GREENSBORO, N.C. — The decisive play, as it turns out, was no particular play at all.
Not because Roy Williams, in his three-plus decades coaching college basketball, didn’t have one in his deep, Julians-designed bag. Not because North Carolina’s young players mixed up a set either, as happened earlier this season. Not even because a shot was missed, a turnover was committed or any other run-of-the-mill recklessness that typically has doomed these Tar Heels.
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Rather, against a formidable and fresh Florida State side — one that, by virtue of Duke’s COVID-19 situation this week, played its first ACC tournament game in the semifinals — UNC hardly ran any plays. Of course there were some, but the Seminoles’ defense largely limits the ability to do so. “They’re definitely unique,” sophom*ore forward Armando Bacot said. “They’re switching, they’re fronting the post, not letting us get into our sets. So it was a tough thing. It’s kind of a game of just playing freelance the whole time out there, trying to just go and score one-on-one stuff. Because I mean, it was just hard to get any offense versus them.” Yet 36½ minutes into Friday’s slugfest, UNC was leading, unlikely as it may have seemed.
So what happened? How did North Carolina, surging so strongly, end up on the wrong end of a 69-66 thriller in Greensboro Coliseum? Crazy as it may sound, one busted play seemingly busted UNC’s momentum.
With 1:46 to play and down one, Garrison Brooks, Caleb Love and Kerwin Walton subbed in for an inbounds play. A high lob pass over the outstretched arms of Florida State — and by outstretched, think muscular pool noodle-length — found its way into Brooks’ hands. Brooks is a good player. He is not, however, a ballhandling guard, someone comfortable dribbling out of a pressure defense. And normally, that wouldn’t be an issue. He’d simply pass it off to Love or Walton or just about anyone else, then get back into the paint and proceed from there.
Well, that didn’t happen. Instead, Love and the other UNC’s guards failed to separate, failed to give Brooks any clean or clear pass. “We were just trying to get some movement, trying to get open and hopefully get an open drive,” Love said, “but they’re so long and they denied all the passes, and we couldn’t really get anything in the flow of the game.” That meant Brooks was stuck with the rock, spinning and scanning the court for an open teammates. Eventually he found Love… with barely seven seconds left on the shot clock.
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Love drove into the paint, trying to make magic out of mush, weaving and bobbing through the Florida State forest. He slalom skied, basically. And then, engulfed by the tree limbs, he threw up a prayer, a ridiculous runner that clanked off the rim and right into the Seminoles’ next fast break. It was not Brooks’ fault, nor Love’s. But that one sequence was enough to sabotage UNC’s late-game high.
“We didn’t get nothing,” Love said.
Added Williams, who wondered if Brooks might have been able to drive to the basket, “the bottom line is that their defense was stronger than our offense was.”
Florida State’s length bothered Anthony Harris and the Tar Heels all night.
And so ends UNC’s run through this calamity of a conference tournament. An asterisk not only applies, but it’s unavoidable; two teams — first Duke, then No. 1 seed Virginia — were forced to stop playing due to positive tests within their Tier 1 personnel. For Duke, it ended its season. For Virginia, unfortunately, it might do the same. For North Carolina, though, it set up a superb semifinal rematch of arguably the Tar Heels’ best regular-season win: a 16-point second-half comeback in Chapel Hill.
That the script on Friday largely followed the second regular-season meeting of these teams is no coincidence. There was the matter of UNC in its third game in three days, but also, this is what Florida State does. This is what Leonard Hamilton has built: a lab of lanky, athletic forwards as capable of lighting it up from 3 as they are mucking most everything up. After shooting 26.7 percent from the floor and missing half of 14 free throw attempts, the Tar Heels were fortunate only to be down 11 at intermission.
But that’s what this team does. Strong second halves propelled UNC first past Notre Dame, then Virginia Tech. And after having already done so to Florida State last months, you’re kidding yourself if you think those thoughts of deja vu weren’t running through both locker rooms at halftime.
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“I knew we had a comeback in us,” Love said. “No doubt in my mind.”
Which is what happened. One key second-half stretch came when Walton, bottled up most of the evening, got loose for three 3-pointers in a 120-second spurt. UNC went from down six to all tied up. From then on, the teams traded baskets, physicality matching power, play after play after play. And then came that inbounds sequence and a second Hail Mary drive by R.J. Davis, and that all but did it. Free throws down the stretch weren’t a formality — UNC missing 11 of 25 on the night didn’t help — but they did finalize things.
Now, the better news: Conference championship or not, North Carolina will not have to sweat come Selection Sunday. By virtue of its end-of-season run — namely, wins over FSU, Dukeand Virginia Tech the last two weeks — the Tar Heels are clearly in the NCAA Tournament. They won’t be a customary No. 1 or 2 seed but in is better than out. At this point, after all that’s transpired in Greensboro these last few days, it might not be the worst thing in the world for the Tar Heels to tend to their wounds — Brooks still has a nagging ankle injury — from the comfort of Chapel Hill.
“We’ve done some good things,” Williams said, “but right now the pain and the negative feelings you have about letting one slip by, that you had a chance to win, is a lot more dominating than any of the other thoughts.”
No, the Tar Heels won’t be playing for the ACC tournament title. But their larger dreams — a Cinderella run, of sorts, through March Madness — are definitely not done for. All that’s left to do at this point is wait. For the bracket. For how it all breaks down. For which opponent has to face the fury that will linger from that busted play.
“I mean, I’m ready for the next one. We thought with two minutes left, this was our game. I’d much rather be playing tomorrow,” Bacot said. “We’re all fine, though. We’re just ready to play — and lock in for the tournament.”
(Photos: Nell Redmond / USA Today)
Brendan Marks covers Duke and North Carolina basketball for The Athletic. He previously worked at The Charlotte Observer as a Carolina Panthers beat reporter, and his writing has also appeared in Sports Illustrated, The Boston Globe and The Baltimore Sun. He's a native of Raleigh, N.C.
