Let It Breathe.

 

Some games are breezy like a good margarita. You can kick back, sip on it steadily, let the booze do its work, and wind up pleasantly buzzed off an easy W. Some, like walking into Arizona's home barn in the tourney last year and smoking them, require vigorously popping the champagne. Some are a shot of chartreuse: bitter and you're glad when it's finished. (See: last year's debacle against Georgia Tech.) Yesterday's road tilt at JMU, however, was a wine game. Sometimes you get the result you want only after opening the bottle and letting it breathe a bit.

This particular vintage, bottled in Harrisonburg, VA, carried strong top notes of last year's run-in with Boston College. This is to say that Carolina got into a rock fight with an inferior opponent, played uncharacteristically listless basketball for a stretch, and looked just generally out of sorts until about the third quarter. At which point, Deja Kelly did exactly what she did in Chestnut Hill last year: decided "We are absolutely the hell not losing this game," and made it so. The Heels trailed 34-30 at the break, and Kelly had heretofore only tallied two points. She came out of the half with a flamethrower, finishing with a team-high 22 along with five rebounds, two assists, and two thefts.

Deja was in position for those second-half pyrotechnics because Eva Hodgson and Alyssa Ustby absolutely balled out, keeping the Heels in it with 18 and 15 points respectively. Eva shot a a blazing 50% behind the arc, and tacked on two assists and a key rejection for good measure. 'Lys racked up eight boards, five dimes, and two blocks in another display of her supreme versatility. Anya Poole only notched six points but cleaned the glass with aplomb en route to 12 monster boards. Destiny Adams and Paulina Paris didn't flash much on offense, but played lovely defense for stretches, including Des continuing to demonstrate what is becoming something like a preternatural ability to jump passing lanes. Kennedy Todd-Williams had something of a quite night, notching a 8-2 line with a steal before succumbing to foul trouble, but she was her usual imposing presence defensively, keeping the Dukes' offense out of both rhythm and position on a number of vital possessions.

Teonni Key had four rebounds and a steal in 14 minutes, but given what we saw in the previous game, it feels safe to assume that she'll be a huge part of the rotation after she's gotten fully up to game speed. Malu Tshitenge only logged one minute of play, but I have to think a road dub was still a pretty good birthday gift. Happy belated, Lu!!!!!!!

Games like this aren't uncommon early in the season, and sometimes taking the win with plenty of areas to emphasize for improvement is better than an absolute blowout. The Heels have a stiff test ahead on Thanksgiving,  facing Oregon in what will amount to a home game for the Ducks at the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, OR. Until then, they let it breathe, and we can all savor the bouquet of the first road win of the year and a 4-0 squad. Y'all be well, and as always, Go Heels!!!

TC-Who?

 

Carmichael wasn't as full or rowdy as it usually is this afternoon, but it didn't seem to matter much for UNC as they cruised to a 75-48 demolition of TCU. Five Tar Heels racked up double-digit scoring on the day, paced by Toddy and Alyssa's 14 points each. Des logged a career-high 10 along with seven boards, continuing the absolutely massive leap she's taken from last year's freshman performance. Deja put up a 12-6-7 and is clearly well-evolved into her role as the primary floor general this year, though her ankle was obviously still bothering her. The MVP of the day though, at least to my eyes, was Anya Poole, whose 10 points and seven boards only tell a fraction of the story in terms of what she did out there today.

The only comfort I could possibly offer the Horned Frogs (if I felt like it, which I do not) is that it could've been a whole lot worse. Had they not shot a blistering 37.5% from behind the arc, this would have been something closer to a 40- or 50- point whooping. And they bombed all those threes because they quite literally had no other choice. And this is where we need to give Anya ALL her flowers. She calmly and casually decided that absolutely no business was getting done within eight feet of the rim today. Like, none whatsoever. TCU's posts could not establish position at any point, couldn't even try to call for an entry pass, because Anya pit-bulled them all game long. Her footwork, her positioning, her strength and body control were as close to flawless as you're going to get. It was one of the best individual defensive efforts I've ever seen in Carmichael, full stop. Her control of the paint meant that the rest of Carolina's murderous defense was free to do what it does best: swarm and snuff out everything. The Frogs, even with that stellar 3PFG%, only shot 25% from the floor, and as Matt Krause pointed out on Twitter, that means they only shot 15.6% on twos. (Read that again.) Tack on UNC forcing 24 turnovers and winning the rebounding advantage 47-30 and it's a wonder the game was this close. (To give TCU their props, it's not like UNC conceded the three-point line to shut down everything else. They simply shot the lights out on what were mostly well-contested looks.)

