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University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: Maggie Hobson
Lucas: Home Again
November 5, 2021 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Friday night finally felt like Carolina basketball again in the Smith Center.
By Adam Lucas
I missed this.
Friday night was basketball in the Smith Center, and you might say it was an exhibition, but it was close enough. It had been 612 days since the last authentic home Carolina basketball game, and that is too long.
Sure, there were games in the Smith Center last year, but even at the end of the season, there were as many cardboard people there as real people. That's not how Carolina basketball is supposed to be.
Carolina basketball is supposed to be like Friday night. The Tar Heels in some warmups that looked suspiciously like those same tombstone-logo warmups that Hubert Davis wore when he played. The band playing. The same usher who's been standing in your section for decades. Rameses and RJ (the ram, not Davis) taking pictures with kids.
Early in the first half I was discussing new walk-ons Jackson Watkins and Rob Landry with my son. I pointed out Landry's father, Pearce, sitting in the Smith Center stands.
"He played on the 1995 team," I told him. "He was teammates with Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace, and he went to a Final Four."
That's Carolina basketball in the Smith Center. That generation connected to this generation and history right over there in section 109 and, hey, is that Roy Williams over there near the tunnel?
You don't get all that sitting at home watching it on television. The basketball is good—more on that in the days to come—but the experience is even better.
Oh, and Vince Carter showed up. As a reminder, this was just an exhibition game. But there was Carter, in town for the weekend and getting a well-deserved standing ovation from the Smith Center crowd. Keep in mind that he left Chapel Hill in the spring of 1998, before almost everyone on the current roster was born. And yet after a 22-year NBA career, he still carries the kind of star power that makes players sneak sideways glances at him from the bench.
Carter addressed the Tar Heels in the locker room after the game. "It was really cool," said head coach Hubert Davis. "I want our guys to know what it means to have on that jersey, to be in that locker room, to run through that tunnel and to play on that floor. What better player to explain it to them than Vince Carter, who had a 22-year NBA career and was an All-America here and went to two Final Fours?"
Carolina won the game, 83-55, doing just enough well to tantalize Tar Heel fans and leaving just enough room for improvement to give Davis plenty to talk about at practice the next few days. The Tar Heels are big and versatile and talented and they can shoot.
They also have a new coach, as you might have heard. If you had even one shred of doubt that Hubert Davis treasures his experience playing for Dean Smith, consider his response to a postgame question on the Tar Heel Sports Network.
Do you remember those Smith press conferences? Do you remember how Stackhouse would tomahawk dunk on someone and Wallace would get a double-double and Smith would take a question about those two and turn it into praise for a screen Landry set for a jumper that Donald Williams missed?
Jones Angell asked Davis about the performance of Dawson Garcia, who scored a team-high 17 points. Davis was deservedly effusive about the sophomore, and also praised Brady Manek, who had 16 points. Then, without prompting, the coach added this: "How about Armando Bacot? He's been working really hard shooting the ball from outside. As a trailer on secondary he was wide open. He shot the three and made it. I was very proud of him."
Davis is exactly right. Bacot has been working hard on his shot. Swishing a three-pointer in a 28-point exhibition win might not be meaningful to everyone else, but Davis knew it would be to Bacot, and made sure to point it out publicly. As Pat Sullivan said on today's Carolina Insider podcast, Smith had a way of making players feel that what they did was meaningful to the team. That's what Davis did for Bacot.
It just felt like Carolina basketball on Friday. We'll learn much more about this team on the court in the next couple of weeks. For one evening, it was nice to enjoy what's been absent for over 600 days. And it was a nice introduction for those who were experiencing it for the first time in their lives.
"Stuff like that is one of the reasons I like being here," Manek said of Carter's appearance. "Throughout the summer, we had guys showing up. I've seen and met a ton of dudes who played here and have been through it. It's special. It shows how meaningful this place is to everybody and what it means to put on the jersey."
I missed this.
Friday night was basketball in the Smith Center, and you might say it was an exhibition, but it was close enough. It had been 612 days since the last authentic home Carolina basketball game, and that is too long.
Sure, there were games in the Smith Center last year, but even at the end of the season, there were as many cardboard people there as real people. That's not how Carolina basketball is supposed to be.
Carolina basketball is supposed to be like Friday night. The Tar Heels in some warmups that looked suspiciously like those same tombstone-logo warmups that Hubert Davis wore when he played. The band playing. The same usher who's been standing in your section for decades. Rameses and RJ (the ram, not Davis) taking pictures with kids.
Early in the first half I was discussing new walk-ons Jackson Watkins and Rob Landry with my son. I pointed out Landry's father, Pearce, sitting in the Smith Center stands.
"He played on the 1995 team," I told him. "He was teammates with Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace, and he went to a Final Four."
That's Carolina basketball in the Smith Center. That generation connected to this generation and history right over there in section 109 and, hey, is that Roy Williams over there near the tunnel?
You don't get all that sitting at home watching it on television. The basketball is good—more on that in the days to come—but the experience is even better.
Oh, and Vince Carter showed up. As a reminder, this was just an exhibition game. But there was Carter, in town for the weekend and getting a well-deserved standing ovation from the Smith Center crowd. Keep in mind that he left Chapel Hill in the spring of 1998, before almost everyone on the current roster was born. And yet after a 22-year NBA career, he still carries the kind of star power that makes players sneak sideways glances at him from the bench.
Carter addressed the Tar Heels in the locker room after the game. "It was really cool," said head coach Hubert Davis. "I want our guys to know what it means to have on that jersey, to be in that locker room, to run through that tunnel and to play on that floor. What better player to explain it to them than Vince Carter, who had a 22-year NBA career and was an All-America here and went to two Final Fours?"
Carolina won the game, 83-55, doing just enough well to tantalize Tar Heel fans and leaving just enough room for improvement to give Davis plenty to talk about at practice the next few days. The Tar Heels are big and versatile and talented and they can shoot.
They also have a new coach, as you might have heard. If you had even one shred of doubt that Hubert Davis treasures his experience playing for Dean Smith, consider his response to a postgame question on the Tar Heel Sports Network.
Do you remember those Smith press conferences? Do you remember how Stackhouse would tomahawk dunk on someone and Wallace would get a double-double and Smith would take a question about those two and turn it into praise for a screen Landry set for a jumper that Donald Williams missed?
Jones Angell asked Davis about the performance of Dawson Garcia, who scored a team-high 17 points. Davis was deservedly effusive about the sophomore, and also praised Brady Manek, who had 16 points. Then, without prompting, the coach added this: "How about Armando Bacot? He's been working really hard shooting the ball from outside. As a trailer on secondary he was wide open. He shot the three and made it. I was very proud of him."
Davis is exactly right. Bacot has been working hard on his shot. Swishing a three-pointer in a 28-point exhibition win might not be meaningful to everyone else, but Davis knew it would be to Bacot, and made sure to point it out publicly. As Pat Sullivan said on today's Carolina Insider podcast, Smith had a way of making players feel that what they did was meaningful to the team. That's what Davis did for Bacot.
It just felt like Carolina basketball on Friday. We'll learn much more about this team on the court in the next couple of weeks. For one evening, it was nice to enjoy what's been absent for over 600 days. And it was a nice introduction for those who were experiencing it for the first time in their lives.
"Stuff like that is one of the reasons I like being here," Manek said of Carter's appearance. "Throughout the summer, we had guys showing up. I've seen and met a ton of dudes who played here and have been through it. It's special. It shows how meaningful this place is to everybody and what it means to put on the jersey."
Players Mentioned
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