University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: NATE SKVORETZ
Lucas: Ninety-Five
March 1, 2026 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Carolina got a big win on a significant date.
By Adam Lucas
Leave it to David Stone to be the party planner.
Stone, better known as Stoney, is the security guard who stands at the basketball office entrance before every home game. He's been in that spot for most of the building's existence, and in addition to his longtime service, he's also a devoted Tar Heel fan.
So it really shouldn't have been a surprise Saturday evening when his first words were, "I brought cupcakes!"
Of course he did. Because if anyone would be prepared to celebrate what would have been Dean Smith's 95th birthday on February 28 before Carolina's game against Virginia Tech, it's Stoney. He'd hung a Happy Birthday banner above the bust of Smith that stands at the entrance, and the bronze likeness was even wearing a party hat that perhaps Smith himself might have eschewed.
The Hall of Fame coach would have hated any individual attention, whether on this day or any other day. But he would have loved the way his Tar Heels played, collecting an 89-82 victory over a desperate Virginia Tech team (and improving to a perfect 6-0 on Smith's birthday this century).
It does appear that Carolina has discovered something without the team's most dynamic player, Caleb Wilson. Coming into the evening, five Tar Heels were averaging double figure scoring over the last four games. Four of them did it on Saturday, and in a nearly perfect Smith-like distribution, two of them were Carolina's unquestioned current stars—Henri Veesaar and Seth Trimble—and two were less heralded reserves (Zayden High and Jonathan Powell).
It was the backups who helped Carolina weather a sluggish first half and stay close enough to seize control in the final 20 minutes. There was High diving on the ground yet again for a loose ball and contesting every rebound, and Powell swishing four three-pointers but also finding other ways to contribute.
I can almost hear Smith now: "Jonathan did make some shots, but I was very impressed with his rebounding and I loved his pass to Henri."
Oh yes, that pass.
Current UNC freshmen were born in 2007, a full decade after he retired. Dean Smith is much more a name on a building to them than a figure they can picture in the middle of a huddle. And yet they still see him constantly, although they might not realize it.
With 15:15 left in a one possession game, Virginia Tech's Neoklis Avdalas threw a gorgeous pass to Amani Hansberry for an easy Hokie basket. As soon as the ball dropped through the net, the entire Tech bench was pointing to Avdalas.
That's because of Dean Smith.
Four minutes later, there it was again. In a tie game, Powell made a hard drive and then lofted a perfect pass to Veesaar, who slammed it through. Carolina led the entire rest of the game, and on his way back down the court, Veesaar gave a very purposeful point to Powell.
That's because of Dean Smith.
He changed the game so much that 30 years after he last coached, his innovations have become a standard part of basketball. You think points per possession is a modern analytical tool? Smith used to talk about it constantly. Those huddles at the foul line? Invented in Chapel Hill.
Those are basketball principles. The reason his name is on the building is bigger than the game. It's not because he won a couple of championships. It's on the building because he's the foundation of what is supposed to make Carolina basketball then and now. He would be the first to recognize that college sports is changing. But a changing business wouldn't change who he was personally.
A quick story, if you don't mind. As part of a University project in the early 2000s, I visited Smith's house. As you can probably guess, I was completely petrified. It was remarkable enough that The Dean Smith actually had a house like everyone else, with a driveway and a front door and even—in theory—a place to sleep. Most of my life before that moment had been spent assuming Smith just lived in his office, walking downstairs to the sideline to frustrate Left Driesell or Terry Holland and then going back to his office to watch some film.
But this was his actual house. Our goal was to find a few pieces of his career memorabilia. He asked if I knew anything he should try to find. "Didn't you win the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year trophy?" I asked him.
"I think so," he said. Bear in mind this was during a time when that particular award was perhaps the biggest honor anyone in sports could receive.
"Linnea, do you know where that thing is?" he asked his wife. She didn't. He eventually found it shoved to the back of the top of a TV stand, well out of sight to anyone visiting the home. It was easy to imagine him coming back from the ceremony, shoving it in the corner, and never thinking about it again.
This coach, who spent a lifetime remembering every pertinent detail about everyone they ever met, didn't care enough to recall what he'd done with a massive individual award. But he could sure tell you all the names of the children of his third string point guard from the 1964 team.
That attitude—and those wins, too—are a big part of why Carolina basketball became so important to so many lives that nearly 22,000 packed his building on a Saturday night. Whatever the eventual decision about Carolina's future basketball home, it's a fact that when it's full and loud, it's one of the best in the country. Saturday was one of those nights, from start to finish. In a year when the Tar Heels are 17-0 so far in the Smith Center, one of the best seasons in the history of the facility, the win over the Hokies was one of the loudest of those 17.
During starting lineups, with the crowd already thumping, Powell—someone who has played in some raucous environments in the Big 12—turned to his teammates. "Man," he said, "it's lit in here."
It was lit from start to finish, a sellout crowd of 21,750 that came to cheer on a team that's starting to inspire some belief. It was a celebration of a group that has hopefully found something over the last two weeks they can carry into March.
And it was, of course, a birthday celebration.
Leave it to David Stone to be the party planner.
Stone, better known as Stoney, is the security guard who stands at the basketball office entrance before every home game. He's been in that spot for most of the building's existence, and in addition to his longtime service, he's also a devoted Tar Heel fan.
