‘Tar!’ ‘Heels!’ UNC’s win in Greensboro evokes familiar vibe at the end of a novel year
In the vacuum that college basketball has been played in this season, the absence of any reaction from the crowd has become almost routine, to the point where a genuine reaction is almost jarring.
Even 3,000 people can sound like 20,000 when they have the chance to chant “Tar” “Heels” in the final minute of an ACC tournament win, an opportunity that at one point looked like it might pass everyone by. Hark that sound.
Despite Duke’s unexpected and precipitous absence, we’ll have an ACC tournament semifinals worth the effort to put on this event under these conditions: Virginia and Georgia Tech in the early game, North Carolina and Florida State in the second.
For the third straight tournament -- last year excluded, for obvious reasons -- members of the Pre-Expansion Nine are the last teams standing. That may not be a big deal in Brooklyn, but it certainly is in Greensboro, where the tournament is more wedded to tradition than in any other site.
North Carolina had to scrap and fight to complete that group Thursday night, pushed to the limit by Virginia Tech, precisely coached by Mike Young and overflowing with vigor. The first two games of the day had terrific finishes -- a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by a guy who hadn’t made one in a month, followed by a game-saving hustle play by the ACC’s defensive player of the year -- but neither was as intense as North Carolina’s 81-73.
If Duke’s withdrawal from the evening’s other quarterfinal game due to a positive COVID test left any kind of a void, the Tar Heels and Hokies certainly filled it.
Duke’s out, again, and COVID is still the top seed at the ACC basketball tournament
It will create an unusual situation Friday night, North Carolina playing its third game in three days against Florida State in its first of the tournament.
“People always ask me, ‘Have you ever done this?’ and I always say yes, but I don’t know that I’ve ever faced this situation here,” North Carolina coach Roy Williams said. “It makes no difference. We’re still playing. At the end of the game the team that scores the most points is declared the winner whether it’s your third win in a row or your first game.”
Then again, the Hokies were playing for the first time in 12 days and the Tar Heels wore them down in the end.
RJ Davis, who has had perhaps the most frustrating season of North Carolina’s three freshman guards, turned the game with one sequence in the second half on his way to a season-high 19 points, hitting a 3-pointer, stealing the ball at midcourt and finishing through contact for the basket and a foul, a personal 6-0 run.
By that time, North Carolina’s frustrated big men were getting to work on the boards, adjusting to the Hokies’ physicality and, eventually, turning it against them by drawing fouls. If Wednesday’s romp against Notre Dame was notable for its ease, this was a severe test. The Tar Heels passed and they might not have a month ago. Armando Bacot said as much. And if they had, they would certainly not have heard the chorus of “Tar” and “Heels” cascading down upon them in response.
That is a familiar scene for a North Carolina tournament win in Greensboro. These will be familiar teams and familiar faces competing for a title over the next two days, and also Josh Pastner. It’s a throwback conclusion to a novel season. At the end of a full year of ongoing disruption, there’s comfort in the sound.
