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Heels travel a long, sometimes strange journey

Posted on March 1, 2012February 29, 2012 by Staff

Eddy Landreth

By Eddy Landreth
Staff Writer

“Sometimes the light’s all shining on me
Other times I can barely see
Lately it occurs to me
What a long strange trip it’s been.” – “Truckin’,” by the Grateful Dead

North Carolina’s journey this season has been awkward at times and often rigorous, but now one game separates the Tar Heels from first place in the final Atlantic Coast Conference regular-season standings.

Sixth-ranked Carolina will play fourth-ranked Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday at 7 p.m. to determine how those standings will forever appear.

The following Thursday the ACC Tournament will begin in Atlanta, and after that, the all-important NCAA Tournament looms.

To get to this point, the Tar Heels had to toughen their attitudes and their bodies and create a team bond to enable them to overcome whatever obstacle stands in the way.

Picked number one in the nation in the preseason, Carolina played more to its actual level of experience than its talent for the first two-and-a-half months of the season.

Since then, there have been three critical moments in this team’s jelling.
The first came in a humiliating 90-57 loss to Florida State in Tallahassee.

Carolina had to be more concerned with trying to win the next game than the final regular-season standings when that game ended.

“If we were breathing we were better than we were down there,” coach Roy Williams said. “We are more attentive to the details now. We are more focused. We’re more attentive to the intensity level you have to have, mentally and physically.”

The next critical moment came in an 83-74 come-from-behind victory at Maryland. UNC survived a roaring, taunting crowd and a Terrapin team playing with all its heart.

“It shows that we can be tough enough in the end to make the plays and get the stops we need,” senior forward Tyler Zeller said afterward. “There are a few things we want to fix down the stretch, but it’s nice to fix that now instead of in the NCAA Tournament, when it’s life or death.”

Yet in the very next game, Carolina received its most important and painful lesson of the season. Duke came to Chapel Hill and surmounted a 10-point deficit at the Smith Center with 2 minutes and 38 seconds remaining. Blue Devils freshman Austin Rivers hit a deep 3-pointer at the buzzer to stun UNC and its fans.

UNC had acquired a bad habit of losing its concentration with a lead. That changed after the Duke nightmare.

“One thing we haven’t done this year is when we get teams down, we haven’t stepped on their necks,” sophomore 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.”

Talented, intelligent teams like the Tar Heels learn valuable lessons from failures and successes.

Now the Tar Heels extend leads, not squander them. Even against tough defense, like what Virginia played in Carolina’s 54-51 victory in Charlottesville, UNC proved versatile enough to do whatever necessary to win.

“It helps to remain calm,” Zeller said. “You get down and you know you still have a chance until the end. You just have to keep chipping away until the end.

“At the four-minute mark, you have to be extremely focused and do everything perfect.”

Perfection is a bit much to ask of any team, but a fierce competitive effort combined with attention to detail and a determination to win no matter what may just be enough.

Those qualities have certainly worked so far.

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