Lucas: Digging Deeper

By Adam Lucas

CHARLOTTE—Earlier this week, Carolina's four freshmen were gathered around a dinner table. "We get to go home later this week," Seth Trimble suddenly realized with a broad grin.

The conversation continued, all the normal college freshman topics—girls, exams, basketball—and then, without warning, Trimble interjected again. "I can't wait to go home," he said, and his classmates nodded vigorously in agreement.

It's worth remembering that this is exactly why you can sometimes see some uneven performances just before the Christmas break. It has been a very long time since most of the Tar Heels have been home for more than a night. Campus has been empty for a week. Most of the rest of the world has already shifted into holiday mode, certainly evidenced by the rowdy crowd that has followed the Tar Heels to the last two neutral site games, first in Madison Square Garden and then Wednesday at the Spectrum Center.

But they are expected to continue to perform at the highest possible level, even with the knowledge that as soon as the Michigan game was over, several players were departing with their parents and others were hitting the Charlotte airport on Thursday morning. So perhaps it should have been expected that the game against the Wolverines would start a little slow.

Until, that is, Armando Bacot took an elbow from Hunter Dickinson.

"I really felt like when Armando got hit in the mouth," Hubert Davis told Jones Angell on the Tar Heel Sports Network after the game, "we decided, 'Let's start swinging.'"

After that play, with roughly eight minutes left in the first half, Davis was perhaps as incensed on the sideline as he has been during his head coaching career. Two minutes later, the officials handed out four technical fouls after an altercation that included Caleb Love and Bacot. At that juncture, Michigan led by five.

But the game was about to change. "We always find a way to persevere," said Leaky Black. "When we get knocked down, we get back up."

Davis put it slightly differently in the Tar Heel locker room after the 80-76 win:

"This team is tough as nails," he told his team. "We just don't get credit for it."

Davis had a simple message for his team in preparation to play the Wolverines: dig deeper.

"That's what we were saying in the huddle at every timeout," Black said. "Dig a little deeper."

And they did, often with contributions from their veteran Concord native, who was playing in front of a group of at least two dozen family and friends ("I looked up in the stands and saw my whole neighborhood up there," Black said) a half-hour from his hometown.

The signature Black play happened with six minutes remaining. Carolina had a six-point lead, but Michigan secured a turnover and appeared to have an easy run-out layup for Dug McDaniel. Black chased him down from behind and blocked the shot—not that surprising since Black stands 6-foot-9 and McDaniel is listed at 5-foot-9.

What happened next, though, was a case study in digging a little deeper. With the ball headed out of bounds, Black leaped across the baseline to grab it. Still in the air, he twisted and spotted McDaniel even further out of bounds. In one smooth motion, he hurled the ball off McDaniel, saving possession for the Tar Heels.

"It was instincts," Black said. "I saw him out of bounds, so I would throw it off his leg. It must have been a big play, because the crowd got into it and the coaches got into it."

Three minutes later, with the Carolina lead down to three points, Michigan had the ball with a chance to tie with a three-pointer. The Wolverines tried to force it inside to Hunter Dickinson. But Black timed his defense perfectly, moving from appearing to be pinned behind Dickinson to flash in front of him and grab the steal. Black added a key basket in what was then a two-point game with just 90 seconds left, giving him nine points to go with his team-high ten rebounds (four of which were offensive, equal to the total number of offensive boards for the entire rest of the team combined).

Those are the types of plays that require a little bit extra--reminiscent of Armando Bacot's save against UCLA last season in the NCAA Tournament--Carolina has been making more regularly the last two weeks. On this night, it was enough to help Carolina hold on, and the Tar Heels quietly—still out of the national eye, which is where they seem to be most comfortable—look like a much different team than even three weeks ago. Tougher tests await, including a string of 18 straight Atlantic Coast Conference games to finish the regular season.

For now, though, that stretch still feels a long way away.

"We deserve a break," Davis said, "and we earned it."

"Merry Christmas," Black added on his way out of the locker room. "We'll be back to work soon."

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

Caleb Love

Seth Trimble

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