Lucas: More

By Adam Lucas

The most unfortunate part of the predicament in which Carolina now finds itself after Saturday's 82-69 loss to Duke is that—completely without warning—the Tar Heels over the last month have become a team you actually want to see play more basketball.

Let's be honest. This was not always the case. This year's group has endured some difficult losses this season, and there was a time not so long ago when the last regular season game might have felt a little bit like a relief.

But they kept playing. The statistics, amazingly, say there was only four points worth of difference between this game and the defeat in Durham on Feb. 1.

The statistics are wrong. The initial matchup was never competitive. This one, for most of the evening, was very competitive. Eventually, though, the Tar Heels ran into a problem they couldn't solve, and that problem was that this year's Blue Devils are very, very good. They have size and depth and skill. That size makes them very tough defensively; if you go back and watch every Tar Heel made basket, you'll see precious few open shots.

And even with those realities, with a six-point lead in the second half and a packed Smith Center crowd that had a flicker of belief, it felt like it might be one of those nights in Chapel Hill.

That would've made sense, because it had already been one of those days. I am too old to fully understand what the kids call vibes. But I know this: It doesn't get better than 65 degrees and sunny in March, and Tar Heel gear on everyone from a newborn to Tar Heel alums who might have seen games in Woollen Gym, and the pollen isn't out yet, and the doors to Sutton's are propped open to let the incredible Franklin Street air inside, and a band is warming up at the DKE house, and a 20-minute walk away one of the best baseball teams in the country is beating Stanford, and…

I'm telling you. This is perfection. Sure, sure: the current miniscule acceptance rate at Carolina is due to the professors and the academic reputation and the colors—never, ever forget the colors, because you see those blue and white overalls walking down the street and you just know.

But it is also due to days like this. If you give me one of these days every 12 months, and a golf cart to drive around campus and full access to the coming year's applications, no high school student will ever attend any other college in the entire United States of America. It does not get better than this.

You know how good it was?

Just after noon on Saturday, two misguided Duke fans were standing on the corner of Skipper Bowles Dr. and Manning Dr., and they spotted two equally misguided Duke fans stopped at the traffic light. All four gleefully began doing that weird hand thing they do where each person bangs their fists together so that it sort of creates a devil with their thumbs being the horns.

I know, it sounds ridiculous. But this is how good Saturday was: it wasn't even annoying. It was more like ants at a picnic. Every story needs a villain. Star Wars had Darth Vader. Batman had The Joker.

And we had (apologies to Darth and the Joker) these guys. When Grayson Allen isn't around, you take what you can get.

Now, based on the ACC Tournament seedings that have Carolina slotted fifth, these two teams could meet again in Charlotte on Friday. In that scenario—which would involve UNC recovering from a loss Saturday night in which they emptied the tank to secure victories over the winner of Pitt-Notre Dame plus a win over Wake Forest, so there's plenty of work to do before it even becomes a possibility—the Heels would have to find a more effective way to score regularly, have to be more productive on the offensive glass (Carolina missed 39 shots but got only eight offensive rebounds), and have to defend better against a team that shot 61 percent in Saturday's second half.

They wouldn't have to play harder or be more cohesive. That was a January Tar Heel problem. But it's a problem that has left them, in March, needing a little more…in order to play more. For a team that, over the last month, has turned into one that we still want to see more.

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