
{"id":24228,"date":"2012-03-01T10:02:56","date_gmt":"2012-03-01T15:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=24228"},"modified":"2012-02-29T17:14:02","modified_gmt":"2012-02-29T22:14:02","slug":"heels-travel-a-long-sometimes-strange-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/03\/01\/heels-travel-a-long-sometimes-strange-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Heels travel a long, sometimes strange journey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_20318\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20318\" style=\"width: 100px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/08\/18\/support-the-players-by-filling-kenan-stadium\/landreth-mug-30\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20318\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"landreth-mug\" width=\"100\" height=\"134\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1-84x113.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1-74x100.jpg 74w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20318\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eddy Landreth<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<strong>By Eddy Landreth<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Sometimes the light\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all shining on me<br \/>\nOther times I can barely see<br \/>\nLately it occurs to me<br \/>\nWhat a long strange trip it&#8217;s been.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Truckin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by the Grateful Dead<\/p>\n<p>North Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The following Thursday the ACC Tournament will begin in Atlanta, and after that, the all-important NCAA Tournament looms.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, there have been three critical moments in this team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jelling.<br \/>\nThe first came in a humiliating 90-57 loss to Florida State in Tallahassee. <\/p>\n<p>Carolina had to be more concerned with trying to win the next game than the final regular-season standings when that game ended.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If we were breathing we were better than we were down there,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d coach Roy Williams said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We are more attentive to the details now. We are more focused. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re more attentive to the intensity level you have to have, mentally and physically.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It shows that we can be tough enough in the end to make the plays and get the stops we need,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d senior forward Tyler Zeller said afterward. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are a few things we want to fix down the stretch, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice to fix that now instead of in the NCAA Tournament, when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life or death.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>UNC had acquired a bad habit of losing its concentration with a lead. That changed after the Duke nightmare.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153One thing we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t done this year is when we get teams down, we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stepped on their necks,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sophomore point guard Kendall Marshall said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Long 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have to learn to step on teams\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 necks when we get them down, not give them that hope down the stretch that they can win the game.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Talented, intelligent teams like the Tar Heels learn valuable lessons from failures and successes.<\/p>\n<p>Now the Tar Heels extend leads, not squander them. Even against tough defense, like what Virginia played in Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 54-51 victory in Charlottesville, UNC proved versatile enough to do whatever necessary to win.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It helps to remain calm,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Zeller said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You get down and you know you still have a chance until the end. You just have to keep chipping away until the end. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153At the four-minute mark, you have to be extremely focused and do everything perfect.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Those qualities have certainly worked so far. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":20318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[431],"class_list":["post-24228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24228"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24243,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24228\/revisions\/24243"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}