SYRACUSE, NY – For the first time this season, North Carolina has won consecutive games with Brandon Robinson, Cole Anthony and Garrison Brooks on the court together.
First time.
To be frank the Tar Heels haven’t had a ton of opportunities with the injuries, illnesses and car accidents disrupting any possible flow to the season they could have strung together. But here it is, finally, and on the last day of February – a February that got an extra day this year!
And with how the Heels played handing Syracuse, 92-79, on Saturday here in the Carrier Dome, it begs the question – yes, let’s go ahead and ask it: What could have been?
Treading carefully, the players get it but aren’t going full bore just yet.
“Yeah,” Garrison Brooks said, agreeing with the question before it was finished, though offering some caution. “We’re starting to see we can play better and what could have been. That’s fine, but it’s something you can’t live off of.”
No, but it can give this team additional confidence, which hasn’t exactly been in abundance. Losses do that, you know. Blowing leads squash it even more. And repeatedly falling at the buzzer will add another layer of uncertainty.
But as far as the Tar Heels are concerned, they’re 2-0. They played well in beating N.C. State last Tuesday at home and were at their very best for this season in picking apart Syracuse’s 2-3 zone.
The thought of the Heels assisting on 25 of 33 field goals against a quality opponent, especially on the road, has been unfathomable all winter. Heck, 33 field goals has nearly been unthinkable. This was just Carolina’s fifth time netting 30 or more buckets.
Oh, and the Heels hit 11 shots from beyond the arc - nine in the second half. They actually drained six in the first 6:02 of the second half. They were scorching.
One more thing, this was perhaps Anthony’s most mature performance of the season. He scored 25 points (hit seven threes) but managed the game exceptionally well (seven assists, two turnovers), and with it so many other things fell into place.
Now back to that streak: Carolina opened the season 5-0, though Robinson missed the first four contests, and the first of the other two two-game win streaks were over UCLA and Yale in December when freshman guards Jeremiah Francis and Anthony Harris combined for 42 points in 75 minutes. Remember that? It seems like eons ago.
Then the wins over Miami and at N.C. State in late January came right before Anthony returned after missing seven weeks with a knee injury. Adapting to a ball-dominant guard hasn’t been easy for the other Heels, nor has it been a walk in the park for Anthony learning to get everyone more involved.
Maybe that’s changing, however, and Carolina is starting to look a little like Carolina.
“We’re all together,” Brooks said. “We’ve got pretty much everyone right now. I think we’re playing a lot different, playing better team ball also.”
Robinson went a step further.
“I think we’re growing as a team, trying to figure out how to play together, and we’re just riding the guy that’s hot,” he said, noting one of many staples of the program for decades.
UNC is just 12-17 overall and 5-13 in the ACC, so nobody’s invoking thoughts of the 1982 or 2009 Tar Heels here, but they are morphing into something rather interesting. And as they do it one can’t help but sit back and wonder if this would have been more the norm a couple of months ago without all that transpired.
“Absolutely,” Leaky Black said. “Absolutely.”
You know what, he just may be right.
