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University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: MJ Rewind Rapid Reactions
May 16, 2020 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Quick takeaways from a day of games featuring Jordan at Carolina.
By Adam Lucas
1. That was a fun way to spend a quarantine Saturday. It's one thing to watch Michael Jordan highlights from college, but the MJ Rewind on ACC Network enabled you to see five entire games of context.
2. The day's first game was against Wake Forest during the 1982-83 season. The Deacs are largely an ACC historical footnote in that era, given that most of the focus was on Carolina and Virginia, but this was quietly one of the two most competitive Carolina-Wake stretches in the long series history. Carolina and Wake were both ranked in seven of the nine meetings between January of 1981 and January of 1984. The Deacons won two of those games, including a 55-48 win at Carmichael in 1982 that was one of only two defeats for the eventual national champions.
The other golden era of Carolina-Wake during the AP ranking era? The Tar Heels and Deacons were both ranked in eight straight games from 1995-97. What hasn't changed during any part of this history? The Tar Heels remain the team Wake fans want to beat more than anyone in the country, and that's an attitude that was easily observable even in 1983.
3. Some typical 1980s camerawork at the end of the first game, as the cameras completely missed the decisive Wake foul that sent Matt Doherty to the free throw line. Doherty stepped up and hit both of them to win the game, which led to another early 1980s hallmark: the Carolina sprint to the locker room. Dean Smith didn't want his team to get caught up in on-court traffic and the postgame handshake/hug line wasn't yet invented, so as soon as the game was over, win or lose, the Tar Heel players headed to the locker room while Smith shook hands with the opposing coach.
4. It's fun to have an extended viewing of Jordan as a collegian, rather than just a highlight reel, because you can start to see the foundations of what would eventually be one of the NBA's best defensive players. Jordan's athleticism and intensity were enough to make him a very good defender. Saturday's games showed you that he's also always had uncanny instincts that enabled him to be in the right place at the right time and then let his athleticism take over.
5. At least once per game, Jordan's amazing leaping ability enabled him to jump, be followed into the air by his defender, hang and wait for the defender to return to the ground, and then score. He had a three-point play in the 1983 Clemson game (the day's second game) that would have been a career highlight for almost anyone else but in his archive is nothing more than a normal basket.
6. Saturday was about Jordan, but it was also a nice reminder of exactly how good Sam Perkins was as a collegian. In addition to his stead contributions in the paint, he also flashed some of the range that would also provide him with a very long and fruitful NBA career. Perkins' three-pointer at the end of the 1983 Wake game tied the score with a minute to play.
7. Part of Dean Smith's well-chronicled genius was his reliance on multiple defenses. That didn't just mean he would change sets during the course of a game. In the final three minutes of the win at Clemson, Smith had his Tar Heels start in the point zone. As the Tigers held the ball with the shot clock off, Smith eventually transitioned his squad into man-to-man after a minute of playing zone. Clemson did not score, and Carolina sealed the win. Smith's use of multiple defenses wasn't a gimmick--he wasn't just switching for one possession. He was carefully selecting the defense he felt best fit the situation, and his team was executing it. The Tar Heels showed at least a half-dozen different defensive looks in the five games.
8. The three games at Carmichael Auditorium were a nice reminder of what a different environment that was for college basketball. It was loud, as you've no doubt heard. But it was also respectful, as Dean Smith actively discouraged any booing, waving arms during opposing free throws, or in any way jeering the opponent. You can still see an echo of Smith's attitude towards the opponents when you watch Roy Williams stand and applaud the opponent's starting lineup before every game.
9. The 1983 comeback against Virginia, the day's third game, is one of the all-time Dean Smith classics. Against one of the nation's best teams, facing a 16-point deficit, Smith calmly orchestrated his team back into the game. It also had one of his most-often quoted lines during the course of game action. As the Tar Heels were making their comeback, he called timeout and asked his team, "Wouldn't it be fun to come back and win this game?"
10. Jordan's final minute in that game is well documented, as he tapped in a Jimmy Braddock miss, stole the ball from Rick Carlisle, slammed home a one-handed dunk, and grabbed the game-clinching rebound over Ralph Sampson. Not as well-known: Jordan made all those heroics having not eaten solid food in five days, as he'd been dealing with an infected wisdom tooth.