It was a sign of how dialed in the defense is that no matter what lineup combinations Coach Bang put on the floor (and she ran out some really fun, interesting variants today), there was virtually no difference in how absolutely suffocating the are. 

Look, it wasn't all great for the Heels today. The offense was choppy in stretches, and they continue what is a worrisome trend that goes back to last year of mediocrity in free-throw shooting. You can get away with that against an over-matched opponent, not so much in March. It should be noted that some of the offensive struggles today were due to TCU running a press-and-trap defense for most of the game, which is something I consider both a supremely annoying strategy and just plain cowardly for any team other than University of Alaska Anchorage, whose patented "Mayhem" defense is too dope to be mad at. They finally stopped when Coach Bang gave them a taste of their own medicine for a few possessions down the stretch which they did not enjoy one bit.

Some other quick highlights: Ali and Lu were extremely good defensively when Anya sat, and the Lu-Anya two-big lineup looks to have taken a big step forward defensively. There was also some nifty passing from the pair of them that we hadn't seen before. I'm not sure exactly how much Deja isn't trusting her jumper right now because of that ankle, but it didn't prevent her from absolute afterburner speed in transition and she was flying around like always on defense. And we must not leave before shouting out Toddy's preposterous move late in the game; a sort of modified-Eurostep-ball-fake where she exploded for a finish at the rim. I'm not sure anyone on TCU had functioning ankles left after that play. It was so filthy the whole bench was laughing about it for a solid few minutes afterwards.

Overall, it was a dominant performance from a dominant team, and UNC moves to 2-0 with some things to work on but also a lot that's already clicking in high gear. This team is on its way to big, big things, and we're lucky to bear witness. Until next game, y'all be well, and as always, Go Heels!

Light.

 

Toddy flashed to the left, just behind the arc, and buried her second consecutive trey to open the third quarter. The Heels were en route to a 91-59 demolition of Jackson State. That moment, when the roof seemed to come off Carmichael, was an echo, or maybe just a reiteration, of the best moments of the past several seasons. We were here again, standing in our barn, watching the Heels cook. The defense was exactly what it was the last we saw them; a beautiful, exacting calculus of stifling precision. The offense, even with a hobbled Deja Kelly, was majestic. Toddy and 'Lys and Eva were pure fire, and Destiny Adams has clearly taken a massive leap from her freshman year. She jumped two passing lanes on the way to four steals, but the first is the one I'll remember. Snatched the ball out of thin air, hit the afterburners, and just streaked up the floor coast-to-coast for a bucket. She's miles ahead of last season on both ends already. And Paulina Paris, GOOD GAWD, y'all. Scores at all three levels and has absolutely FILTHY handles. They're not even fully healthy yet, but this team is about to wreck some shop.

We saw old friends on Wednesday too. Our beloved section mates Ginnie and Jean, and our seatmates from the past few years Jeff and Debbie, who we thought we'd lost last season but were back after some health issues. It was so wonderful to see them again, to hug them and watch Carolina put down a whompin' on an opponent. It felt like what it always feels like in Carmichael: home.

This past August, Ags and I went to the Outer Banks. We met up with our friend Joshie (who married us) and his wife Sarah and their adorable kiddo Frank. On the way down, we stopped at a botanical garden and at Kitty Hawk, where the Wright Brothers pioneered human flight. We also stopped at several lighthouses, relics long since out of both utility and time now, but they were beautiful and they fascinated me. I can't stop thinking about them, even now.

