Lucas: Stay The Course

By Adam Lucas

It is very difficult to be stoic while simultaneously being completely drenched.

Cade Tyson pulled it off on Saturday afternoon.

Fresh off his Carolina-high 23 points against La Salle in the Tar Heels' 93-67 victory, Tyson was treated to a team-wide Gatorade and water bath in the locker room. He walked into the film room and sat down to do an interview with water still dripping from his jersey. He very nearly—almost—cracked a very small smile.

And then he showed off his bravado with these boisterous words: "My guys set me up really well. Coach put me in the right spots and I was able to use my gifts, talents and abilities."

Uh, Cade, you want to celebrate a little? It hasn't been an easy first month of your Carolina career. You'd taken a combined two shots in the last five games, missing both of them. The last time you saw a ball go in the basket in a game was the Nov. 22 game at Hawai'i…over three weeks ago. With ACC play looming, there was a very real danger of falling out of the rotation, with 19 minutes played over those last five games.

So it would have been justified to pound his chest a little, maybe even let a little I told you so slip out.

"I just try to stay the course," he said on the Tar Heel Sports Network. "I do what I do every day. I keep the main focus the main focus and try to get better every single day."

What he does every day is pretty simple: he works. In the last week or so, in search of that rhythm that made him one of the most sought-after players in the transfer portal this summer, he's increased the number of extra shots he's taking before and after practice and gone through a couple extra weightlifting sessions.

Saturday, the extra work paid off. Tyson hit nine of his 14 field goal attempts and sank five of his ten three-point tries. He'd scored 24 points so far in his Carolina career; he scored 23 on Saturday alone, when he made more three-pointers in 21 minutes than he had previously in his entire career as a Tar Heel (four).

"Cade played with really good confidence," Hubert Davis said on the THSN with Jones Angell. "That confidence came from the practices leading up to the game, because he had a really good week of practice and preparation."

When you see Saturday's version of Tyson, it's immediately obvious exactly how he fits and makes Carolina better.

Has good size? Check.

Can stretch the floor and open some driving lanes when opponents have to defend him? Check.

Provides some lineup versatility? Check.

"We need him," Davis said. "He is a basketball player. He has tremendous size. He can finish around the basket and guard multiple positions. He can really shoot the ball. He opens up the floor so much because you have to guard him. When you can play him at the power forward position, that's an advantage for us. It's nice to see him in a rhythm and I'm really happy for him."

There have been times this season—even if he doesn't want to admit it—that Tyson has looked frustrated. Ultimately, though, he can play. And he's important enough that Davis can afford to wait for him.

Remember that another transfer during the Davis era shot 3-for-9 in the second game of his UNC career, 2-for-7 a week later in a loss to Purdue, 2-for-8 against Elon and even 4-for-11 against Notre Dame in January. In mid-January, he was hitting only a third of his three-pointers and he was just Brady Manek.

The rest of the season, he was over 43 percent from three and he was Brady "Bang Bang" Manek and forever will be. No one remembers how he started, or any of those 2-for-8's, because of how he finished.

"Everybody struggles," Davis said. "You have to stick with it. A lot of people don't understand how difficult it is to go to a different team, different coaching style, different teammates, different school and different surroundings. It takes time. And not once during the time that Cade has struggled has he pointed the finger at anybody. He shows up every day, and I love that about him. He continues to show up, and it doesn't surprise me that after a night like tonight he acts like he's been there before—because he has."

And he wants this to be the first of many as a Tar Heel. Coming into the game, he was shooting 36 percent from the field and 27 percent from the three-point line. On Saturday, he looked nothing like that player.

The results were terrific. But not worth bragging about—at least for Tyson.

"Today was a good day," Tyson said. "But I try and treat every day the same. This one is a little special, but now I want to do this same thing in our next game."

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