Lucas: Saturdays

By Adam Lucas

Hubert Davis could come up with only one adequate way to describe the feel of Saturday afternoon's game at the Dean E. Smith Center. There was only one story he could tell that would fully explain the day, only one anecdote that could encapsulate Chapel Hill on this particular afternoon.

"Do you know," he said wide-eyed after the 79-70 victory over NC State, "that Hoots said we only had two seats left?"

The basketball office's ticket needs are a fluid proposition. Let me be clear—this absolutely does not mean you should call Eric Hoots and ask for tickets. You should not do that, because everyone else already does. The guy at the barbershop and the guy who works on the cars and the guy who knows a guy…they all ask.

But it is just good business to maintain a cushion of tickets for every game. This is North Carolina. You never know when, say, Antawn Jamison might show up (he was there on Saturday). That's a retired jersey, front row player. Or maybe it will be Bobby Jones, attending his first game in four years (he was also there on Saturday). That's a Naismith Hall of Famer. Or Dante Calabria or Shammond Williams or Phil Ford.

This is a reunion at other programs. Here, it's just a Saturday.

So it's wise to hang on to a few extra tickets in the event of those last-minute requests, which almost always happen.

Saturday, though, it wasn't possible. In fact, the Tar Heel head coach actually had some bad information. Because about an hour before the game, Hoots himself walked by.

"I have zero left," he said. "Zero."

That's the kind of Saturday that it was in Chapel Hill. It was about as close to perfection as you can get: the weather was sunny and relatively warm. It was the last weekend opportunity to be in Chapel Hill watching a basketball team that plays a fun, engaging style. There were multiple other Tar Heel teams playing all across campus. It was possible to start at Dorrance Field and watch a top-ten women's lacrosse team and then stroll over to Boshamer Stadium to watch a top-15 baseball squad and then walk down the hill to the Smith Center to watch a top-10 basketball team. It wasn't just the very best of Carolina athletics. It was pretty close to being college sports perfection, at a time when we could use a little more college sports perfection.

If you are one of the people who wants to move the basketball arena off campus, you better find a way to replicate that opportunity. Because that's a big part of Carolina basketball, and more importantly, it's a big part of Carolina.

There are other programs that have tried to do it. One of them, NC State, was visiting on Saturday. They have been ranked in the top ten a grand total of two weeks since moving to PNC Arena a quarter-century ago. They spent 34 weeks in the top ten in the 25 years prior to that, when they played on campus at a sweaty old gym called Reynolds Coliseum.

Financial challenges are a part of everyday life in college athletics, especially in the Atlantic Coast Conference. But if every day was Saturday, we'd be talking about expanding the Smith Center. There are essentially two schedules: there's the home schedule, and then there's the Saturday schedule. On all the other days, you'll find your diehards. Those are the 18,000-ish people who will be there no matter what time or day the Tar Heels play.

And on Saturdays you'll find, well, everyone. Families and out-of-state fans and old-timers and first-timers. Franklin Street will be packed and jerseys will be worn and postgame plans will be made and "priceless gem!" will be shouted. It's the perfect mix of people who are currently living their Carolina experience and those who remember exactly what it was like to live their Carolina experience, and no one has anywhere else they would rather be.

Saturday afternoon home games at the Smith Center with this type of team on the court are an afternoon in the bleachers at Wrigley, or Eric Church at Red Rocks, or the first weekend of the College World Series.

Nearly 22,000 jammed into the building on the first weekend of March.  Hundreds of them were milling around the building before the doors opened 90 minutes before tipoff. Hundreds more stopped next door at the Carolina Basketball Museum for some pregame nostalgia.

Walking down Vince Carter Letterman's Lane over two hours before the game, a father was pointing out names on one of the pillars to his son.

"Clifford Rozier," he said. "Pat Sullivan. Eric Montross."

"You remember all those guys?" said his son.

"Oh yeah," came the reply. "They could play."

This never happens on a weeknight. On a Saturday, though, people have time to linger. It's an event. I was on a Friday morning flight from Nashville to RDU. There were eight different people wearing Carolina gear on the plane. I saw two of them at the Smith Center on Friday afternoon, meaning they'd left the airport and immediately gone to the arena just to walk around outside on a non-gameday. That's why Saturdays are different.

"The energy is incredible outside just when you're driving up on a Saturday," Hubert Davis said. "There's that same energy when you run through the tunnel. It's just lit. Our crowds are always great and our fans are terrific. But Saturday afternoon ACC games are awesome."

It wasn't awesome the entire time. The first half was stressful, as the Pack shot almost 60 percent from the field and nearly 65 percent from the three-point line. Two of those three-pointers bounced around before finding the net. It was a little ominous.

And maybe you were concerned, right up until you saw the dance party. DJ Horne made one of his seven first half baskets at the first half buzzer. He and his teammates celebrated exuberantly on the court before going to the locker room. Horne made a "rock the baby" motion, as if he was putting the Tar Heels to sleep.

Here's the thing, though. These Saturday games have two halves. Maybe on a weeknight, you can build a little first half momentum and coast through the final 20 minutes.

Not on a Saturday. Not in this building. Harassed everywhere he went by Cormac Ryan, Horne was 1-for-7 in the second half.

State briefly increased their advantage to ten points 30 seconds into the second half. Less than four minutes later, the Tar Heels had the lead. The first 3:24 of the second half had a double foul and a replay review. The half as a whole had 24 personal fouls and plenty of banter back and forth between the teams, even including a Tar Heel chatting with Kevin Keatts, and athletic trainer Doug Halverson working overtime to clean up the multiple Carolina bumps and bruises.

"When things got a little chippy," Davis said on the Tar Heel Sports Network, "that got us going, too. I got fired up, the guys got fired up. We talked about raising our level of competitive fire and also staying in control of our emotions. From that point on, we took off."

It was loud. There were so many grandparents and dads and former roommates and current roommates and lifelong fans and just-learning-to-love-the-Heels fans in this particular sellout crowd. Tar Heel fan Andrew Ray's five-year-old has seen the Tar Heels, of course, but had never seen an ACC game at the Smith Center. "Wow, Dad," he said midway through the game. "It's so loud I can feel it in my heart…and I like it!"

That vibration in his heart, the feeling of that many people making that much noise, is something he'll always remember, another Tar Heel convert successfully made. That's just Saturday.

On Saturdays people get out of their seats and scream for cookies, and BMX bikers fly through the air, and the head coach tries and easily pulls off blue pants. Roy Williams had that Carolina blue coat he wore against the Wolfpack, just because he knew how much the color irritates them. These pants...they could become a thing.

Hubert Davis has played in these games and he has coached in these games. He appreciates all of them, and constantly reminds his players of the privilege of running out of the Smith Center tunnel, no matter what day it might be.

But Saturdays are different.

"Saturday games are more than electric," he said. "They are magical."

Players Mentioned

Cormac Ryan

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