Out there, at the edge of the state, far from Tobacco Road, one thing still holds true of North Carolina: There is a basketball hoop in damn near every driveway. Back home in Chapel Hill, there are three courts close enough that we can hear the pick-up games grunting and calling fouls, or the kids standing alone, shooting free throws, from our back porch. On the Banks, you drive narrow, two-lane streets where people don't care about speed limits, but there are still kids getting up shots in driveways, dreaming of a time when they might be hitting shots in Carmichael or the Dean Dome or Reynolds or  or (if they have no taste) Cameron Indoor.

The lighthouses, though? They might be an even purer distillation of what UNC Women's Basketball is going to be this year.

The French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel was born in 1788. He devised a lens of sectional, concentric parts of glass, allowing the light to be channeled in a specific direction. Prior to that, lighthouses just lit what amounts to a very big lantern. After Fresnel's invention, they could aim the light, point it out the the specific dangerous waters they needed to warn people about. There was a a focus and purpose to this, a direction. If you've ever done time in a theater, you've hung plenty of lights with these lenses inside them up in the grid. You also may have seen them if you've ever been in a basketball arena, because they hang up there too.

Last year, the Sweet 16 showing, the sheer velocity and adrenaline, was an absolute light beam. It shone a light we all could see and it was lovely to behold. But this year feels focused, feels refracted and shined out to a specific point. This year, the Heels stand in a light with purpose, a light meant to shine and reflect on them and them alone. This year, they ARE the light.

Ten Games, One Season, And The Future.

 

If you let this past season of North Carolina Women's Basketball wash over you, it would feel like a wave cresting in swirls of Tar Heel Blue; breaking against the shoreline but with a bigger wave already forming on the horizon. I've been thinking a lot about what we witnessed this year since it ended. In the near-decade Ags and I have had season tickets in Carmichael, we've never seen one like this. And the more I think about it, the more I can see the dots on the map. The inflection points and brush strokes and splashes of paint that made the overall picture. After a lot of pouring over box scores and sorting through my memory banks and re-watching a whole mess of games and highlights, these are The 10 Most Defining Games of UNC's 2021-22 season.

1. vs. NCA&T 11/09/21. Good ACC teams are supposed to take first game (i.e. typically lesser non-con) opponents to the woodshed, so the 92-47 win here was simply meeting expectations. This one was important nonetheless, for two reasons: 1. The Aggies made The Dance in 2021 via the most exciting non-Heels game I watched last season when they clinched the MEAC title over Howard. Even having lost some important players, they were not exactly a team to be taken lightly. 2. This set the blueprint and provided the thesis statement on what Carolina could be at their best this year. The sophomores were what jumped out right away. Deja was a step faster on the floor and ten steps faster in processing the game and making quick,  smart passes. Toddy's handles and shooting range had evolved to match her already phenomenal defense. 'Lys had added several new gadgets to her Swiss Army Knife game. And Anya's strength, footwork, and positioning in the post had amped up considerably. Pair all that with the arrival of stellar guard Carlie Littlefield, reunited with Coach Bang in Chapel Hill after their time together at Princeton, and the potential of this starting five was suddenly immense. Off the bench, Eva showed exactly why Coach had picked her up out of the portal with lethal shooting and her constant communication on defense. Lu was more confident offensively and more shifty/crafty on defense. Mo and Des, the (not-injured) freshmen, immediately flashed their capabilities. And, of course, Jaelynn, the unquestioned heart and soul of this team, would make her presence felt on-court or off, because it's what she does and who she is. Their overarching ethos was so clear from the opening tip onward. Efficient ball movement, leaking out at breakneck speed in transition, the team-wide all-gas-no-brakes motor, and most of all a relentless and perfectly calibrated defense. It's supposed to take teams with new players and new roles to play (which is to say most teams in most years) a few games to find themselves. The Heels had it all on lock from jump.

