Esse Quam Videri

Visit to UNC Basketball Museum

Even if Carolina had won by 30 and Barnes had scored 40, the highlight of Saturday’s game versus Boston College, at least for me, would have been being in the same room – ok, building – as Tyler Hansbrough. 

Evan, my nephew Paul and I were able to attend that game (thanks to StubHub), and the entire day was one big highlight, from lunch at my sister's, to the museum, to the game itself, to the visit to the campus Wellstone memorial, to dinner at Dip's.

But seeing Hansbrough was honestly the most exhilarating moment.  And as great as Hansbrough was in Chapel Hill, in retrospect it was his epitomizing Carolina that stands out.  At a time of incredible, and in most cases justifiable, cynicism in sports Carolina stands out. 

Prior to the game the three of us visited the outstanding Carolina basketball museum. I’m surprised about how emotional it got during the visit. 

Like most UNC grads, I never played basketball at UNC yet I feel so emotionally invested.  The reason has to be that the values set up by Dean Smith and carried out – usually faithfully - by his successors.

I had originally typed ‘program’ but it really is values. Those values are one reason many of us, but frankly not enough of my fellow alums, are mad at Butch Davis.  I imagine Davis has visited the museum, but I doubt he really gets Carolina if you ask me. 

You visit the Carolina basketball museum and you see a tribute to hard work, success, humility, and perspective. One could argue that humility and perspective are incongruous with a museum; only a school like Carolina could pull that off.

As much as Carolina basketball is about Dean Smith, his values and success may oddly stem from the state of North Carolina and it’s motto.

Hanging over the Dean Dome is one of the largest North Carolina state flags in the world. Every time I see that flag I’m reminded of the state’s motto: To Be Rather Than to Seem. 

I’m getting weepy just typing Esse Quam Videri, that eloquent line of Latin. 

That motto epitomizes both North Carolina and Carolina basketball. Dean knew that authenticity - being - camaraderie, intelligence, effort, hard work, humility and honesty are cornerstones of success. 

You can add democracy to the list, too, when you consider that all that happens at a public university, the nation’s first, dedicated to making an undereducated state more intelligent.

From a bench at the UNC Wellstone Memorial

A place that we love so because it is, as it always has been, the university of the people. All those values, and more, are on display at the museum.

[And the barbeque is pretty excellent, too]

Other schools are as successful as Carolina, and some came close to sustaining a set of authentic values – John Wooden’s UCLA teams being the obvious example.  But no school, let alone basketball team, has sustained a set a values and success as has Carolina.

And when one of Dean’s successors, Matt Doherty, violated some of those values he paid for it.  He earned that 8-20 blemish on his record.

So when Tyler Hansbrough stood up at the end of a video tribute, 21,000 Tar Heels leapt out of their seats to cheer one of their own, one who epitomizes both the University of North Carolina and the State of North Carolina: to be rather than to seem.

As I tweeted during my visit to the museum: God I love Carolina.

Again with the winning ugly!

As miserable as the win was, think how numbing Heels fans would feel if we had lost? Losing that kind of game can ruin a season, especially this late in the year.  It’s trite to say, but winning is better than losing, for a number of reasons.  One good one: winning allows you to just dust the ugly stuff off your shoulder and move on to your next game.

We were able to attend, and at least live it appeared that we got good looks but left tons of points on the rim, epitomized by Marshall’s in-and-out basket with less than a minute left and the Heels nursing a 2-point lead.

It also appeared that we were determined to go inside.  Much has been made of our bad three-point shooting of late.  But I was almost heartened by Roy’s determination (in a loss that’s called stubbornness) to keep feeding the post and NOT jack up lots of threes.  When we fed the post in the second half – in addition to getting it to Zeller we really ran better, too - we built a 15-point lead.

And as bad as our shooting was the biggest problem down the stretch was turnovers, turnovers from guys who usually – at least of late – don’t make them: Zeller, Barnes and Marshall.  Who else on Carolina’s team would you want handling the ball late than those three?


For me, the good news is there isn’t much of a pattern in our recent lackluster play.  Against Wake and Clemson we didn’t turn it over, against BC we did.  I’m confident that the weirdness of the BC game will not carry over versus the Wolfpack on Wednesday.

What hopefully will is the incredibly tough D the Heels played for most of the game. The Heels never let BC run their offense.  Again, the turnovers late let BC make some shots to get back into the game but overall the defensive effort was inspiring. 

As always, GO HEELS!