LUCAS: FEELS GOOD...
It's very, very difficult to win an Atlantic Coast Conference basketball game.
Most of us have forgotten this, because we have watched North Carolina do it with relative ease for years or decades or generations. But it's really, really hard. Great coaches come into the ACC and fail almost every season.
So in the wake of Carolina's 88-65 thrashing of Georgia Tech on Saturday night, let's do something we very rarely do over the course of a season, unless it's a big win over a rival or a top-10 showdown: let's enjoy it.
Things went remarkably well for the Tar Heels at the Smith Center. They scored inside, with Armando Bacot going for another 29 points and 12 rebounds. They scored from the outside, with RJ Davis pumping in 21 points. Coming off a couple wins with a high quantity of court time for the starters, no Tar Heel played more than 29 minutes.
Assistant coach Jeff Lebo's scouting report focused on Georgia Tech's Michael Devoe, the second-leading scorer in the league. With stellar defensive work from Leaky Black—and good work in first half relief by Caleb Love—Devoe was held to just 1-for-5 from the field, didn't make a three-point basket, and had six turnovers.
"We were really good on both ends of the floor," Hubert Davis said. But then that notorious pessimist Davis added, "With the exception of when we were turning the ball over," and this column is for good vibes only, Coach Davis, so we're going to have to ask you to comply.
What was it that Josh Pastner had said in his incredibly endearing pregame interview on the Tar Heel Sports Nework? "If I live to 100 years old, God willing, I'm 44 now. That means I only have 56 years left. That is so short. Life is so precious and quick. Every breath is a gift and every heartbeat is a gift. When you keep that in perspective, yeah, stress happens and life happens. But if you keep that mentality, you can go through life and enjoy every day."
He's right, of course. It's just unusual to get that perspective from a basketball coach, especially one who is delivering the wisdom while talking to you through a transparent face shield. Pastner is a unique individual in college sports, someone who makes the ACC more fun and also someone who has been known to slip lower level traveling party members $100 at random times and tell them to enjoy dinner on him.
But I'm not quite on his level yet. Full disclosure: I find it much easier to enjoy every day when the Tar Heels are shooting 48 percent from the field, 36 percent from the three-point line and 90 percent from the foul line and enjoying leads in excess of 30 points against ACC opponents. And, sure, maybe it's easy to like Pastner when he says things like, "When Carolina is playing well, they're good enough to go to the Final Four and I really mean that."
But things did seem awfully good for the Tar Heels on Saturday. Justin McKoyplayed his best 18 minutes of the season and looked very much like someone who will be an important piece this season. Puff Johnson played for the first time this season, a moment even more notable from the reaction it received from his teammates, all of whom have seen Johnson's struggles to get healthy and seemed thrilled to see Johnson on the court. None were more ebullient than McKoy, who went to the bench when Johnson entered and said afterward he had never been happier to be subbed out of a game.
That's a winning team environment. The Tar Heels look more like a team than they did a month ago. They now have 39 assists in the last two games, and the ball movement was exquisite at times against the Jackets.
"We trusted ourselves and we trusted each other," RJ Davis said. "We moved the ball and didn't care about 'I.' It was more about 'we.' We found the open teammate and were happy for each other's success."
Somewhere Dean Smith is smiling. You can see it even in the way the Tar Heels interact when things go wrong. Caleb Love whistled a pass off Bacot's fingers in the second half for one of Love's six turnovers. Bacot thought Love was going to shoot and wasn't expecting a pass. The duo immediately came together on the court while getting back on defense to dissect what had gone wrong. Hubert Davis has been begging his team to communicate more clearly and more frequently. That's exactly what Love and Bacot were doing.
It makes for a team that is more fun to watch, and it also makes for a better team. All four of Carolina's ACC victories this season are by at least 15 points. The Tar Heels had only three ACC regular season wins by that margin in the previous two seasons combined.
Sure, a very tough road assignment looms on Tuesday at Miami, and the upcoming week with two key road games—the other is a visit to Wake Forest—may show us how ready the Tar Heels really are to contend in the conference. You're never as good as you think you are when things are going well, and the Tar Heels still need a signature top-tier victory.
But that's a worry for tomorrow. Today the Tar Heels played very well, dominated an ACC opponent, and looked like they're rapidly improving. Things are so good right now, at this moment RJ Davis is paraphrasing both Dean Smith and Roy Williams, and if he's not quoting them exactly, the thought is similar enough to be plenty satisfying.
"Everyone has bought into the we over me," the sophomore guard said. "They realize our team's success is bigger than any individual success."
