Lucas: After Dark

By Adam Lucas

LAHAINA—The good news is you won't remember this.

That's how it works with these middle of the night Tar Heel games. The great ones—which we all know means Monday night's mammoth comeback against Dayton—are instantly memorable.

The Dayton game? Oh yeah. That's the one that started at 11:30 p.m. and I took a nap in the afternoon to be game-ready and the Heels got off to a terrible start so I went and sat in another room and then I muted the TV and Hubert called timeout and Seth high-fived Roy Williams. By the time the game was over it was 1:30 in the morning so I didn't want to text the usual crew so I sat there and listened to the entire postgame show. Then I had so much adrenaline that I watched the highlights four times ("The freshman drains it!") and tried to go to sleep but, you know, a 21-point comeback! So I just read Twitter for a while and finally fell asleep imagining the production of a junior year Drake Powell.

So, yes, we will remember the Dayton game.

The Auburn game? Don't recall it. Maybe you even dozed off at some point in the second half when the shots just wouldn't fall.

Here's what you'll forget about very soon: the Tigers are extremely talented, experienced, athletic and deep. All of the above caused a problem for the Tar Heels in a game they trailed from wire to wire. More frustrating for Hubert Davis, though, was the way Auburn outplayed his team in some of the intangibles.

"They were in control the entire game," he said on the Tar Heel Sports Network. "They ran their offense like they did in shootaround. They didn't feel us on defense at all. On the defensive end, they were disruptive for us. All the plays in the trenches—loose balls, box outs, rebounds, getting through screens and setting screens—they lived in there and won all that and that's why they won."

If you spend enough time around Davis, you'll know that this assessment of his team is one that cuts him particularly close. Running an offense like they do in shootaround is a specific Davis pet peeve; it means that the Carolina offense demonstrated no resistance at all. Saying that the Tigers didn't "feel" the Tar Heel defense means the Carolina defenders weren't engaged enough to make the Auburn offense challenging to run.

And he was right, which was especially noticeable because Auburn, on the opposite side, made every Tar Heel pass and cut an adventure. Late in the second half, the Heels had to inbound the ball near the THSN broadcast position near midcourt. It should have been an easy pass; instead, Auburn's long arms and legs contested it all over the court, eventually forcing the Heels to try twice before they got the ball in-bounds.

It was that kind of night. There's something memorable about staying up to watch one of these games after dark and realizing you are one of the only people still locked in on the Tar Heels—perhaps it is even your sheer will that is propelling them to the victory. Don't change seats. Wear the same shirt. You know the drill.

If you've ever been fortunate enough to stay up with the door to your room closed while listening to Woody and Mick describe a non-televised Carolina game on a school night after midnight so you can file a full report with your dad in the morning, then you know how special these can be.

Tuesday wasn't. It immediately goes on the pile of most forgettable games of the season, only to be recovered if the Heels and Tigers meet again later this season as a measuring stick of potential Carolina improvement.

The Tar Heels have now played three straight games that tipped off at 11:30 p.m. or later.  Wednesday will be a relative reprieve, with a scheduled 9:30 p.m. Eastern start against Michigan State. If we're lucky, it will be over before the calendar flips to Thanksgiving.

But it will still be well after dark.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Drake Powell

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