LUCAS: POWER PUFF...
Carolina beat Boston College, 58-47, and the fans who watched it can say that they have now seen the lowest Tar Heel shooting percentage ever in a victory. The Heels connected on 29.1 percent of their shots, and there were moments—including the last 3:33, when they did not make a field goal but somehow managed to ice the game—when it felt worse than that.
The University of North Carolina has now played 3,143 basketball games, won 2,308 of them, and in zero of those 2,308 victories have they ever shot a lower percentage from the field.
No, it wasn't exactly a game that will make people want to treasure their ticket stubs.
But if you were there, you saw something that might be more noteworthy than just a poor shooting performance or an ugly win. You saw a window into the Puff Johnson experience, an addition that feels important as Carolina stares at a difficult upcoming stretch.
Johnson made just one of his two shots. Those are not his most important statistics. What mattered was that he dove on the floor twice to save loose balls. That he fought to get back into a play defensively and forced a Boston College backcourt violation. That he slashed the ball away from Eagle big man Quinten Post under the Carolina basket and turned it into a layup.
In other words, on a night that wasn't always enjoyable to view, Puff Johnson was simply fun to watch play.
"Puff doesn't get bogged down by stuff like minutes," Hubert Davis said after the game. "He only looks at what he can control. When he gets in the game, he's just worried about playing hard.
"He's always been like that, but after not playing for a year there's a thankfulness and a joyfulness and appreciation of just being out there. He doesn't take it for granted."
It's obvious in the way he plays. Johnson was quick to note that he went 360 days between games after last playing in the Wake Forest game last season, then checking in against Georgia Tech at the Smith Center this season. That's a lot of standing on the sideline while your teammates practice and get better. That's a lot of lonely workout sessions. That's a lot of not being able to do the one thing you've always loved, and wondering when you might be able to do it again.
He's not fully back just yet. Just like every other Tar Heel, he wasn't perfect on Wednesday. There were a couple defensive plays he might choose to do differently next time. He missed an open corner three-pointer. But watch even a moment of his game action, and it's abundantly clear that he is the consistent personification of exactly what Hubert Davis is asking from his team.
Here is the way the duo described his play, separately and without hearing the other, on the Tar Heel Sports Network after the game.
Puff: "The big thing I want to do as soon as I get in the game is bring energy, effort and toughness. Whether you're making or missing shots, what can't change is your energy, effort and toughness at the offensive end and the defensive end."
Hubert: "Puff just plays hard. He just does. We're always talking about needing more energy, effort and toughness, and when we say that we're not talking about Puff, because every time he's on the floor, he gives everything he has."
That's a player and head coach who are in sync, which very often leads to more minutes. And while this has absolutely nothing to do with minutes, I'm going to tell you something that only an old geezer would spot: the way Johnson clapped his hands together and ambled off the court with that long-legged gait for a timeout after missing that three-pointer, he looked an awful lot like a left-handed version of a certain former Tar Heel sharpshooter named Hubert Davis.
Sometimes bragging on a player's non-boxscore contributions is a nice way of saying that he doesn't possess the potential to contribute in other ways. That's not the case here. In fact, it might be even more significant that he's finding ways to make a difference while waiting for his physical gifts to catch up. But there will come a day—maybe it's this season, maybe it's not, as it's tougher than most fans realize to go nearly a year without playing in a game and then jump right back into it—when Johnson is doing much more than just the intangibles for Carolina. Until then, though, he's providing exactly what this year's team seems to need.
For more on Puff Johnson, including his take on the legendary Johnson family driveway basketball games with older brother Cameron and much more, listen to his interview on the Carolina Insider podcast.
PUFF JOHNSON'S ENERGY WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF WEDNESDAY'S WIN.
It seems only fitting on this particular night that the most memorable sequence was a four minutes and 32 second stretch that was primarily notable for features other than putting the ball in the basket.Carolina beat Boston College, 58-47, and the fans who watched it can say that they have now seen the lowest Tar Heel shooting percentage ever in a victory. The Heels connected on 29.1 percent of their shots, and there were moments—including the last 3:33, when they did not make a field goal but somehow managed to ice the game—when it felt worse than that.
The University of North Carolina has now played 3,143 basketball games, won 2,308 of them, and in zero of those 2,308 victories have they ever shot a lower percentage from the field.
No, it wasn't exactly a game that will make people want to treasure their ticket stubs.
But if you were there, you saw something that might be more noteworthy than just a poor shooting performance or an ugly win. You saw a window into the Puff Johnson experience, an addition that feels important as Carolina stares at a difficult upcoming stretch.
Johnson made just one of his two shots. Those are not his most important statistics. What mattered was that he dove on the floor twice to save loose balls. That he fought to get back into a play defensively and forced a Boston College backcourt violation. That he slashed the ball away from Eagle big man Quinten Post under the Carolina basket and turned it into a layup.
In other words, on a night that wasn't always enjoyable to view, Puff Johnson was simply fun to watch play.
"Puff doesn't get bogged down by stuff like minutes," Hubert Davis said after the game. "He only looks at what he can control. When he gets in the game, he's just worried about playing hard.
"He's always been like that, but after not playing for a year there's a thankfulness and a joyfulness and appreciation of just being out there. He doesn't take it for granted."
It's obvious in the way he plays. Johnson was quick to note that he went 360 days between games after last playing in the Wake Forest game last season, then checking in against Georgia Tech at the Smith Center this season. That's a lot of standing on the sideline while your teammates practice and get better. That's a lot of lonely workout sessions. That's a lot of not being able to do the one thing you've always loved, and wondering when you might be able to do it again.
He's not fully back just yet. Just like every other Tar Heel, he wasn't perfect on Wednesday. There were a couple defensive plays he might choose to do differently next time. He missed an open corner three-pointer. But watch even a moment of his game action, and it's abundantly clear that he is the consistent personification of exactly what Hubert Davis is asking from his team.
Here is the way the duo described his play, separately and without hearing the other, on the Tar Heel Sports Network after the game.
Puff: "The big thing I want to do as soon as I get in the game is bring energy, effort and toughness. Whether you're making or missing shots, what can't change is your energy, effort and toughness at the offensive end and the defensive end."
Hubert: "Puff just plays hard. He just does. We're always talking about needing more energy, effort and toughness, and when we say that we're not talking about Puff, because every time he's on the floor, he gives everything he has."
That's a player and head coach who are in sync, which very often leads to more minutes. And while this has absolutely nothing to do with minutes, I'm going to tell you something that only an old geezer would spot: the way Johnson clapped his hands together and ambled off the court with that long-legged gait for a timeout after missing that three-pointer, he looked an awful lot like a left-handed version of a certain former Tar Heel sharpshooter named Hubert Davis.
Sometimes bragging on a player's non-boxscore contributions is a nice way of saying that he doesn't possess the potential to contribute in other ways. That's not the case here. In fact, it might be even more significant that he's finding ways to make a difference while waiting for his physical gifts to catch up. But there will come a day—maybe it's this season, maybe it's not, as it's tougher than most fans realize to go nearly a year without playing in a game and then jump right back into it—when Johnson is doing much more than just the intangibles for Carolina. Until then, though, he's providing exactly what this year's team seems to need.
For more on Puff Johnson, including his take on the legendary Johnson family driveway basketball games with older brother Cameron and much more, listen to his interview on the Carolina Insider podcast.
