Lucas: Camp Game Caps Competitive Week

By Adam Lucas

At a time when video replay is a regular part of virtually all of our major sports, perhaps it was only a matter of time before the call came to make it part of the annual summer Carolina basketball camp game.

That was the case on Wednesday afternoon at the Smith Center, where a team of former Tar Heels battled the current players (minus freshmen Zayden High and Elliot Cadeau, who were attending the University's freshman orientation).

In a close, basket-for-basket contest, the score was tied at 68 in a game played to 70 points. During a timeout, Cole Anthony drew up a play designed to utilize the alum team's big men. But some good defense by Seth Trimble—Anthony singled out Trimble for his impressive defense after the game, and you'll hear much more from the Magic guard in a fun interview on Friday's Carolina Insider podcast, which will include much more on the sights and sounds of camp and pickup this week—blew up the play and forced Anthony to improvise.

That's an area where the point guard, who will enter his fourth season in the NBA this fall, shines. He drew plenty of defensive attention, then lofted a lob pass to James Michael McAdoo cutting down the lane. McAdoo grabbed it very close to the rim and slammed it through for the game-winning points.

The play immediately set off a controversy on Roy Williams Court. The current team adamantly believed it was offensive goaltending. McAdoo wasn't so sure. "It was going to be an airball," he said. "If it had been going in, I wouldn't have touched it."

Minutes after the game, Anthony had already obtained video of the play and was showing it to anyone interested. "In the NBA, you're going to get away with that," he said of McAdoo's game-winner.

And that's ultimately the deciding factor around this time of year in Chapel Hill. Seniority—and banners—have the final say on any controversial calls. Regular pickup games have been running late at night in the Smith Center, with current and former players mixing between the teams. Earlier this week, after Tyler Zeller called a foul that was hotly debated, one of his teammates pointed to Zeller's honored jersey in the rafters (they rightly could have also pointed to the 2009 championship banner, because he was part of that team also). Enough said. It was a foul.

Much more than any one camp game, which can sometimes be a misleading snapshot of the overall picture, it's that atmosphere each night in the Smith Center that is the most important part of the summer. The level of competitiveness has been extremely high, with Anthony challenging the Tar Heel guard trio of RJ Davis, Cadeau and Trimble. But it's also educational, as the Magic point guard hung around the UNC locker room late Wednesday to offer a few pointers to the younger Heels. Earlier in the week, there was Zeller, who played almost a decade in the NBA, giving Davis a couple pointers on the most effective way to use a screen from a big man. On that same evening, a couple of Tar Heel alums tried to get in the head of Paxson Wojcik, who had made a game-winner in a pickup game and, per Smith Center rules, had to sink a free throw to seal the win.

With them chatting at the Brown transfer, he swished it, then grinned as his team stayed on the court for the next game. That environment carried over to Wednesday's camp game, which was significantly more competitive than the first game last summer, when the returning players mostly went through the motions as they were cooked by Marcus Paige.

This time, Paige was serving as the "coach" for the current team, having joined the coaching staff this month. Even in a meaningless summer scrimmage, he was on his feet encouraging the current Tar Heel defense in a one-point game late in the second half. But it wasn't just Paige—Wojcik and Cormac Ryan were also standing and shouting instructions on how to best defend Anthony and Kenny Williams, who was the alum team's most effective perimeter threat.

All week long, including in the camp game, it's felt like more players have more to prove than at this time last summer. And, of course, they do, after the Tar Heels missed the NCAA Tournament in March. Even the returning stalwarts, Davis and Armando Bacot, looked a little hungrier against the alums, hooking up on a nice alley-oop for a Bacot dunk even as they get accustomed to a roster that at one point Wednesday had the duo on the court with three newcomers—Ryan, Wojcik and Harrison Ingram.

The current team will get a rematch during the second session of camp. Until then, they'll have to be content with getting wins in late-night pickup—even as they take some losses to the ultimate deciding factors of seniority and banners.

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

RJ Davis

Seth Trimble

Related Videos