11. Current fans will tell you the 2012 team would have won a national title if not for the injury to Kendall Marshall. The original iteration of that situation was the 1984 team, which was undefeated when Kenny Smith was hammered to the Carmichael floor by LSU's John Tudor. As you saw in the day's fourth game, a home win over Virginia, that squad was unstoppable when they were rolling, as Smith was the perfect point guard to feed Jordan, Perkins and Brad Daugherty. They were never quite the same after Kenny Smith came back from the injury (Dean Smith said Carolina might have brought him back too soon), and you saw the post-injury version of the team in the day's last game, when they needed double overtime to beat Duke. The 1984 Virginia team that the Tar Heels dominated for a long stretch of the game (and beat by 13 points in Charlottesville) made the Final Four.
12. Nugget that required a double-take: Rick Carlisle was 24 years old when he was in college? It's true, as his birthday is Oct. 27, 1959, so he was a solid 24 and a half in that 1984 Tar Heel win over the Cavaliers. Carlisle, of course, has quite a history with the Heels, having the ball stolen by Jordan in the game-turning play in 1983, shooting 3-for-10 in the 1984 UNC win in Chapel Hill, and, as you saw in "The Last Dance," being on the defensive end while Jordan scored 63 points in the NBA playoffs in 1986.
13. As you probably guessed, the original design of the play at the end of regulation in the 1984 Duke game (the final game of the day) had the ball going to Jordan on the left side. But the Blue Devils double-covered him, Matt Doherty couldn't find him, and the eventual head coach took it all the way down the middle for the clutch game-tying shot. "It's the best moment of my career," Doherty said after the game. "It's my biggest highlight as far as personal accomplishments go."
14. If the internet had existed in 1984, the Steve Hale vs. still recovering Kenny Smith debates at the end of the season would have been the as-yet-not-invented-fire emoji.
15. Things I miss: The cool angry Rameses logo with the little hat, the band playing "Carolina Victory" when a home game was in hand, the old light-up foul tower at Carmichael to signify individual fouls on a player, Duke having not won in Chapel Hill since 1966.
16. Things I don't miss: Awarding three points for a 17-foot jumper in the 1983 ACC season (it was an experimental rule in the league for that season only), turning the shot clock off in the final four minutes of each half, not having the time and score on the screen throughout the game.
17. Can't put my finger on exactly why, but I have an overwhelming desire to take a three-day trip to Blacksburg, Virginia, and to upgrade all my daily items to tactical quality.
1. That was a fun way to spend a quarantine Saturday. It's one thing to watch Michael Jordan highlights from college, but the MJ Rewind on ACC Network enabled you to see five entire games of context.
2. The day's first game was against Wake Forest during the 1982-83 season. The Deacs are largely an ACC historical footnote in that era, given that most of the focus was on Carolina and Virginia, but this was quietly one of the two most competitive Carolina-Wake stretches in the long series history. Carolina and Wake were both ranked in seven of the nine meetings between January of 1981 and January of 1984. The Deacons won two of those games, including a 55-48 win at Carmichael in 1982 that was one of only two defeats for the eventual national champions.
The other golden era of Carolina-Wake during the AP ranking era? The Tar Heels and Deacons were both ranked in eight straight games from 1995-97. What hasn't changed during any part of this history? The Tar Heels remain the team Wake fans want to beat more than anyone in the country, and that's an attitude that was easily observable even in 1983.
3. Some typical 1980s camerawork at the end of the first game, as the cameras completely missed the decisive Wake foul that sent Matt Doherty to the free throw line. Doherty stepped up and hit both of them to win the game, which led to another early 1980s hallmark: the Carolina sprint to the locker room. Dean Smith didn't want his team to get caught up in on-court traffic and the postgame handshake/hug line wasn't yet invented, so as soon as the game was over, win or lose, the Tar Heel players headed to the locker room while Smith shook hands with the opposing coach.
4. It's fun to have an extended viewing of Jordan as a collegian, rather than just a highlight reel, because you can start to see the foundations of what would eventually be one of the NBA's best defensive players. Jordan's athleticism and intensity were enough to make him a very good defender. Saturday's games showed you that he's also always had uncanny instincts that enabled him to be in the right place at the right time and then let his athleticism take over.
5. At least once per game, Jordan's amazing leaping ability enabled him to jump, be followed into the air by his defender, hang and wait for the defender to return to the ground, and then score. He had a three-point play in the 1983 Clemson game (the day's second game) that would have been a career highlight for almost anyone else but in his archive is nothing more than a normal basket.
