Lucas: The Withers Experience

By Adam Lucas

What a ride.

But as Tar Heel fans have learned over the past two seasons, that's all part of the Jae'Lyn Withers experience.

Withers took a finger in the eye in practice this week, a painful-looking injury that was significant enough that he experimented with goggles during Carolina's shootaround at the JMA Wireless Dome on Saturday morning.

The Charlotte native eventually decided to eschew the goggles for the game. But the injury was noticeable throughout the battle with Syracuse, and it could have easily been understandable if it had impacted Withers' performance. This felt like a night where he might not be very effective—it's hard to play basketball squinting through one eye.

And since it was entirely unexpected, that's exactly why you should have expected the best performance of the year from Withers. He scored 19 points in his 24 minutes, but that wasn't all. There have been times this season when he has mostly just been a standstill three-point shooter and hasn't contributed much else. That wasn't the case on Saturday, when he also added six rebounds and three blocked shots to his stat line.

You want big baskets? He had two of the biggest of the game—converting a pair of and-one buckets in a 20-second span to cap an 8-0 Carolina run that gave the Tar Heels a nine-point lead with 7:26 to play.

Hubert Davis was even effusive about Withers' defense during his postgame conversation with Jones Angell on the Tar Heel Sports Network.

"I'm really proud of J-Wit," he said. "He came up huge for us in ways people might not see. Yes, he was rebounding and hit three-pointers and finished around the basket. Where he helped us out the most was defensively. With his size, they couldn't post up that position, so we didn't have to double team that position."

And that size helped unlock what might be Carolina's best lineup. Pair Withers with one of either Jalen Washington (six points and four boards in 21 minutes before fouling out) or Ven-Allen Lubin (six points and three rebounds in 19 minutes, meaning the Tar Heel centers had a respectable 12 points and nine rebounds in a full 40 minutes). That enables Drake Powell to play small forward, where he is capable of being a defensive game-changer.

For all the talk about Carolina's center position this year, it's really power forward where they have been desperate for answers. Cade Tyson did not play a minute on Saturday, and remember that Zayden High likely would have gotten some playing time this season. That's two viable power forwards from the summer 2024 depth chart who combined for zero minutes.

So Withers does more than just provide athleticism and size. He enables the Heels to change matchups across the floor.

Sure, there is always a little bit of turbulence on any Withers journey. He had a huge defensive rebound with under two minutes remaining…only to immediately turn the ball over on a steal that turned into both an Orange three-point play and Withers' fifth foul.

Because of the win, though, that won't be the most enduring image of Withers' trip to Syracuse.

Instead, it will be him smiling through that eye injury in a happy postgame locker room, and an equally pleased head coach bragging on him to anyone he could find. "I think he played his best game of the season," Davis told Jones Angell. A few minutes later, the head coach expanded his praise. "The two years that he's been here, that was the best game that J-Wit has ever played," he declared.

There have been some downs, yes. But Saturday night was most definitely an up. There has never been much doubt that Withers is capable of performances like this one. The challenge has always been to get him to do it consistently. As Carolina enters a stretch that demands better play and better results in advance of the regular season finale against Duke, Withers is a differentiator who could elevate the Tar Heels into the top third of the ACC. There is enough of the season left that he could dramatically change this year's team storyline.

It could be exhilarating or it could be maddening or—more likely—it could be a little bit of both.

After all, it's all part of the experience.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Zayden High

Ven-Allen Lubin

Drake Powell

Cade Tyson

Jalen Washington

Jae'Lyn Withers

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