It's very, very difficult to win an Atlantic Coast Conference basketball game.
Most of us have forgotten this, because we have watched North Carolina do it with relative ease for years or decades or generations. But it's really, really hard. Great coaches come into the ACC and fail almost every season.
So in the wake of Carolina's 88-65 thrashing of Georgia Tech on Saturday night, let's do something we very rarely do over the course of a season, unless it's a big win over a rival or a top-10 showdown: let's enjoy it.
Things went remarkably well for the Tar Heels at the Smith Center. They scored inside, with Armando Bacot going for another 29 points and 12 rebounds. They scored from the outside, with RJ Davis pumping in 21 points. Coming off a couple wins with a high quantity of court time for the starters, no Tar Heel played more than 29 minutes.
Assistant coach Jeff Lebo's scouting report focused on Georgia Tech's Michael Devoe, the second-leading scorer in the league. With stellar defensive work from Leaky Black—and good work in first half relief by Caleb Love—Devoe was held to just 1-for-5 from the field, didn't make a three-point basket, and had six turnovers.
"We were really good on both ends of the floor," Hubert Davis said. But then that notorious pessimist Davis added, "With the exception of when we were turning the ball over," and this column is for good vibes only, Coach Davis, so we're going to have to ask you to comply.
What was it that Josh Pastner had said in his incredibly endearing pregame interview on the Tar Heel Sports Nework? "If I live to 100 years old, God willing, I'm 44 now. That means I only have 56 years left. That is so short. Life is so precious and quick. Every breath is a gift and every heartbeat is a gift. When you keep that in perspective, yeah, stress happens and life happens. But if you keep that mentality, you can go through life and enjoy every day."
He's right, of course. It's just unusual to get that perspective from a basketball coach, especially one who is delivering the wisdom while talking to you through a transparent face shield. Pastner is a unique individual in college sports, someone who makes the ACC more fun and also someone who has been known to slip lower level traveling party members $100 at random times and tell them to enjoy dinner on him.
But I'm not quite on his level yet. Full disclosure: I find it much easier to enjoy every day when the Tar Heels are shooting 48 percent from the field, 36 percent from the three-point line and 90 percent from the foul line and enjoying leads in excess of 30 points against ACC opponents. And, sure, maybe it's easy to like Pastner when he says things like, "When Carolina is playing well, they're good enough to go to the Final Four and I really mean that."
But things did seem awfully good for the Tar Heels on Saturday. Justin McKoyplayed his best 18 minutes of the season and looked very much like someone who will be an important piece this season. Puff Johnson played for the first time this season, a moment even more notable from the reaction it received from his teammates, all of whom have seen Johnson's struggles to get healthy and seemed thrilled to see Johnson on the court. None were more ebullient than McKoy, who went to the bench when Johnson entered and said afterward he had never been happier to be subbed out of a game.
That's a winning team environment. The Tar Heels look more like a team than they did a month ago. They now have 39 assists in the last two games, and the ball movement was exquisite at times against the Jackets.
"We trusted ourselves and we trusted each other," RJ Davis said. "We moved the ball and didn't care about 'I.' It was more about 'we.' We found the open teammate and were happy for each other's success."
Somewhere Dean Smith is smiling. You can see it even in the way the Tar Heels interact when things go wrong. Caleb Love whistled a pass off Bacot's fingers in the second half for one of Love's six turnovers. Bacot thought Love was going to shoot and wasn't expecting a pass. The duo immediately came together on the court while getting back on defense to dissect what had gone wrong. Hubert Davis has been begging his team to communicate more clearly and more frequently. That's exactly what Love and Bacot were doing.
It makes for a team that is more fun to watch, and it also makes for a better team. All four of Carolina's ACC victories this season are by at least 15 points. The Tar Heels had only three ACC regular season wins by that margin in the previous two seasons combined.
Sure, a very tough road assignment looms on Tuesday at Miami, and the upcoming week with two key road games—the other is a visit to Wake Forest—may show us how ready the Tar Heels really are to contend in the conference. You're never as good as you think you are when things are going well, and the Tar Heels still need a signature top-tier victory.
But that's a worry for tomorrow. Today the Tar Heels played very well, dominated an ACC opponent, and looked like they're rapidly improving. Things are so good right now, at this moment RJ Davis is paraphrasing both Dean Smith and Roy Williams, and if he's not quoting them exactly, the thought is similar enough to be plenty satisfying.
"Everyone has bought into the we over me," the sophomore guard said. "They realize our team's success is bigger than any individual success."