6. Saturday was about Jordan, but it was also a nice reminder of exactly how good Sam Perkins was as a collegian. In addition to his stead contributions in the paint, he also flashed some of the range that would also provide him with a very long and fruitful NBA career. Perkins' three-pointer at the end of the 1983 Wake game tied the score with a minute to play.
7. Part of Dean Smith's well-chronicled genius was his reliance on multiple defenses. That didn't just mean he would change sets during the course of a game. In the final three minutes of the win at Clemson, Smith had his Tar Heels start in the point zone. As the Tigers held the ball with the shot clock off, Smith eventually transitioned his squad into man-to-man after a minute of playing zone. Clemson did not score, and Carolina sealed the win. Smith's use of multiple defenses wasn't a gimmick--he wasn't just switching for one possession. He was carefully selecting the defense he felt best fit the situation, and his team was executing it. The Tar Heels showed at least a half-dozen different defensive looks in the five games.
8. The three games at Carmichael Auditorium were a nice reminder of what a different environment that was for college basketball. It was loud, as you've no doubt heard. But it was also respectful, as Dean Smith actively discouraged any booing, waving arms during opposing free throws, or in any way jeering the opponent. You can still see an echo of Smith's attitude towards the opponents when you watch Roy Williams stand and applaud the opponent's starting lineup before every game.
9. The 1983 comeback against Virginia, the day's third game, is one of the all-time Dean Smith classics. Against one of the nation's best teams, facing a 16-point deficit, Smith calmly orchestrated his team back into the game. It also had one of his most-often quoted lines during the course of game action. As the Tar Heels were making their comeback, he called timeout and asked his team, "Wouldn't it be fun to come back and win this game?"
10. Jordan's final minute in that game is well documented, as he tapped in a Jimmy Braddock miss, stole the ball from Rick Carlisle, slammed home a one-handed dunk, and grabbed the game-clinching rebound over Ralph Sampson. Not as well-known: Jordan made all those heroics having not eaten solid food in five days, as he'd been dealing with an infected wisdom tooth.
11. Current fans will tell you the 2012 team would have won a national title if not for the injury to Kendall Marshall. The original iteration of that situation was the 1984 team, which was undefeated when Kenny Smith was hammered to the Carmichael floor by LSU's John Tudor. As you saw in the day's fourth game, a home win over Virginia, that squad was unstoppable when they were rolling, as Smith was the perfect point guard to feed Jordan, Perkins and Brad Daugherty. They were never quite the same after Kenny Smith came back from the injury (Dean Smith said Carolina might have brought him back too soon), and you saw the post-injury version of the team in the day's last game, when they needed double overtime to beat Duke. The 1984 Virginia team that the Tar Heels dominated for a long stretch of the game (and beat by 13 points in Charlottesville) made the Final Four.
12. Nugget that required a double-take: Rick Carlisle was 24 years old when he was in college? It's true, as his birthday is Oct. 27, 1959, so he was a solid 24 and a half in that 1984 Tar Heel win over the Cavaliers. Carlisle, of course, has quite a history with the Heels, having the ball stolen by Jordan in the game-turning play in 1983, shooting 3-for-10 in the 1984 UNC win in Chapel Hill, and, as you saw in "The Last Dance," being on the defensive end while Jordan scored 63 points in the NBA playoffs in 1986.
13. As you probably guessed, the original design of the play at the end of regulation in the 1984 Duke game (the final game of the day) had the ball going to Jordan on the left side. But the Blue Devils double-covered him, Matt Doherty couldn't find him, and the eventual head coach took it all the way down the middle for the clutch game-tying shot. "It's the best moment of my career," Doherty said after the game. "It's my biggest highlight as far as personal accomplishments go."
14. If the internet had existed in 1984, the Steve Hale vs. still recovering Kenny Smith debates at the end of the season would have been the as-yet-not-invented-fire emoji.
15. Things I miss: The cool angry Rameses logo with the little hat, the band playing "Carolina Victory" when a home game was in hand, the old light-up foul tower at Carmichael to signify individual fouls on a player, Duke having not won in Chapel Hill since 1966.
16. Things I don't miss: Awarding three points for a 17-foot jumper in the 1983 ACC season (it was an experimental rule in the league for that season only), turning the shot clock off in the final four minutes of each half, not having the time and score on the screen throughout the game.
17. Can't put my finger on exactly why, but I have an overwhelming desire to take a three-day trip to Blacksburg, Virginia, and to upgrade all my daily items to tactical quality.
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