CHARLOTTE – Paxson Wojcik’s mother has a bit of a dilemma coming Saturday. Who will she root for when North Carolina and Michigan State lace it up for a second-round battle in the NCAA Tournament?
Her husband, Doug Wocjik, is an assistant coach on Tom Izzo’s staff at MSU, but her son plays for the Tar Heels. She has a choice to make, and Paxson has an idea which way she’ll go.
Moms always root for their kids, right?
“I’d like to think so; leaning toward the Tar Heels,” he said inside UNC’s locker room before practice Friday afternoon at Spectrum Center, site of the top-seed Heels’ game against the 9-seed Spartans.
As tough as it might be on mom, what about for the player and coach, competitors on this massive and emotionally charged stage?
“I think it’s definitely a little more emotional for him than it is for me,” Paxson said.
The thing is, the Wojciks have already been through this once before.
Last season, Paxson’s last at Brown, he and the Bears visited Michigan State in an early season game. He had a more prominent role at Brown, so much of MSU’s game planning was geared toward stopping one of its assistant coach’s sons.
The Wojciks separated the basketball from the blood, but not before a few tears were shed.
“There’s a viral clip of him crying last year when they did the starting lineups and I went over and said hello to him,” Paxson said. “We like to give him a hard time about that. I think emotional for both of us, but once that ball gets tipped, it’s kind of another ball game.”
The setting Saturday is for a spot in the Sweet 16 of the West Region. Paxson plays for the top seed in the region, his dad coaches the nine seed. They are competitors, though, and both want to keep playing and coaching.
But one Wojcik must go home.
Doug played in the Elite Eight as Navy’s point guard in 1986, with NBA legend and then-Midshipmen David Robinson the beneficiary of his passing skills. In fact, Doug Wojcik’s last college basketball game took place in Charlotte.
That game spawned a story Paxson was pleased to re-tell Friday.
“Funny enough, but he told me his senior year his last college game was the second round they played Michigan in Charlotte,” he said. “He tells a funny story that him and David Robinson combined for 51 points, ‘David had 50, and I had one."
If the Tar Heels lose Saturday, it will be Paxson’s final college game. He’d rather it not end now. And thinks he can give his team an edge given that he has played a lot of summer hoops with many of the current Spartans.
He spent the last few summers playing pick up with the Spartans and even in some pro-ams. He knows MSU star Tyson Walker well, and some of the other Spartans.
Paxson also knows his dad and the inner workings of the Michigan State program. So, limited communication between the two over the last few days was to be expected, as right now, it’s all about business.
A lip or two may quiver Saturday, but then it’s hoops.
