Lucas: Connecting The Dots

By Adam Lucas

If you weren't entirely sure that Carolina Basketball was back, if you thought that maybe October 28 was just a little too early for Tar Heel hoops, all doubts were eliminated when you came around the corner…and there sat Shammond Williams in your seat.

It was late in Friday night's 101-40 victory over Johnson C. Smith, and Williams was catching up with some friends near the Carolina tunnel. He apologized, because that's who he is, and was quickly assured that in this building he can sit exactly wherever he wants. That's what happens when you go to two Final Fours and win the 1997 ACC Tournament MVP award.

That was the kind of night it was in Chapel Hill, when the game was great but was also a little bit secondary to all the surroundings. Antawn Jamison was there, looking like at any moment he might put 30 on Duke. Vince Carter was there, ready to pluck an Ed Cota alley-oop out of the air and slam it home.

Reminder: this was just an exhibition game. You don't need Red Panda when you can trot out one of the most fun teams in Carolina history, back together for one of the very first times since they last thrilled us on the Smith Center court. Jamison is a semi-regular, but we don't get to see Carter that often in Chapel Hill (that's what happens when you play in the NBA in four decades). We don't get to see Cota at many games, and you still expect him to whip a behind the back pass at any moment.

For those of us with a frame of reference, it felt comfortable to have all of them back in the Smith Center again. I need you to understand that the 1998 team was so fun to watch that a missed dunk remains one of the most electric plays I've ever seen in the Smith Center (kids, ask your parents about the off the backboard attempt in the Duke game; yes, it is slightly depressing to realize that we are indeed the parents now and this team flew up and down the court twenty-five years ago).

But for those without a frame of reference, it was just as important. Most of the 1997 and 1998 teams stuck around to meet the current team in the locker room, where Hubert Davis made sure his current players understood the achievements of the gentlemen who stood before them.

"It really pounds home the Carolina family," said Pete Nance, who played his first game as a Tar Heel and wasn't born when those teams wore Carolina blue. "Being able to see people who played here a while ago coming back to support us is something that's really cool, and something I'm not used to. Hearing their wisdom and having their support is really awesome for me."

Carolina basketball simply never, ever stops. More than three hours before the ball was ever tipped on Friday night, there was Jackie Manuel coaching his first junior varsity game for the Tar Heels, a position that's been held by a procession of talented coaches that includes Roy Williams and Phil Ford and yes, Hubert Davis.

Manuel's opponent on this night was Voyager Academy, a team coached by…Melvin Scott, a former Tar Heel and Manuel teammate. Scott coached the game--against Carolina--while wearing a Carolina polo shirt. Once it gets in you, it's impossible to get it out.

That's why, an hour after the varsity game, there was Cota, watching his 12-year-olds shoot on the floor of the Smith Center, even after the arena lights had been turned out. "First shot in the Dome," Cota narrated as he held up his phone to capture his son's three-pointer. How many of us have either imagined taking that shot or actually done it? This one just happened to be with the program's all-time assist leader rolling tape and it, of course, swished.

Just down the tunnel, Seth Trimble was balancing his dinner on top of a copier while he waited for a ride. Out on the court, Cota was reliving his glory days. Here in the tunnel, every single one of Trimble's—who spent years dreaming of being a Tar Heel and who took his own "first shot in the Dome" ten years ago—best moments is still in front of him.

But they are, at least on this night, the same.

"It was really cool to have the 1997 and 1998 teams here," Hubert Davis said. "I'm so thankful we had an opportunity to celebrate their success in their time at Carolina. I just love connecting the dots from different generations of Carolina basketball. That's what makes this place so special—the shared experiences we all have that bind us together. Having Ed Cota and Vince Carter and Shammond Williams and all those guys hanging out and talking with our guys, that's what Carolina basketball is all about."

Related Videos