AJ: Faces Of Pain
CHAPEL HILL – Oh, the anguish.
And the tears. The disappointment. The obvious pain emanating from the North Carolina basketball program. The loss. The streak.
Saturday was a low point.
There have been greater disappointments for UNC hoops over the years. Villanova and 2016, to name one. Kansas in 2008. Utah in 1998. Syracuse in 1987. Indiana in 1984. Marquette in 1977.
And so on.
Those were terrific teams that had great seasons but fell short at the end. As the years have passed, each one of those Tar Heels could hold their heads high with pride on a job well done. Each just came up short of completing their missions.
What happened at the Smith Center on Saturday, however, was a totally different kind of disappointment.
An unprecedented season for Roy Williams has teetered on the edge for about a month, and with this 79-76 loss to Clemson and the history it represents, the Tar Heels plummeted over the side to a place no other Carolina basketball team has ventured.
Unchartered territory: 59-1.
“Sad,” junior forward Garrison Brooks said. “We lost.”
He and the other Heels are the first ones to ever say that after a home game versus Clemson.
Perhaps as a sign of bizarre things to come occurred some 40 minutes before tipoff when two UNC fans walking toward the tunnel in the bowels of the Smith Center said to some Clemson players passing by, “58-0.”
Think about it, how on earth did they not know it was 59-0 entering the game? Who didn’t know that? Clemson’s players sure did. Their wild celebration after the game ended made that quite apparent. The faces of the Tar Heels did, too.
Yet, if that was the biggest faux paus in Carolina blue Saturday all would be forgiven. But it wasn’t.
The Tar Heels, who have seemingly mastered the art of allowing opponents’ second-half runs leading to losses, did it one more time. But this was one was more unbecoming than the others.
The struggling Tar Heels appeared to have found themselves some over the first 38 minutes in building a 68-58 lead with 1:55 remaining in regulation.
Brandon Robinson was having a career night. Armando Bacot was producing big numbers for the second straight game for the first time since, well, actually the first time.
Brooks, who scored 56 points and grabbed 21 rebounds in UNC’s previous two games, went for 13 and 11.The Heels defended. The Heels routinely dove on the floor for loose balls. And the Heels played with energy, focus, confidence and just the right amount of emotion. And the Heels were surviving with their fourth starting point guard of the season.
They were playing their best game since a win over Oregon in the Bahamas way back in November when some guy named Cole Anthony was doing his thing. Rememebr him?
Then, everything came crashing down in a heap of turnovers, defensive lapses and an admitted blunder by their Hall of Fame coach. And by the time the debris was cleared, the Tar Heels had turned in perhaps the worst two minutes in the program’s history.
Three turnovers on passes thrown right to Clemson players. Two occurred in the Heels’ press offense about 26 hours after they spent time on it in practice. Drives to the basket and open perimeter shots aided Clemson’s furious rally.
And with 12 seconds left and Robinson about to shoot (and make) two free throws, Williams forgot during a timeout to remind his players to foul if up three. Nine game seconds later, Aamir Simms drained a 3-pointer to send the game into overtime.
Scribes were forced to erase so much of what they’d written because this game inexplicably got away from the Tar Heels. Carolina was heading toward 60-0, but it didn’t happen.
The Tar Heels got tight. They froze. Their confidence drained from their bodies and minds.
And all that was left was the shock, sadness, anger and anguish of what had just transpired.