So it really shouldn't have been a surprise Saturday evening when his first words were, "I brought cupcakes!"
Of course he did. Because if anyone would be prepared to celebrate what would have been Dean Smith's 95th birthday on February 28 before Carolina's game against Virginia Tech, it's Stoney. He'd hung a Happy Birthday banner above the bust of Smith that stands at the entrance, and the bronze likeness was even wearing a party hat that perhaps Smith himself might have eschewed.
The Hall of Fame coach would have hated any individual attention, whether on this day or any other day. But he would have loved the way his Tar Heels played, collecting an 89-82 victory over a desperate Virginia Tech team (and improving to a perfect 6-0 on Smith's birthday this century).
It does appear that Carolina has discovered something without the team's most dynamic player, Caleb Wilson. Coming into the evening, five Tar Heels were averaging double figure scoring over the last four games. Four of them did it on Saturday, and in a nearly perfect Smith-like distribution, two of them were Carolina's unquestioned current stars—Henri Veesaar and Seth Trimble—and two were less heralded reserves (Zayden High and Jonathan Powell).
It was the backups who helped Carolina weather a sluggish first half and stay close enough to seize control in the final 20 minutes. There was High diving on the ground yet again for a loose ball and contesting every rebound, and Powell swishing four three-pointers but also finding other ways to contribute.
I can almost hear Smith now: "Jonathan did make some shots, but I was very impressed with his rebounding and I loved his pass to Henri."
Oh yes, that pass.
Current UNC freshmen were born in 2007, a full decade after he retired. Dean Smith is much more a name on a building to them than a figure they can picture in the middle of a huddle. And yet they still see him constantly, although they might not realize it.
With 15:15 left in a one possession game, Virginia Tech's Neoklis Avdalas threw a gorgeous pass to Amani Hansberry for an easy Hokie basket. As soon as the ball dropped through the net, the entire Tech bench was pointing to Avdalas.
That's because of Dean Smith.
Four minutes later, there it was again. In a tie game, Powell made a hard drive and then lofted a perfect pass to Veesaar, who slammed it through. Carolina led the entire rest of the game, and on his way back down the court, Veesaar gave a very purposeful point to Powell.
That's because of Dean Smith.
He changed the game so much that 30 years after he last coached, his innovations have become a standard part of basketball. You think points per possession is a modern analytical tool? Smith used to talk about it constantly. Those huddles at the foul line? Invented in Chapel Hill.
Those are basketball principles. The reason his name is on the building is bigger than the game. It's not because he won a couple of championships. It's on the building because he's the foundation of what is supposed to make Carolina basketball then and now. He would be the first to recognize that college sports is changing. But a changing business wouldn't change who he was personally.
A quick story, if you don't mind. As part of a University project in the early 2000s, I visited Smith's house. As you can probably guess, I was completely petrified. It was remarkable enough that The Dean Smith actually had a house like everyone else, with a driveway and a front door and even—in theory—a place to sleep. Most of my life before that moment had been spent assuming Smith just lived in his office, walking downstairs to the sideline to frustrate Left Driesell or Terry Holland and then going back to his office to watch some film.
But this was his actual house. Our goal was to find a few pieces of his career memorabilia. He asked if I knew anything he should try to find. "Didn't you win the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year trophy?" I asked him.
"I think so," he said. Bear in mind this was during a time when that particular award was perhaps the biggest honor anyone in sports could receive.
"Linnea, do you know where that thing is?" he asked his wife. She didn't. He eventually found it shoved to the back of the top of a TV stand, well out of sight to anyone visiting the home. It was easy to imagine him coming back from the ceremony, shoving it in the corner, and never thinking about it again.
This coach, who spent a lifetime remembering every pertinent detail about everyone they ever met, didn't care enough to recall what he'd done with a massive individual award. But he could sure tell you all the names of the children of his third string point guard from the 1964 team.
That attitude—and those wins, too—are a big part of why Carolina basketball became so important to so many lives that nearly 22,000 packed his building on a Saturday night. Whatever the eventual decision about Carolina's future basketball home, it's a fact that when it's full and loud, it's one of the best in the country. Saturday was one of those nights, from start to finish. In a year when the Tar Heels are 17-0 so far in the Smith Center, one of the best seasons in the history of the facility, the win over the Hokies was one of the loudest of those 17.
During starting lineups, with the crowd already thumping, Powell—someone who has played in some raucous environments in the Big 12—turned to his teammates. "Man," he said, "it's lit in here."
It was lit from start to finish, a sellout crowd of 21,750 that came to cheer on a team that's starting to inspire some belief. It was a celebration of a group that has hopefully found something over the last two weeks they can carry into March.
And it was, of course, a birthday celebration.
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's Basketball
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/ Men's BasketballCarolina Insider: Rapid Reactions – Men’s Basketball vs. Virginia Tech – February 28, 2026
Sunday, March 01
UNC Men's Basketball: Veesaar, Tar Heels Hold Off Hokies, 89-82
Sunday, March 01
UNC Baseball: Diamond Heels Roll to Third Straight Run-Rule Victory, 12-2
Sunday, March 01
UNC Softball: Barbee, Heels Walk Off Eagles in Game 2, 5-4
Saturday, February 28