2. @ Minnesota 12/01/21. They call basketball arenas "barns" because in the early days of the sport, a lot of games took place in literal ones. They'd clear out the space, hang up some baskets, hastily construct some bleachers, and it was go time. (For a great portrait of this period in women's basketball history, I highly recommend Lydia Reeder's "Dust Bowl Girls.") These days, the last extant and specific  reference to this is Williams Arena at The University of Minnesota; AKA "THE Barn." After blowing past every opponent so far by double digits, the Heels went to Minny for a true road test against a B1G opponent. This one was back and forth the whole game, with both teams making runs that could've capped it. Carolina had to dig down for every point and rebound, but pulled out the 82-76 victory in the end. Typical of the year, the box score was a ledger of balanced contributions and shared glory, but this was Anya Poole's night, y'all. 12 points, 16 boards, three dimes and three blocks. Her control of the paint unlocked everything else and stifled the Gophers at every turn. The other four starters and Eva all scored in double digits, with Lys' amazing 19-11(reb.) effort being the other double-double. In their first huge test of the season, UNC passed.

3. @ Boston College 12/19/21. Even the best teams get out over their skis sometimes. Exhibit A from this season would be South Carolina's inexplicable loss to Mizzou, but this one had a strong case as Exhibit B for the Tar Heels, despite eking an eventual 76-73 win. I think Coach Mac is building something very cool and very good up in Chestnut Hill, and it didn't surprise me at all that Boston College came out swinging. That said, UNC might have been glossing over this game a bit mentally, and did not play up to their standard for a good chunk of this game. Carolina led 17-16 after the first quarter, but BC won the next two by a combined 14 points, leaving UNC in a hole going into the final frame. What transpired after that was Carlie and Deja basically deciding "we are NOT losing this game!!!!" They were twin flashes of electric light down the stretch, getting to the rack and to the line, canning clutch J's, and willing the Heels to a 29-13 fourth-quarter scoring margin. Deja finished with a 19-3-4 line and Carlie with 22-3-1. Both had three steals. It must also be noted that  this doesn't happen without Eva, who put up a critical 15 points with four boards and five dimes off the bench and came up big on defense as well, especially late in the game. It should have been a less stressful effort, but in the end Carolina kept the record clean, advancing to 11-0 and well on their way to a spectacular year.

4. @ Georgia Tech 01/23/22. Look, I said "Most Defining Games" not best or most fun, OK? This 55-38 shellacking in McCamish Pavilion at the hands of Nell Fortner's squad was horrifying to watch, but also a valuable learning experience. All the beautiful cuts and cross-court passing and outlets on the break that UNC had profited from heretofore were completely neutralized by the Jackets' overwhelming size and length. Tech simply snuffed out and/or staunchly contested anything Carolina tried, leading to 29.1%/23.1%/27.3% shooting splits for the Heels. That 38 points? Their lowest point total of the season. This wasn't just a humbling experience for a team that had mostly been cruising all year. It was an outline of precisely where their limitations were given their relative lack of size, how they'd been exploited, and a back-to-the-drawing-board imperative to make sure it didn't happen again. UNC had been smoked 45-72 two games prior by NC State in Reynolds for largely similar reasons, but getting walloped on the road by an eventual 1-seed in the tourney ain't the same as this. Going forward, this game made Carolina smarter and more careful, though no less ambitious when they had the chance to cook. Literally, metaphorically, and possibly even metaphysically, the Heels had been cutting hard and precise all year. This was the game that tempered the blade.

5. vs. NC State 01/30/22. Sorry to give y'all two L's in a row, but this is the last loss in this rundown, I promise. As alluded to above, Carolina got destroyed in Raleigh, but the game against the Pack in Carmichael was a much different affair. Toddy and Carlie put up a combined 27 points and 11 rebounds and the Heels absolutely scrapped like hell the whole game. If not for State outscoring them 23-11 in the third quarter, UNC might well have won this one. The important thing here was the toughness. They didn't let that first loss get in their heads. They fought. They played their game as flat-out and as hard as they could. It didn't work out, but 66-58 as opposed to the chasm final score of the previous meeting showed how much they'd learned and grown. This was the end of the downswing. After this, it was all apex trajectory. Starting (no disrespect to Jen Hoover and Wake Forest) with ...

