Lucas: Every Rose

By Adam Lucas

WASHINGTON, D.C.—I want to talk to the ten year olds.

Carolina lost to NC State in the 2024 ACC Tournament championship in Washington, D.C., as a middling Wolfpack regular season was redeemed with a victory over a regular season champion Tar Heel squad. You may not have realized this was possible.

Trust me, it is.

The same exact thing happened in 1987. And I can relate, because I was ten years old when it happened. I sat in the Capital Centre and watched someone named Vinny Del Negro torch the Tar Heels.

You may not have heard of Vinny Del Negro, who by all accounts is a very nice individual and went on to play and coach in the NBA. He also went on to be irrationally despised by one young ten-year-old Tar Heel fan, probably the same way you are going to feel about DJ Horne or DJ Burns or any other DJ short of Khaled.

In 1987, the ACC Tournament was the biggest event on the Southeast's sporting calendar. Don't be fooled by the fact that it was played in the Capital Centre, which was essentially an overgrown Dorton Arena.

The Capital Centre was big time. Everyone from Elvis Presley to Bruce Springsteen to Madonna performed there. The inaugural gala for President Bill Clinton was held there.

If this tells you something, the 1987 ACC Tournament title game was held on March 8. The next big event at the Cap Centre was Poison's Look What the Cat Dragged In tour stop on March 12. Two days later, Michael Jordan and the Bulls played there; Jordan shot 5-for-20.

Every rose does indeed have its thorn.

The 1987 Carolina team was the first Tar Heel squad that made me care enough to memorize the media guide, and maybe you feel the same way about the 2024 team. To this day, 37 years later, these facts are completely ingrained in my memory. I may not be able to recall other relevant details in my life without pausing, but I absolutely know that Jeff Lebo is from Carlisle, Penn. (and Carlisle arranged a Tar Heel Sports Network affiliate to listen to his exploits), Ranzino Smith was number-33, and J.R. Reid went to Kempsville High School in Virginia Beach.

Everyone has a team like that, the one responsible for cementing the addiction. 1987 was mine.

Maybe you know this year's team exactly that well. You've bought the shirts and researched the shoes and followed the social media. Being ten means you're old enough to appreciate the players and still young enough to idolize them. That's the best time to be a sports fan.

And I do have one piece of good news: caring this much about a team like this doesn't always feel as painful as it does tonight. It's true that teams, like most things you love, will occasionally hurt you. But sometimes it gives you great joy, like winning at Cameron Indoor Stadium or retiring a certain coach or winning national championships (and remember, Carolina's last four NCAA titles came without winning an ACC Tournament title).

But also, sometimes, there are nights like tonight. I had Kenny Smith, and I was certain I would grow up to play exactly like him. Maybe you have RJ Davis, and trust me, your chances of being RJ are much higher than mine were of being The Jet.

Watching Kenny Smith lose to NC State in 1987 was one of the lowlights of my life as a sports fan. But it eventually makes you better. For one thing, it makes you realize your team doesn't win all the time, which makes the victories a little more enjoyable. Those Tar Heels were undefeated—didn't lose a game!—during the ACC regular season and were coached by Dean Smith Himself. But for some reason, on that day in Landover, they lost to State.

These Tar Heels were the outright ACC regular season champions. On this particular Saturday night, though, State was a better team. Sports are dumb. Except when they're the best.

Today will also create a burning competitiveness that will serve you well later in life. Decades of Tar Heel fans have grown up not really understanding why NC State is significant. You now have a frame of reference the rest of the world hasn't had since 1987 (Forget about coaching a game for Carolina; Hubert Davis hadn't played a game for Carolina in 1987), and it will remind you that no winning streak and no blowout is enough. It might not seem like it, but this will eventually be a positive in your life. Keep in mind that State just experienced as close as they're likely to come to the night Carolina beat Duke in the Final Four. Well, either that, or they just experienced the basketball cousin to the long-term ramifications of the football Tar Heels beating Miami during the 2004 season (kids, ask your parents).

By the time you read this, the NCAA Tournament buzz will have already begun, and it will be the major topic of conversation across America this week. The ACC Tournament hasn't been what it was for decades, and no quantity of confetti cannons can change that. It's a part of the past that's been washed away by an NCAA Tournament that dominates the college basketball landscape and by conference expansion that has rendered the old leagues unrecognizable. Next year, Cal and Stanford will be in the ACC, but some people will still pretend this is the same event. Presenting any of the newcomers with the Everett Case Award will just cause a blank stare.

Don't misunderstand, though: this loss will still sting. This is your team and part of having a team is that sometimes they lose games that don't make much sense.

The first step is filling out a bracket. Tonight maybe you thought the Tar Heels would never win another game and tomorrow you'll have absolutely no reservations about writing their name in Phoenix.

Being ten isn't easy. But what you went through today will eventually make your life richer. That doesn't mean you won't have certain feelings that you may not be able to explain to those people who become part of your life many years from now.

Just for example: they imploded the Capital Centre in 2002, and it felt deliciously wonderful.

But I'm totally/mostly/not over what happened there in 1987 and am, in most/some/a few ways, a well-adjusted human being. One day, you will be, too.

Just don't ask about Vinny Del Negro.

Players Mentioned

RJ Davis

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