The great run of this year's Tar Heel squad has been exhilarating for a number of reasons. One, it's the Tar Heels! Two, after too long of a stretch without an ACC championship or a Final Four (since 2008 and 2009, respectively) the Heels have reasserted their place at the top of our nation's basketball pantheon. And three, and most importantly, this team has marked the return of the Carolina Way.
The academic scandal, which has tarnished both the basketball program and more importantly THE University of the People, has practically erased that Dean Smith-built standard. But this year's team has resurrected the Carolina Way, in many different ways.
As I've joked with friends throughout the year, you know this squad - and every squad since the scandal broke - is not taking paper classes with majors clustered in the old and notorious African-American and African Studies department.* This is a likable team of student athletes, personified by first-team Academic All American Marcus Paige. Roy seems to really love coaching them, and the warmth between the players and coach is evident: on senior night; in the locker room celebrations; on the dais of the post-game press conferences; everywhere.
It's also an old school, Dean-like team of upper classmen. Eleven of the players are juniors or seniors, and the roster is made up of the kind of guys Dean used to guide from perplexed freshmen into all-Americans in four years, guys like Brice Johnson** or Isaiah Hicks.
Finally, seniors rule in the Carolina Way and that is certainly true of this year's team. Brice Johnson has been our best player all season, but Marcus Paige has been our most important one down the stretch. I can not gush enough about Paige. As I posted in my last blog, academically alone he's been huge post scandal.
However, consider the senior leadership Paige has shown in this exhilarating run. At Cameron, his steal, defense and lay up singlehanded stopped Duke's run in the second half, and his free throws clinched that win. In the ACC tournament championship game he did it again; his defense helped keep Malcolm Brogdon in check, he led a run that gave Carolina the lead for good in the second half, and down the stretch had another key steal against the Hoos to stymie their come back.
And of course, after Notre Dame ran off twelve straight points to take a one-point lead who answered for Carolina? With Brice on the bench with 3 fouls and UNC down one, Paige drove left and made a tough baseline jumper to give Carolina the lead, one they would never relinquish. That basket started an overpowering Carolina scoring run, aided by a key steal by Theo Pinson but punctuated by another great play by our Academic All American. That play started with Paige out jumping and out fighting Zach August for a rebound, then saving that rebound as he was falling out of bounds. Paige got the ball to Kennedy Meeks, who Wes Unselled a pass to Pinson who promptly threw an alley-oop to Hicks for a slam dunk.
A text book Carolina Way fast break, started by a guy who epitomizes and is resurrecting the Carolina Way.
GO HEELS!
* That department has been reorganized and is now under the College of Arts and Sciences as the Department of African, African American and Diaspora Studies.
** That is literally true of Johnson, who has been named a first team All American by the AP and the Basketball Writers of America.
The academic scandal, which has tarnished both the basketball program and more importantly THE University of the People, has practically erased that Dean Smith-built standard. But this year's team has resurrected the Carolina Way, in many different ways.
As I've joked with friends throughout the year, you know this squad - and every squad since the scandal broke - is not taking paper classes with majors clustered in the old and notorious African-American and African Studies department.* This is a likable team of student athletes, personified by first-team Academic All American Marcus Paige. Roy seems to really love coaching them, and the warmth between the players and coach is evident: on senior night; in the locker room celebrations; on the dais of the post-game press conferences; everywhere.
It's also an old school, Dean-like team of upper classmen. Eleven of the players are juniors or seniors, and the roster is made up of the kind of guys Dean used to guide from perplexed freshmen into all-Americans in four years, guys like Brice Johnson** or Isaiah Hicks.
Finally, seniors rule in the Carolina Way and that is certainly true of this year's team. Brice Johnson has been our best player all season, but Marcus Paige has been our most important one down the stretch. I can not gush enough about Paige. As I posted in my last blog, academically alone he's been huge post scandal.
However, consider the senior leadership Paige has shown in this exhilarating run. At Cameron, his steal, defense and lay up singlehanded stopped Duke's run in the second half, and his free throws clinched that win. In the ACC tournament championship game he did it again; his defense helped keep Malcolm Brogdon in check, he led a run that gave Carolina the lead for good in the second half, and down the stretch had another key steal against the Hoos to stymie their come back.
And of course, after Notre Dame ran off twelve straight points to take a one-point lead who answered for Carolina? With Brice on the bench with 3 fouls and UNC down one, Paige drove left and made a tough baseline jumper to give Carolina the lead, one they would never relinquish. That basket started an overpowering Carolina scoring run, aided by a key steal by Theo Pinson but punctuated by another great play by our Academic All American. That play started with Paige out jumping and out fighting Zach August for a rebound, then saving that rebound as he was falling out of bounds. Paige got the ball to Kennedy Meeks, who Wes Unselled a pass to Pinson who promptly threw an alley-oop to Hicks for a slam dunk.
A text book Carolina Way fast break, started by a guy who epitomizes and is resurrecting the Carolina Way.
GO HEELS!
* That department has been reorganized and is now under the College of Arts and Sciences as the Department of African, African American and Diaspora Studies.
** That is literally true of Johnson, who has been named a first team All American by the AP and the Basketball Writers of America.
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Johnson has earned first-team All-America honors from the AP, the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the United States Basketball Writers of America, and third-team honors from the Sporting News. Those are the four organizations the NCAA uses to determine consensus All-America honors.
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