6. vs. Miami 02/06/22. This was the game Carolina took the restrictor plate off the car for the rest of the season. The Heels dumped an 85-point barrage on the 'Canes while allowing a total of 38. Miami's scoring totals by quarter: 2, 11, 12, 13. Bear in mind, this Miami squad went on to ball themselves all the way to the ACC Champ Game. Katie Meier's teams are never to be messed with idly. And UNC just flat-out took them apart in every aspect. This was also the Ustby game. Not her gaudiest totals on the year by any stretch, but her most completely dominant performance. 'Lys had 11 points, 10 boards, two dimes, two blocks, and a steal. And y'all, she was just EVERYWHERE. All the time. She did a thousand little things that don't show up in box scores and she did them all game long relentlessly. She wasn't soloing, she was comping; a McCoy Tyner-esque display of understated brilliance. (She's a jazz pianist; the analogy feels apt.) It was how the whole team had already been playing, but this one showed us where subtle tremors could lead to earthquakes. UNC took on a really good team and completely dismantled them. It was exhilarating to witness, and we loved every second of it.

7. vs. Louisville 20/17/22. FINALLY. UNC beat the Cards. Sent 'em out of Carmichael with a big ol' L. More than even NC State, this team had vexed Carolina at every turn over the past ... well, forever or so. This was a collective win. Toddy and Deja poured in the buckets, Carlie and Eva dished and scored as needed, and Anya crashed the glass with some excellent help from elsewhere. This was a battle from jump and both teams were amazing, but the Heels pulled out the dub in the end. Matt Krause's call of Chelsie Hall's last-second trey attempt will ring in our collective ears forever: "It bounces once ... It bounces TWICE ... IT BOUNCES TO THE FLOOR!!!!!" Taking out an eventual 1-seed in The Dance, a conference opponent who has been a world-beater alongside State for the past five years, is the sort of win that can turn a program's fortunes and define the future. Being in Carmichael for this one was pure cathartsis.

8. vs. Duke 02/27/22. This was the All-Vibes game. Senior Day against those ... people, over in Durham, is always a thing. But it wasn't this year; or at least it wasn't the most important thing that day. This one was for Jaelynn Murray, period. Win, lose, whatever, the biggest thing was how Jaelynn came in and immediately started dropping buckets, just flat-out cooking. It was the perfect end to her career in Carmichael. She has been, always, since she stepped on campus, the pulse of this team. And when she went off like that, there were plenty of cheers, but there also was not a dry eye in the house for Carolina fans. Stomping Duke 74-46 was almost an afterthought. If you weren't crying already when Jaelynn buried that last J (I was), you just had to look at the Heels' bench and watch them going absolutely bonkers for our girl. The connection between Jaelynn Murray, this school, these fans, and this place will be eternal.

9. (Technically) @ Arizona 03/21/22. Carolina blitzed past SFA to get out of the first round of the tourney for the first time in a while. Then they had to deal with a phenomenally difficult challenge: A Wildcats team playing in the comforts of home, where they had only lost once all year, and that was to Stanford. This was last year's runner-up for the Natty, a well-coached and well-balanced squad who had been hooping at peak levels all season.  It didn't matter in the end. The Heels nonchalantly waltzed into their home gym and delivered a 18-point beat down. This was Toddy's apex-predator game from start to finish. 19 points, seven boards, five dimes, and three steals. Coach Bang has called her the "Scottie Pippen" of this team, but she's also a "Jurassic Park" Velociraptor, a hyper-intelligent and destructive presence whose speed and feel for the game counteracts everything anyone else anyone tries. She is the unquestioned tip of the spear for UNC's suffocating defense. She put all of that on display in this one, and coupled it with a jaw-dropping offensive performance. Throw in Deja dropping 15 and Lys' 12-12, and 'Zona never had a prayer. Making the Sweet 16, especially against this opponent and in these circumstances, was a truly special accomplishment.

