Lucas: The Picture

By Adam Lucas

LAWRENCE—In a very quiet Carolina locker room, a hoarse Hubert Davis looked around at his team.

Carolina had just rallied from 20 down to take the lead at Phog Allen Fieldhouse. The Jayhawks made some shots late, and a couple Tar Heel possessions went empty, with the home team eventually earning a 92-89 win.

It was encouraging and disappointing all at the same time. A raspy head coach knew exactly what it meant.

"I hope," he said, "this gives you a clear picture of how good we can be."

Good enough to push the nation's top-ranked team to the absolute limit even after being down by 20. Good enough at one of the toughest places to play in the country to take three shots to take the lead and one to tie in the final two minutes. Good enough to know they can go into any environment the rest of this season and know that they've seen an atmosphere just as formidable.

But not quite good enough to win this one. Not yet.

It was everything it was supposed to be. This was two of the three winningest programs in history, with 4,768 combined victories between them. They are so familiar that their alma maters are set to the exact same tune. These teams hadn't played an on-campus matchup since Dean Smith was a UNC assistant coach, which is exactly why so many Tar Heels didn't want to miss it.

Massachusetts Street—the Lawrence equivalent to Franklin Street—was full of Tar Heels on Friday afternoon. Some were Kansans who had a connection to Carolina. Some were visitors from North Carolina and points beyond.

All just knew one thing: they had to be here. Had to see them wave the wheat and chant Rock Chalk. So they came here, to Lawrence, which isn't all that easy to do. The Phog is very midwestern. It is absolutely a fieldhouse. But it doesn't feel at all contrived—they don't try as hard as the inhabitants of some other similarly famous venues.
This is just what they do here. Basketball is the town. Kansas City is 45 minutes away. Topeka is 40 in the other direction. Pop-a-shot machines sit on the front porch of some houses near Allen Fieldhouse.

They give directions this way: "Go to the rules of basketball," they say, "and take a right." An alumnus purchased the original rules as codified by James Naismith and donated them back to the program.

They take it so seriously that it's not hard to imagine how they might be a little annoying if only they weren't so darn nice. Simply wearing a Carolina shirt was enough reason to be thanked multiple times for attending. When the Jayhawks return this game to Chapel Hill next season, we need to return the hospitality (and, needless to say, the result).

One helpful local stopped us around five hours before the game. She was offering tips about attending a game at Allen Fieldhouse.

"It will be hot in there," she said.

She was right.

"And it's going to be loud," she added.

Was she right? Let's put it this way. At each timeout, Hubert Davis takes off his glasses and places them on the scorer's table while he talks to his team.

During those same timeouts, Kansas cranked up a variety of music on the brand-new arena speaker system. As the bass rattled your ribcage, Davis' glasses bounced up and down and slowly slid down the table without being touched. At hundreds of games and concerts at dozens of arenas, I have never seen that before.

As my new friend sent us on our way into the much cooler Kansas afternoon, she exclaimed, "I have seen more Tar Heel shirts today than Jayhawks!"

It felt like it with about eight minutes left in the game. That's when a cheer of "Tar"-"Heels!" was bouncing around the corners of the Phog. I wish you could have been in that Carolina huddle a couple minutes later. Up three with 4:50 to play, having engineered a 23-point turnaround in less than 20 minutes, it was almost—almost—quiet in there. Carolina players walked confidently to the bench. Assistant coaches checked on how many timeouts each side had remaining. Hubert Davis, who had spent most of the night pinballing around the sideline, was completely calm. He serenely folded up his glasses and placed them on the scorer's table. This time they did not bounce.

"Bring it in," he told his team, and for one of the first times tonight, they could hear him without straining.

So what is the picture we take from this night?

They didn't quite have enough. But they had something. Carolina is good enough to compete with anyone. The Tar Heels can even weather the rare off night from RJ Davis, who went 3-for-15 from the field but was an important part of a big Tar Heel push at the free throw line, where they went a combined 28-for-31.

This is North Carolina, so the object is to win, not compete. That didn't happen on Friday, but Hubert Davis learned enough about his team—in addition to the known quantities already present on the roster (RJ Davis, Elliot Cadeau and Seth Trimble) he learned he can count to some degree on Ven-Allen Lubin and Jae'Lyn Withers and Ian Jackson and Drake Powell and Jalen Washington, even in a hostile setting—to foreshadow more wins in the future. Even with some acknowledged flaws, that's a strong group of eight, with some depth behind them to supplement them in the event of injuries or foul trouble or an unexpected bad night. That's the benefit of playing a game like this so early in the season.

It's November 8, so we don't have all the answers yet. The Tar Heels need a firm answer to the question of what they will do in a one-possession game just like that when they need a high percentage possession to provide a great probability of scoring. Kansas had the answer: give the ball to Hunter Dickinson near the rim. Carolina did not have a similar solution.

Being so close and narrowly missing probably makes you lose a little sleep. Coaches do too, you know. At 1:15 in the morning as Friday gave way into Saturday, most of the UNC coaching staff was gathered around a laptop near the rear of the team plane, watching a replay of the game, examining the film and trying to find those two or three details that could have resulted in a win instead of a loss.

Carolina didn't have that answer on Friday. But the Heels are starting to get the picture.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Elliot Cadeau

RJ Davis

Ian Jackson

Ven-Allen Lubin

Drake Powell

Seth Trimble

Jalen Washington

Jae'Lyn Withers

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