Lucas: A Chance

By Adam Lucas

CHARLOTTE—Carolina was in the middle of practice Tuesday when Hubert Davis whistled it to a halt.

The Tar Heels were a couple of hours away from departing for Charlotte to open NCAA Tournament play, and Davis wasn't pleased with the intensity of the session from his top-seeded team.

He made plenty of points. But the key one was this:

"Do you understand," he asked them, "how hard it is to get to this point of the season and have a chance to win the NCAA Tournament?"

He knows. His staff knows. As a player, Davis was a member of one Carolina team that had a good chance to win a national championship—in 1991, when the Heels went to the Final Four. Pat Sullivan was part of the 1993 national champions and was on teams good enough to win the whole thing in 1994 and 1995. Sean May was a 2005 national champion, but that was his only realistic chance to win a coveted title. Brad Frederick went to two Final Fours. Jeff Lebo was on some good teams, but never played in a Final Four. Marcus Paige—you already know how close he got, but his previous three teams would have needed an upset to win a championship.

You play a very, very long regular season to get to this segment of the calendar. Some teams hope to win one, or to catch the eye of the national basketball public for one fun evening or maybe, if things break exactly right, to play in the Sweet 16.

A very few know they have a real, legitimate, honest chance to win a national championship and be remembered forever.

"We rely on (Coach Davis)," said RJ Davis, "because we know he's seen the things we want to experience."

The challenge this week was making the 2024 Tar Heels understand that they are one of those teams with a chance. A real, top-seeded, gonna-take-an-upset-to-beat-them-in-the-first-weekend chance. And now they're one of just 16 squads still playing. One of these 16 is going to win an NCAA title.

Carolina beat Michigan State, 85-69. The reasons were all of the usual contributors, like RJ Davis with 20 points and Armando Bacot with 18 and Harrison Ingram with his five big three-pointers and 17 points.

But the reason they have a chance—the reason the Spartans weren't able to outmuscle them, as it appeared the gameplan suggested—was because of the reserves. Seth Trimble had two blocks and was shorted a third. Jae'Lyn Withers had a dynamic sequence midway through the second half on both offense and defense. Jalen Washington scored four big points, including a follow dunk with under five minutes to play. Washington was on the court for exactly 44 seconds in that portion of the game. He found time to get an offensive rebound and slam it home.

Plays like that are how you win. That's how you have a chance.

And that was just in the second half. In the first half, Paxson Wojcik had a big couple minutes. Imagine being Wojcik. Playing what could have been his last college game, he missed his first shot, a corner three-pointer, with his father staring straight at him from the opposing bench. But then he had the poise and the toughness to come back and grab two rebounds, one of which he turned into a transition assist that helped change the pace of the game.

"Paxson really made a huge impact on us," Bacot said. "For him to come in and step up when his number was called speaks to how guys are ready to play on our team."

It's not just the contributions from the bench. It's the "stars," like Bacot, recognizing those contributions and calling them out in front of the assembled media. Actions like that matter in the locker room, make everyone that much more focused during the opportunities they do receive.

The win was not perfect. Carolina was not good in the game's opening minutes, and will need 40 full minutes or more when they get to Los Angeles next week. "They punched first," Hubert Davis said. "Their physicality and will and want-to overwhelmed us. They caught it wherever they wanted to on the block. They were getting layups and pushing us off our screens and our spots. They were playing better than us. We came to the huddle and said, 'We can't talk about any basketball stuff until we join the fight.' And the energy level rose and that's when things started to change."

That's why Harrison Ingram was able to run off the court waving to his family, having played in his first two NCAA Tournament games this weekend and now having a taste of—and thriving on—the accompanying intensity. That's why Cormac Ryan, who has played plenty of basketball but never like this, realized the win was in hand with 90 seconds left, and then couldn't contain the emotion and just stood near midcourt, clapping vigorously. That's why Zayden High was able to linger on the court, making sure his teammates didn't have to leave the floor alone after handling postgame interview responsibilities. That's why Hubert Davis—who got a win over Tom Izzo, the coach for whom this month is supposedly named—will coach a team in the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years.

That's why they still have a chance.

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

RJ Davis

Zayden High

Harrison Ingram

Cormac Ryan

Seth Trimble

Jalen Washington

Jae'Lyn Withers

Paxson Wojcik

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