10. vs. South Carolina 03/25/22. Every game from #6 onward on this list was a notification of sorts, a steadily mounting stack of evidence that Carolina was to be taken seriously. This one officially flipped the switch in the national conversation from "don't sleep on UNC" to "y'all don't want this smoke." Both Vegas and HerHoopStats had the Gamecocks by double digits prior to tip off. This wound up being a four-point game with two minutes left. Eventually, the Heels fell to the Gamecocks, just like everyone save Mizzou and Kentucky did this year as SC rolled to Dawn Staley's second National Title. But that 61-69 loss told the whole world this team can hang with anyone. Carolina squared up against the best team in the country and made them earn the dub, even without an interior player remotely capable of slowing down NPOY/DPOY/Everything-Else-OY Aliyah Boston, who finished with an insane 28-22 on the night. (PS - a healthy Teonni Key changes this game significantly.) We have to shout out Ali Zelaya here, whose 10 points and three boards off the bench were massive, especially with several Heels in foul trouble. That said, here are three more words: Deja. Freaking. Kelly. On a national stage and in the most intense crucible possible, Deja put up 23-5-3 on 50% shooting with a block and two steals to boot. I may or may not have dragged my laptop to my work-from-home station last season to watch the season opener, and the first thing out of my mouth to Ags afterward may or may not have been "We've got Baby Hollywood." This game showed the world I wasn't far off. This team showed the world that something special is happening in Chapel Hill, and that Carmichael is a PLACE TO BE if you want to watch brilliant, electric, selfless basketball played by a team that is long on talent but longer still on joy and belief.

There's a bit in the co-authors' notes of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's "Good Omens" that has stuck with me ever since I first read it. Pratchett talking about Gaiman: "He's no genius. He's better than that. He's not a wizard, in other words, but a conjurer. Wizards don't have to work. They wave their hands, and the magic happens. But conjurers, now ... conjurers work very hard. They spend a lot of time in their youth watching, very carefully, the best conjurers of their day. They seek out old books of trickery and, being natural conjurers, read everything else as well, because history itself is just a magic show. They observe the way people think, and the many ways in which they don't. They learn the subtle use of springs, and how to open mighty temple doors at a touch, and how to make the trumpets sound."

That was this season of Carolina Women's Basketball. Not magic, but a conjuring. Hard, subtle, painstaking work which produced something that looked and felt like magic, but was far more real and lasting and resonant. This was the jump point. From here, it's off into the Wild Tar Heel Blue Yonder. I can't wait to be in Carmichael for whatever comes next. Go Heels. 

Thank You, Jaelynn Murray.

 "The game can’t save you. But practice, though: practice can. Practice is hard, practice requires work, but practice keeps things alive — in games, in kindness, in love ... What’s left is what’s practiced, what’s passed down, what is carried along when everything else is left behind." - Spencer Hall.

Jaelynn Murray laced 'em up for UNC for the first time on November 10, 2017, in a 70-66 loss to Hampton. It was a different team, a different coach, and what feels like a lifetime ago. She started most of the games her freshman year, and then a cavalcade of bad injury luck and just plain poor circumstances put her in a reserve roll for the rest of her Tar Heel career. Your eyes won't pop looking at any of her box scores, but y'all, it needs to be said out loud and full-chest that she's probably the most important player in what Carolina has become since she stepped on campus.

Teams take on the identity of their coaches, certainly. That manifests in offensive philosophy, in defensive hustle, in the HOW of on-court performance and off-court workouts and all the general hoops ephemera that makes a basketball team sing. No one who has watched this team would deny that Courtney Banghart's imprint on the Heels has been one of excellence and sheer joy. Going from a team that occasionally shocked better teams and made The Dance but lost opening weekend fairly consistently to a team that just went four quarters against South Carolina in a Sweet Sixteen match-up and did not back down an inch is a massive accomplishment and it doesn't happen without Coach Bang. But it also, very much, does not happen without Jaelynn Murray.

If you watched the pre-game-get-hype huddles in the tunnel at Carmichael, you noticed that Jaelynn was the emotional centrifuge at the heart of them. If you went to road games and a "TAR!! HEELS!!" chant got started, Jaelynn was the one standing up off the bench and raising her arms up, urging us on. Come on, y'all can do better, be louder, give us our love. Her joy was infectious and powerful for her teammates and the fans alike. She was a nuclear reactor of good vibes that detonated every game and shone a light we all reflected.

When Jaelynn was out for the 2019-2020 season with a knee injury, Janelle Bailey switched from her number 44 to Jaelynn's number 30 uni for the year to make sure she was always on the court with the Heels in spirit, if not in actuality. That's the level of importance she had for this program. That's a kind of special you just don't see that often, but that's who Jaelynn Murray is. The engine and propulsive force that moves the team, whether she sees the floor or not on a given night.

