Lucas: Cooked

By Adam Lucas

RALEIGH—At PNC Arena, fans are only allowed into the game an hour before tip-off.

This creates a mad rush by the students when the doors open. Wednesday night, after lining up outside in the chilly weather at the arena a scant four miles from campus, they stormed down the steps to grab the best seats. Proximity to the court, of course, meant the best opportunity to hurl creative insults at the hated North Carolina Tar Heels, the most despised foe of every single State fan.

As they sprinted, though, they were doing…something. It wasn't clear exactly what. Are they…I think they are…they are putting on white aprons. The aprons have writing on the front. What does it say?

The most early-arriving students had indeed been given aprons. Yes, aprons.

On the front, in bright red writing on a white background, the aprons read, "Let the Pack cook."

We could just stop right here and start getting ready for Syracuse—the Smith Center should be in a frenzy to welcome home the Tar Heels after one home game in six weeks—but we would miss out on so much enjoyment.

For example, we wouldn't be able to mention the NC State students who leaned over the Carolina tunnel as the Tar Heels left the floor after early warmups, around 45 minutes before tip-off. My understanding of the one-finger gesture those students were giving the Heels was that this was a game for first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference, and they were very intense about it.

But you could understand the frustration.

Since the building opened for the 1999-2000 season, there has never been a four-year class of NC State students that has experienced a winning record against Carolina in their home arena. Six different four-year classes in that time frame have left Raleigh without ever seeing a home win over the Tar Heels. Carolina has won nine of the last 11 games against the Wolfpack in Raleigh, five of them by double digits.

Wednesday night, the PNC Arena video board welcomed back T.J. Warren, a terrific State player who last played for the Phoenix Suns. Fortunately, it also gave Tar Heel fans in attendance—of which there were many—the chance to reminisce about their favorite Warren memory, which undoubtedly was the night he scored 36 points against the Heels in 2014 on this very court…only to lose to Marcus Paige, who scored 31 after halftime on his way to 35 and the game-winning buzzer-beater.

If you didn't grow up in the Triangle, you may not understand the intensity of Carolina visiting NC State in basketball. That's OK—plenty of out-of-state Tar Heel players haven't known about it, either. But for two decades now, they have been thoroughly educated before their maiden visit to Raleigh, first by Roy Williams and now by Hubert Davis. This is when it matters that Davis has a staff full of Tar Heels. At Tuesday's practice, the players were a little lackadaisical in one particular drill. Davis rebuked them. And then Pat Sullivan stepped in. "Do you understand who you're going to play tomorrow night?" he barked. "They hate you! They want to beat you more than anyone else on the schedule!"

The Tar Heels promptly cleaned up their execution, just as they did in the second half on Wednesday night. They were never very pretty, but they were often very tough, led by Harrison Ingram and his 19 rebounds.

There are a couple different types of wins in Raleigh. There's the kind where Carolina is clearly the better team, and the home crowd's expectations are low. Such was the case in Hubert Davis' first season, when the Heels won by 10 points at PNC Arena.

More fun, however, are the occasions like Wednesday, which was trumpeted as the first time in 50 years the programs had met when both were at least 3-0 in the ACC. There was something like hope in the air. This would be the year!

It appeared early that it could happen. State had some momentum, including D.J. Burns blowing a kiss to the Carolina bench after a three-point play that gave the Pack an early four-point lead while the adoring crowd chanted, "D.J. Burns! D.J. Burns!" This wasn't quite the Reynolds crowd chanting, "Gooooooooogs!" for Tom Gugliotta, but you take what you can get.

The big man got a lecture from official Roger Ayers just before halftime after a mix-up with Jae'Lyn Withers, then chuckled about it near midcourt. He'd earned the right to laugh, putting together a solid first half.

But the Tar Heels ran a series of defenders at him in the second half, occasionally double-teaming him, and he finished with 11 points and as many rebounds (two) as turnovers. That was part of a terrific Carolina defensive effort that limited State to just 27.3 percent shooting in the game.

"All the credit goes to the coaches," Ingram said on the Tar Heel Sports Network after the game. "We've made some tweaks in practice the last two weeks. We're being more physical, and we're keeping guys in front of us. We're taking more pride in guarding our guy."

The Heels are now (deep breath) 37-6 in the last 43 games against State. They are 54-13 in the last 32 seasons. Carolina is 19-6 against the Pack at PNC Arena and 23-6 in PNC Arena overall. The Heels have 165 wins against State all-time, the most in program history against any one opponent. If Carolina and State play twice per year for the next 42 years, and State wins every single one of those games…the Tar Heels will still have an edge in the all-time series.

Imagine what it would do to your mind if the Tar Heels were on the wrong end of those numbers in the series against Duke. And make no mistake, State supporters feel the same way about this series that Carolina fans feel about the Blue Devils. In the 39 Wolfpack home games at PNC Arena since Covid, they've had three sellouts. Two of them are against the Heels (the other is against Clemson). This is perhaps an appropriate time to remind you that Carolina sold out a December home game against Charleston Southern.

Now you understand why those students near the tunnel were so angry. By the time the Tar Heels left the court after the win, though, the students were gone. They'd been replaced by four fans in Tar Heel shirts and hats, high-fiving each player as they headed to the locker room.

Nearby stood a cow mascot from a chicken franchise, reminding everyone that they'd won a free chicken sandwich because Ingram was kind enough to miss two free throws late in an already-decided game.

Slight change in the dining plans for Thursday: the Pack will not need to cook. We're all going out for chicken.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Harrison Ingram

Jae'Lyn Withers

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