WASHINGTON, DC – There isn’t any cocktail party going on at Capital One Arena mere blocks from Chinatown in the nation’s capital.
At least not with respect to North Carolina.
Former Carolina coach Roy Williams used to refer to the ACC Tournament as a “cocktail party,” and with it came a general belief he wasn’t interested in burning his team out to win that tournament when a much more important one followed several days after the ACC title game.
In his 18 years at the helm, UNC won the event just three times, while it also won the national championship three times, each, however, in seasons in which the Tar Heels didn’t even reach the finals of the cocktail party event.
Williams retired three years ago, and a new belief has infiltrated the Carolina program. The Tar Heels want to cut down the nets this weekend.
“We’re desperate to win this tournament,” graduate forward Armando Bacot said Wednesday at the team’s hotel, the Marriott Metro Center.
Bacot and the fourth-ranked Heels, who are the top seed in DC this week, have maintained all season they wanted to hang three banners. They secured the first one by outright winning the ACC regular season record with a 17-3 mark. One of them is winning the NCAA championship.
In between, is this little get-together among the league’s 15 members.
“This is definitely something we want to accomplish as a group,” said senior RJ Davis, who earlier this week was named ACC Player of the Year. “We want to win. It’s a championship, we’re playing for something.
“Just because we won the regular season doesn’t mean the season’s over for us. We still have more games to play, more championships to win.”
And just because the big dance starts next week doesn’t mean the Tar Heels aren’t focused on the task at hand. In fact, where they are seeded and bracketed with next week will be affected by what happens over the next few days.
Carolina is competing with Tennessee of the SEC and Arizona of the Pac-12 for the top seed in the West Region. It is a virtual given that Connecticut will be the top seed in the East Region, Purdue in the Midwest, and Houston in the South. That leaves the West, and the three teams will be jockeying in their respective tournaments for the top spot there.
“We want to win it bad because it’s a lot of things,” Bacot said. “First, we want to be able to hang another banner for the team, but also, it affects our seed in March. And obviously, the tournament isn’t easy, so if we can make it as easy on us as possible in terms of getting a high seed.”
UNC Coach Hubert Davis said Wednesday he isn’t worried about his team looking too far ahead.
“I think this is a good group that can focus on what the mission is ahead, and understanding the regular season is gone, and this is the ACC Tournament, and there’s a focus that has to be there in order for us to be the best that we can be,” he said. “This group has always been able to adjust and move forward and focus on what is real.
“I don’t see any change as for their preparation moving forward for the remainder of the season.”
Carolina (25-6) opens play Thursday at noon against Florida State, which beat Virginia Tech on Wednesday afternoon. The Tar Heels won both meetings with the Seminoles this season, 78-70 in Chapel Hill, and 75-68 in Tallahassee.
If the Heels win three games here this weekend, they will celebrate, but it sure won’t be a cocktail party.