On Senior Night this year, you could feel the Jaelynn Effect on full, Marshall-Stack Amplifier levels. The thing she's taught this team over her time here is not effort; you don't get to be a high-level athlete without that baked into your DNA; it's the more subtle but more important lesson that effort plus joy for you and those around you and fighting towards a common goal with you has a cumulative effect. That playing the game is not as important as the people you play it with. She has been the heartbeat, and everyone else picked up that pulse. That's why, if you looked at the bench when Jaelynn subbed in while Carolina was smoking Duke that afternoon, you saw her teammates going absolutely bonkers when she started putting in buckets. There is not a column for soul or resonance in a box score, but UNC has one in their collective hearts every game. And that came from Jaelynn Murray.

That's the legacy she left when the horn sounded Friday night against South Carolina. Deja and 'Lys and Toddy and Anya and Lu and Carlie and Eva and Des and Mo and Alex and Ariel, Teonni and Kayla (even though they didn't get on the court this year). Her joy, her love, sings through everyone on that team. She left it to them, like a precious, secret heirloom. And they'll make sure the next kids who strap 'em up in Carmichael get it too; that they carry it forward.

This magical team we watched this year, and all the other iterations of Carolina Basketball that are coming after them; they're not what they are without Jaelynn Murray, without her vibes and verve and the way everyone else understood that they not only needed, but WANTED that same emotional level, every day, all the time. Thank you, Jaelynn Murray, for everything. Wherever life takes you next, your impact on this team will hang in Carmichael like a banner, which is to say it will be there forever.

Apotheosis, So Far.

 

South Carolina rolled up in Greensboro and beat our team. That happened, and we recognize it and move on. What this UNC team did this year has been maybe the most joyful, pure thing of my entire sports fan life. They played free and loose and maniacally beautiful offense and absolutely operated on a defensive string on the other end of the court. They fought to the buzzer, always. They loved and scrapped and played together, always. They were a beautiful, almost telepathic collective force of hooping wonder at all times, ALWAYS.

They kicked ass last night. Not enough to pull the dub, but damn well clear enough to put the rest of the nation on notice. South Carolina is, by any sane observance, the best team in the country, and the Heels stood toe to toe with them for four quarters in a Sweet Sixteen game and did not flinch. Even in significant foul trouble, they were aggressive and focused and played the game the way they wanted to play it. There were some trips to the stripe where they could've put the ball in more consistently (this has been a thing all year) and I don't even want to think about the second quarter shooting splits, but even playing an uneven, janky game, Carolina hung with the best in the land.

And here's the thing: This is very much a beginning and not at all a one-off fluke. Deja Kelly went nuclear last night and that's not going to change. Toddy and 'Lys played slightly below their offensive peaks but were killer-murder-velociraptors on defense, like they always are. Carlie and Eva were uneven but brilliant in stretches, and Alex and Anya played their tails off trying to contain the force of nature that is Aliyah Boston.

UNC hadn't been this far in The Dance in a good while, and last night they proved they belong not just in the conversation, but as a main talking point. And the whole world saw and recognized it. This squad put everyone on notice this season. Next year will be transcendent.

A few other notes from my experience last night: 

 

1. Ags was not feeling well so I went to the game solo. I wound up sitting in a sea of South Carolina fans, and I totally get why Dawn calls them "Fams" now. They were delightful, kind, lovely folks who talked hoops and shot the shit with me all game like we'd known each other forever. At the half, I got up to go get a beer and a hotdog, and the woman on the end of the row letting me by said "y'all have a great team, I feel a little bad you're in the middle of all of us by yourself." I told her they were way more pleasant than most of the NC State fans who come to Carmichael once a year and that I was happy to be sitting with them. Her response: "Oh honey, we have to deal with Clemson fans, I get it." That woman is a national treasure.

