JACKSONVILLE — It has been in many ways a trying year for North Carolina. The perennial power is 25-11, a No. 4 seed this season much to the chagrin of its fanbase, but still defeated the No. 5 seed Arkansas Razorbacks 87-78 Saturday night.
The victory was a milestone one for coach Roy Williams, who tied the legendary former Tar Heel coach Dean Smith for second all-time in NCAA tournament victories.
“I'm an emotional guy. When they told me out on the court and (someone) asked me about if we win today I'd tie Coach Smith for the second most wins in the NCAA Tournament. That means a lot to me,” Williams said.
But it’s not just on the court struggles that have frayed the emotions and tested the resilience of the North Carolina basketball family. In January, he lost his mentor Smith, the legendary basketball coach succumbed to dementia.
Williams had lost friend Ted Seagroves, a prominent businessman in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, last December to pancreatic cancer. ESPN anchor and alumnus Stuart Scott died on Jan. 4, also from cancer and former Tar Heel and LA Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak’s 15-year-old daughter passed away the next day from an unspecified illness.
“It's been a hard year, it really has,” Williams said. “I probably acted sillier in the locker room after this game than I have in quite a while. I'm going to try to enjoy the dickens out of this one for a while tonight.”
Williams declined to say what the silliness was in the locker room postgame, and his players, in tongue-in-cheek fear of retribution from their coach also wouldn’t comment on Williams’ antics but the fun was sorely needed for a team that through its regular season had not looked like the Carolinas of even recent years, much less the Smith-era.
Tonight, against an Arkansas team that is similarly fighting to get back to the success of yester-year, the Tar Heels played a frenetically paced game that featured 78 possessions for each squad and was run with an up and down style until the referees took matters into their own hands in the second half. Until the whistles started, the game was Williams’ ideal. He quipped that if he had his way as a member of the college basketball rules committee the shot clock would be 15 seconds long.
“I think that we all need to look at things we can do to perhaps speed things up or make it a more free-flowing game,” Williams said. “But I think everyone agrees that we need to do that. But just because Roy Williams likes something doesn't mean it's the best thing for the game.”
The Razorbacks also like to run, with the initiator of the 40-minutes-of hell offense Nolan Richardson sitting a few rows up in Veterans Memorial Arena the game resembled much more of a track meet than the 56 possession slugfest played earlier by Xavier and Georgia State.
But then it devolved into a foul-fest. 48 personal fouls were called in total. 16 of Arkansas’ 23 personal fouls were whistled on it in the second half and North Carolina picked up 15 of its 25 personal fouls in the second stanza. Both teams were in the double bonus with eight minutes left, and combined to shoot 64 free throws. Two Tar Heels fouled out, another had four fouls and three more had three fouls apiece.
It is unfortunately where college basketball is these days, but in those confines, North Carolina was able to sink free throws and end up the victor.
It is on to the sweet sixteen for the Asheville, North Carolina native and his underachieving —to this point — band of Tarheels. From here the stakes get bigger, and the team has a chance to erase the ho-humness of this season and go on a magical through the rest of March.
For now though, Williams gets to share a place history with his mentor and reflect on others he’s recently lost.
“Basketball is a game. It's entertainment for everybody in the crowd,” Williams said. “My wife gets really upset with me when I say it's my life, but other than my family, it is my life. It's been some rocky times. I told the kids this week, the only difference between stepping stones and stumbling blocks is how you look at them. But the things I've had personally have been really, really difficult. But I've loved coaching my team. I've loved coaching this team.”
Follow Richard Johnson on Twitter @RagjUF
