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PHILADELPHIA – CBS and the NCAA say North Carolina and UCLA are slated to face each other on Friday night, but the Tar Heels would have been perfectly fine lacing it up and taking on the Bruins Thursday morning.
That is how ready the Tar Heels are to get this Sweet 16 matchup in the East Region going. Carolina is on a bit of a roll, clearly playing its best basketball of the season, so the Heels don’t want to wait any longer. Bring on the Bruins now, they say.
“Oh, we would play today,” UNC Coach Hubert Davis said late Thursday morning in a press conference at Wells Fargo Center advancing the game.
The Heels have been increasingly anxious to get back out onto the court for a few weeks now.
First, they beat Syracuse at home in overtime five days before heading eight miles up the road to face Duke in Mike Krzyzewski’s last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Heels insulated themselves from the national hoopla, operating almost in a cocoon to keep the outside noise from seeping in.
But that also created a bit of anxiousness to get back out onto the court and play a game. Then, they pulled away from Duke, routed Virginia, and in the NCAA Tournament clobbered Marquette by 32 points and would have been mentally fine facing Baylor that same night.
So, now that they’ve had to wait since last Saturday to take on fellow blue blood UCLA in the regional semifinals, they don’t want to wait any longer.
“We love to compete,” Davis said. “What a great opportunity it is to play against an unbelievable UCLA team.”
The desire to get back out there might apply more now than in past games given how the win over Baylor played out late in the second half.
Brady Manek was ejected for a Flagrant 2 foul with 10:08 remaining and the Tar Heels leading the top seed by 25 points. With 6:15 left, Caleb Love fouled out, and both helplessly watched the lead melt away; Manek from the locker room and Love from the bench.
The eighth-seeded Heels (26-9) bowed up and gritted out a win in overtime, but Love and Manek feel some responsibility for putting their teammates and the fan base through so much stress. So, they want to get back out onto the court in a game and recreate the pre-collapse vibe.
“It was kind of different to watch from the bench, those games that you couldn't really do nothing to get out there,” Love said. “I am hyped to play this game and I am ready for the next game.”
Manek has taken more a reserved approach to dealing with the media since the incident. He fielded questions in Chapel Hill on Tuesday not wanting to make too much of what happened. The 6-foot-10 Oklahoman maintained that disposition Thursday, though the excitement to play is absolutely there.
“I'd say I'm more excited just to be here,” he said. “I've never made it this far. This is a new experience for me, and I'm just going to enjoy it.”
Thursday was practice number 98, and Davis said junior forward Armando Bacot said he wants the team to hit triple digits on the number of practices this season. To do so, that would mean number 99 on Saturday, only if the Heels beat fourth-seeded UCLA (27-7), and number 100 next Tuesday in Chapel Hill, but only if the Heels win the regional title and advance to the Final Four.
First things first, however. As excited as they are to jump into that experience, the task at hand must be conquered first.
“Our guys are excited,” Davis said. “They're motivated. They accept the challenge of playing a great team tomorrow night, and we're ready to go.”
And Friday night can’t come too soon for the Tar Heels.
