, a consistent downfall this year. Leaky Black's ranginess was a problem for Virginia Tech marksman Jalen Cone, who finished 3-for-11. Twice Carolina played cohesive team defense for the full 30 seconds to force a shot clock violation.
"After the first five or six minutes of the second half, I thought our defense got a lot better," Roy Williams said. "We fouled one of the three-point attempts, which we don't like to do, but I thought our defense was better."
Someone check the tape. Those may be the first positive comments about Carolina's defense from the head coach since Late Night. And sure, he said "better" and not "good," but baby steps, people.
It was enough to make you consider the possibilities.
They are not logical possibilities, and we all understand that. We are judging the possibility of a five-game winning streak for a team that had exactly one five-game winning streak all season long—the first five games of the year.
The ACC Tournament went to 15 teams for the 2014 event. Since then, precisely three opening round participants have even advanced as far as the quarterfinals. In those six previous expanded tournaments, no last seed has ever made it to the quarterfinals. Only twice—2015 Virginia Tech and 2019 Notre Dame—has the last seed even won a single game.
And let's be honest: you had no clue about any of these facts because you barely even realized Tuesday games were taking place. And now here we are in 2020 fully rationalizing Carolina's path to the championship.
It could happen, couldn't it? Robinson did look just a little like Randolph Childress when he dropped his defender before hitting that three-pointer. Cole Anthony could be Kenny Anderson—or, pardon the blasphemy, Phil Ford—for a few days in Greensboro.
A month ago the season couldn't end fast enough. Now we're cooking up fantastical ACC Tournament scenarios to prolong it.
The margin for error is zero. There were audible gasps in the partisan crowd when Robinson chased a loose ball near midcourt late in the game and appeared headed for a collision with a Hokie. He avoided contact and Williams soon substituted him out of the game.
The situation looked grim when Christian Keeling hobbled to the bench late in the first half, but he returned and played in the second half. You can't be too careful: athletic trainer Doug Halverson whisked both Keeling and Black away for treatment as soon as Williams was finished addressing the team in the Greensboro Coliseum locker room.
Wednesday will bring a matchup with Syracuse. The Tar Heels are only 20 percent to their goal of winning five games in the event. But the unthinkable is still possible, there is more basketball to be played and two teams have been eliminated with neither being Carolina. For every time you've turned off the television this year in disgust, proclaiming that you won't watch this team play anymore, well, it wouldn't hurt to sneak a look at the television around 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
Can the Tar Heels do it? It's not likely. This is still a flawed team. Even a very good team would struggle with the five-game gauntlet. Fatigue will be a factor.
But…maybe. So let's see what happens.
GREENSBORO—We know better.
We are rational and wise Carolina basketball fans who have seen plenty of Tar Heel teams over the years, and we know about March. We know that you do not just limp through the regular season and finish in last place and then turn it on at the ACC Tournament and win five games to earn a berth in the NCAA Tournament. This does not happen. This has never happened in the history of the conference.
But still…
Did you see the Tar Heels in Tuesday evening's 78-56 demolition of Virginia Tech? There was just enough there to make you wonder if maybe, just maybe…well, you know. There was Brandon Robinson going 5-for-6 from the three-point line and those five makes ripped through the net while barely even grazing the rim. There was Armando Bacot with a double-double and Garrison Brooks with 20 points.
There was, in other words, a much better representation of the team we all expected when the season began. The Tar Heels even played a little defense, a consistent downfall this year. Leaky Black's ranginess was a problem for Virginia Tech marksman Jalen Cone, who finished 3-for-11. Twice Carolina played cohesive team defense for the full 30 seconds to force a shot clock violation.
"After the first five or six minutes of the second half, I thought our defense got a lot better," Roy Williams said. "We fouled one of the three-point attempts, which we don't like to do, but I thought our defense was better."
Someone check the tape. Those may be the first positive comments about Carolina's defense from the head coach since Late Night. And sure, he said "better" and not "good," but baby steps, people.
It was enough to make you consider the possibilities.
They are not logical possibilities, and we all understand that. We are judging the possibility of a five-game winning streak for a team that had exactly one five-game winning streak all season long—the first five games of the year.
The ACC Tournament went to 15 teams for the 2014 event. Since then, precisely three opening round participants have even advanced as far as the quarterfinals. In those six previous expanded tournaments, no last seed has ever made it to the quarterfinals. Only twice—2015 Virginia Tech and 2019 Notre Dame—has the last seed even won a single game.
And let's be honest: you had no clue about any of these facts because you barely even realized Tuesday games were taking place. And now here we are in 2020 fully rationalizing Carolina's path to the championship.
It could happen, couldn't it? Robinson did look just a little like Randolph Childress when he dropped his defender before hitting that three-pointer. Cole Anthony could be Kenny Anderson—or, pardon the blasphemy, Phil Ford—for a few days in Greensboro.
A month ago the season couldn't end fast enough. Now we're cooking up fantastical ACC Tournament scenarios to prolong it.
The margin for error is zero. There were audible gasps in the partisan crowd when Robinson chased a loose ball near midcourt late in the game and appeared headed for a collision with a Hokie. He avoided contact and Williams soon substituted him out of the game.
The situation looked grim when Christian Keeling hobbled to the bench late in the first half, but he returned and played in the second half. You can't be too careful: athletic trainer Doug Halverson whisked both Keeling and Black away for treatment as soon as Williams was finished addressing the team in the Greensboro Coliseum locker room.
Wednesday will bring a matchup with Syracuse. The Tar Heels are only 20 percent to their goal of winning five games in the event. But the unthinkable is still possible, there is more basketball to be played and two teams have been eliminated with neither being Carolina. For every time you've turned off the television this year in disgust, proclaiming that you won't watch this team play anymore, well, it wouldn't hurt to sneak a look at the television around 10 p.m. on Wednesday.
Can the Tar Heels do it? It's not likely. This is still a flawed team. Even a very good team would struggle with the five-game gauntlet. Fatigue will be a factor.
But…maybe. So let's see what happens.
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