2. Sports are f***ed up and we all know it. For the most recent example, you need only Google Deshaun Watson. College sports in particular exist on the far end of the horrific, exploitative spectrum. We compromise daily by loving our teams, none of whom are blameless or without flaws, no matter how much we want to tell ourselves otherwise. But when the game ended last night, something really cool happened: The arena staff put then end of the Saint Peter's/Purdue men's game on the jumbotron and every TV in the concourse. Two fan bases who had just spent the past two hours rooting against each other dropped their respective heartbreak and elation in a heartbeat and the whole place was suddenly screaming their lungs raw for a small New Jersey school none of us had heard of two weeks ago. When the Peacocks pulled out that win, we all, collectively, went bonkers. That was a MOMENT, y'all.

And that's why me and every other Tar Heel was in that barn last night. Not for the Saint Pete's thing, but to watch UNC Women's Basketball sweat and grind and work and to watch Deja Kelly become a goddess on a national stage and to watch this amazing team stand tall and take every punch South Carolina threw and to answer, right to the end of the horn. We were there for the MOMENT, and even though the final score didn't end favorably, the MOMENT was special.

Salvation

 

Over the last days of August and the first few of September in 2021, I was in the hospital. It was not because of COVID, or any other physical ailment. I had given up. I did not want to be alive anymore. There was my job, where we are ostensibly supposed to help people in dire need but are rarely allowed to actually do so. There was a virus which our country largely did not take seriously because the asshole in the highest office in the land said it was a hoax. There was the country that put said asshole in office and all that said about us as a nation and the awful, shuddering resonance of what that meant. I am immuno-compromised, and have lived the last few years in complete terror every time I cough. And have lived under the shadow of the fact that large swaths of my family (including my parents) voted to destroy our country rather than allow anyone who does not look or love or pray like them to have a home here.

I wound up on an involuntary commit for suicidal ideation because the totality of it all had finally destroyed me. The hospital stay did not make me better, by the way. First: putting someone with a busted-ass immune system on a mental health ward with people whose functional capacity was not conducive to wearing masks was not fucking OK. Second: All I saw was more of the same shit I see at work everyday. People who have been failed, repeatedly, by the healthcare and educational and legal systems of this country and just shoved aside into places where the rest of society doesn't have to think about them.

I am incredibly fortunate, blessed, and privileged that my sister-in-law happens to be an advocate for wrongly-hospitalized/incarcerated mental health clients. I am lucky that my parents, despite their abhorrent political beliefs, dropped everything and came up to North Carolina to be with me. Above all, I am lucky my wife called CHPD Crisis when she did, and that she welcomed me home. I am lucky I got to go home at all, that such a place even existed. My roommate during my stay left the same day I did, because, "the shelter has a spot open for me." I offered him money, and a spot in our guestroom, but he wanted to do things on his terms, and who the fuck am I tell him otherwise?

I came home a mess, of course. I was not functional. Not until we got to Carmichael for the first game of the season. Just being in that barn again, doing all the chants, clapping when the ball went into a free throw shooter's hands ... I can't fully articulate what that meant. Sharing hugs with Ginny and Jean (we've had season tix in neighboring sections for nearly a decade) was so special and healing.

I have a lot of shit to deal with, but this UNC Women's Basketball team is helping me a little bit at a time. This team can't heal me fully. There are probably years of therapy before that. But they have been a mental health salve.

You watch this defense, on a damn string, absolutely flying around and snuffing everything their opponents want to do. You watch KTW just destroying people, you watch the rest follow like they're almost teleporting around the floor. Someone gets hung up on a screen? *BAM* Another defender comes out of nowhere.

And then you watch what they do on offense. Jesus. That transition game, that murderous pace? At it's best, it's the fucking Sistine Chapel. It's Billie Holiday and Aretha and Sister Rosetta Tharpe all rolled into one. They're telepathic assassins and it's awesome.

Most of all, it's the collective joy. This team loves each other, loves hooping together, loves just being on a court so damn much.

Watching this team is a pure delight. Loving this team has kept me alive.

Being in Carmichael this year has been a tent revival. I don't much believe in Christianity anymore, and that's a whole different conversation, but this squad gives me FAITH in something. I can't define it, but I know it's special and important and real.

I know that barn means more to me and Ags than any place other than our home. I know this team is special and that Coach Bang is building something transcendent. 

I know this team is capable of pure brilliance.

And I know they've saved me from death because of it.

And I will love and cherish them for the rest of my days for that.