Lucas: Black's Journey Continues

By Adam Lucas

In the aftermath of Carolina's 94-81 triumph at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday night, it quickly became part of the game's lore that it was the first game in Tar Heel history in which four players scored at least 20 points.

Armando Bacot had 23. Caleb Love scored 22. RJ Davis notched 21, and Brady Manek added 20.

Those four players also played every minute of the decisive second half. The fifth player, of course, was Leaky Black, who likewise never came out of the game in the final half.

The Carolina senior was talking with his father this week when Chon Black mentioned the above stat. He wondered if it bothered his son that the other four starters were getting most of the notoriety.

"You were big, too," his father told him.

Leaky Black just smiled. "Man, I know," he said. "I just wanted to make sure we spoiled their night."

And that's how Black completed the unlikely journey from frequently criticized underclassman to senior fan favorite.

A slight correction: fan favorite is not the end of the journey. That won't happen until May 8 of this year, when Black receives his diploma from the University of North Carolina.

"The goal from day one was not just to be a college basketball player," Chon Black says. "The goal was to get a scholarship, not have to pay for school, and graduate."

Leaky Black always had an advanced understanding of the game, and college coaches appreciated his blend of size and savvy. The summer after his freshman season of high school basketball, Black received his first scholarship offer, from Charlotte. His mother, Carla, was agog. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Accept it!"

"Carla," Chon said, "he's going to get a lot more offers."

He was right. There is a deep secret in the Black family that Leaky went through a Duke fan phase. After all, every child has at least one troubled phase, and Carla once handed him the JC Penney catalog to make his Christmas list. He selected several Blue Devil items for his bedroom.

Fortunately, the misguided child matured.

The night before he committed to Carolina, Black received a call from Duke. "Can you delay your commitment a bit?" they asked him.

"Nope," he said. The next day, he was a Tar Heel.

His career in Chapel Hill has not always been easy. He mostly silently played through nagging ankle injuries for most of his first two seasons, which limited his performance. Against his better judgment over the past four years, he has occasionally read social media comments, which even in the best of times are not exactly the bastion of deep thinking. Remember how seriously you took personal comments at the age of 20, and then imagine that every person in the world is capable of DM'ing you their most off the cuff remarks on your nationally televised performances.

Black's oldest sister, Mariah, is one of his best friends.

"At first, all the attention was hard, because I wanted to say something to everybody who had something to say about him," she says. "It's gotten so much easier. My brother is in school at the University of North Carolina and is getting a degree. The fact that he plays basketball and is great at it is a nice bonus. I know him and I know how humble he is, and what kind of person he is.

"What I've talked about with him is that we're all human. We're all imperfect in this imperfect world. He has to realize, he's already won. He's already successful. There are so many paths every person can be on, and he's on the path to graduate from Carolina."

Leaky Black is a unique blend of his parents. Carla is gregarious, a school principal who has no problem standing in an auditorium and doing that most impossible of tasks: holding the attention of schoolchildren. Chon is quieter, more reserved. That's the side most outsiders will typically see of Leaky. The soft-spoken observer who would rather listen than speak, who had to be coaxed onto the set of ESPN College Gameday earlier this season because he didn't want the attention. Black, you can be sure, was perfectly fine with the switch this season that did not require seniors to make a public speech after the final home game.

But his friends—and he keeps his circle very small—will tell you that he can be silly, even goofy. He still keeps most of his thoughts to himself, and he stunned his friends and family when he openly discussed his battles with anxiety earlier this season. But the mentorship from Hubert Davis and, especially, from Jackie Manuel have been season-changing…and maybe even life-changing.

"When the time comes that you're not with your child all the time, you want to make sure someone is helping feed their soul," Carla says. "You don't want them blowing sunshine in their face, but letting them know that life can be hard. You need someone other than your parents or your family to help you through those situations. Leaky told me right away that he clicked with Jackie and that Jackie had been so important for him."

Longtime Carolina fans take it for granted that everyone knows Manuel's story, of enduring a coaching change and watching his role evolve during his Carolina career. Current players don't always have that perspective. "You don't understand," they'll tell him.

"Understand?" he replies. "I lived this. I know what you're going through."

That guidance has helped Black evolve both as a basketball player and a person (Manuel's appearance on the Carolina Insider podcast has great insight on the relationship). His goofy side has peeked ever so slightly more often in the Tar Heel locker room, at the same time that his basketball production has skyrocketed. He's a newly minted member of the ACC's All-Defensive team, and he had a legitimate case for Defensive Player of the Year. He guards four different positions and has consistently guarded the opponent's best scorer all season.

He is also, improbably, the second-leading three-point shooter on the team, with his 40.5 percentage from that distance narrowly beaten out by RJ Davis' 40.6 percent. In ACC games, though, as Black has found his most comfortable spots on the floor— If a Black corner three-pointer isn't quite a lock, it's certainly a shot that Tar Heel fans have grown to appreciate—his 43.3 percentage leads the team by a wide distance.

Imagine that someone had told you that statistic before the season started: on a team with Davis, Caleb Love, Brady Manek, Kerwin Walton and Puff Johnson, the leading three-point shooter in conference games will be…Leaky Black.

The Concord native hinted after his Senior Night shutdown of Buddy Boeheim that it might not be his last game in the Smith Center. He is eligible for another year, and those discussions will have to happen after the Tar Heels finish their pursuit of ACC and NCAA Tournament success.

Regardless of his decision, though, Leaky Black is already bound for a very successful Tar Heel story.

"I'm so proud that he has persevered through all of it," Carla says. "And he's maintained what I feel is good character. What he's gone through can really make a person bitter. But he still has a good heart, he cares about people, and he never chases the spotlight. I'm proud that he'll have a degree that says University of North Carolina. And I'm proud that he's a great young man."

On that Monday night against Syracuse, Leaky said he kept his emotions intact until the video message from his father, in which Chon Black said he was the proudest father in the world. "I held it together until then," Leaky told his father after the game. "I love you."

"I love you, too," his father told him. "Remember what this journey is about."

And what is it about?

"The number one goal was always to get a scholarship so we didn't have to pay for school, and then to graduate," Chon says. "Not just to play, but to graduate. I know so many kids who play a long time and don't graduate from college. I know people who let basketball use them instead of them using basketball, and then they're out in the world with nothing to do. Everybody thinks if you don't play pro basketball, you failed. Not with my son. The goal from day one was to get a degree.

"And not only will he get a degree. He's going to get a degree at the best university in the world, he met people he'll remember for the rest of his life, and kids are wearing his shirts and calling his name. Every parent dreams of seeing their kid experience happiness like that."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

RJ Davis

Puff Johnson

Caleb Love

Brady Manek

Kerwin Walton

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