Lucas: The Leaky Effect

By Adam Lucas

Let's be honest: Buddy Boeheim had earned the right to chirp.

The Syracuse sharpshooter made seven of his 12 shots in the first half, scoring 18 points and causing every Carolina fan to roll their eyes and text their game watching buddies, "Boeheim is about to get 40."

The Hall of Fame head coach's son was especially pleased with a couple of his final three-point shots, including one over Andrew Platek after which he provided some colorful commentary to the Tar Heels on the court and on the bench. He looked very much like someone on his way to becoming the latest opponent to set a career high against Carolina, and he was making all of them—open shots, guarded shots, fallaway shots…all of the shots.

Syracuse made 16 field goals in the first half; Boeheim either scored or assisted on nine of them. The Orange offense was running directly through him.

So Leaky Black made a cagey veteran adjustment for the second half. "I didn't want to let him get the ball," Black said. "He's a lot easier to guard like that."

This season, Black's defense has ranged somewhere between spectacular and costing him his spot in the starting lineup. He was terrific in Asheville, and then awful at NC State. How good was he in the second half against Syracuse?

Here's Boeheim in the first half: 7-12 from the field, two assists, zero turnovers.

Here's Boeheim in the second half, when Black played 19 of a possible 20 minutes, the most on the Carolina team: 0-3 from the field, two assists, three turnovers.

That's a game-changing defensive effort in a game that once again came down to the final minute. Black set the tone for the second half by swatting a Boeheim jumper into the empty Smith Center seats on Syracuse's first possession of the second period. The play was so appreciated by the Carolina bench, who had heard the first half commentary and cheered the block vociferously from the opposite end of the court, that Roy Williams had to reign in their enthusiasm.

That's not to say that Williams wasn't cranked up for the game. It's easy to forget the last meeting between these two teams, when Syracuse embarrassed Carolina in Greensboro in the ACC Tournament, 81-53. That was the night the world was on the verge of changing, as news of the impending virus crisis spread throughout the Greensboro Coliseum during the game. Maybe you remember hearing that night that the NBA had suspended the league's season. Maybe you remember being at the game and, perhaps for the first time in your life, watching people be unsure whether it was OK to shake hands.

Here's what Roy Williams remembers: "They beat our butts by 7,000 points," as he told his Tar Heels at practice this week. His numbers weren't far off. Syracuse led 7-0, 19-8, and by 21 points at halftime on the way to the 28-point win. It's a game mostly lost to history for the more important events surrounding it…and good riddance.

But Williams recalled it, and he challenged his team during preparation for the Orange. The Tar Heels weren't bad, necessarily, on defense against Boeheim in the first half, as he made some high degree of difficulty shots. But they were even better in the closing 20 minutes, keyed by Black's ability to keep Boeheim out of the offensive flow.

"I could sense him getting frustrated with his teammates," Black said.

That sense of the game was also paying dividends on offense, where Black had a game-high seven assists—"I can do better than that," he said when reviewing the postgame box score—and just one turnover. He assisted on perhaps the game's prettiest play, when the resurgent Garrison Brooks left a touch pass from the free throw line for Black on the baseline, who promptly fed it to Armando Bacot for a basket and a three-point lead with 1:22 remaining. This is how good Black can be, when he is an impactful force on both ends of the court. He can give Carolina an asset many teams don't have, a player with some size who can eliminate an opponent's best offensive threat while also creating some offense for his teammates. Playing at this level, he makes the Tar Heels a different team.

Less than a minute after that gorgeous assist, it was Black who snuck in behind Boeheim, who was trying to drive on Garrison Brooks. It was Brooks who got credit for the steal but it was Black who created it, this time prompting a different kind of verbal explosion from Boeheim.

"He lost his mind," Black said, "and started getting on all his teammates, and that's when I knew it was in his head."

And there it was, the ultimate mark of approval for a defender—the opponent turning on his teammates. The coaches will still grade the tape. They will still hand out the defensive player of the game award. But right then, with 34 seconds remaining, Black had the reward he craved the most--an opponent's frustration.

"It's a great feeling," said Black, with just the slightest of smiles. "It's what I live for."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

Garrison Brooks

Andrew Platek

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