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Pain propels Tar Heels forward

Posted on February 16, 2012February 15, 2012 by Staff
Eddy Landreth

By Eddy Landreth
Staff Writer

“I’ve never seen a night so long
When time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind the clouds
To hide its face and cry” – Hank Williams, “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”

Lessons learned over the course of a season can hurt nearly as much physically as mentally.

Carolina’s 85-84 last-second loss to Duke at the Smith Center on Feb. 8 fell squarely into that category.

Austin Rivers’ amazing last-second shot will assure a spot for this game among the great finishes in a rivalry filled with unbelievable performances.

Unfortunately for Carolina, all the glory in this one belongs to the Blue Devils.

“[The loss to Duke] was about as crushing for a regular-season game as I’ve ever felt,” coach Roy Williams said. “Sometimes losing is like someone grabbing your heart, pulling it out and shaking it in front of your face. There is nothing you can do about it.”

There was no way to gauge who felt the most pain from the loss to Duke, no matter how one might have measured it. Nevertheless, senior Tyler Zeller must rank near the top on the anguish meter by any measure.

He stayed awake until 5 a.m. reliving the misery.

“I stewed over it,” Zeller said. “I have a tendency to take losses hard, especially when I missed two free throws that could have won the game.”

The basketball season is a lengthy series of lessons, some horribly painful, some not so much. The great importance is that a team continues to grow and mature, not repeat the same mistakes.

The loss to Duke could end up as the finest blessing in disguise of the season for the Tar Heels. UNC’s failure to maintain its concentration and turn a 10-point lead with two-and-a-half minutes left into a 15- or 20-point victory is a poor trait that has become habit as the season has progressed.

“That is one thing we haven’t done this year, is when we got teams down we haven’t stepped on their necks,” point guard Kendall Marshall said. “Long Beach State, we got a sizable lead, but they hung around. Georgia Tech, I think we got it up to 25, but they got it down to 12.
“We have to learn to step on teams’ necks when we get them down, not give them that hope down the stretch that they can win the game.”

UNC turned an 11-point lead into an 18-point victory against Virginia in the game following Duke. Such a turnaround could carry Carolina to the lofty goals and dreams it still has for this season.

“We watched the last two minutes and 28 seconds,” Williams said. “That is the only part of the tape we watched. … I said, ‘OK, let’s learn from it so we don’t make those same kinds of mistakes again.’”

The players do not wish to lose; none want their concentration to fade in the final minutes of games or to commit silly turnovers and take bad shots. But just like making great defense a habitual process, as the Tar Heels have done, the instinct to play smart and together until the final horn must also be cultivated.

“Losing the Duke game helped us get refocused,” Zeller said after UNC’s hard-fought win against Virginia. “We all came out with the right attitude.”

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