March 18, 2006

By Adam Lucas

DAYTON--When you've just made the free throws you've been imagining all your life, your choices are limitless.

That's the situation that presented itself to Marcus Ginyard with 16.5 seconds left in Friday night's opening round game against Murray State. He'd just walked to the free throw line with the nation watching. Carolina led just 67-65. This was probably about the time CBS was switching the entire nation to Dayton, with Greg Gumbel intoning in a somber voice, "We now take you to Dayton, where the defending national champions are in a battle."

So there was CBS, and there were 12,945 tense fans. This is how on edge the arena was: on two different occasions, the PA voice made the bizarre announcement, "For the comfort of the fans around you, please stay seated while the game is going on." The first time he said it, there was a low buzz of discontent. The second time he said it, with 14th seeded Murray State giving 3rd seeded Carolina all they wanted, there were 12,945 boos.

And there was Marcus Ginyard. He is cut from the same cloth as the rest of his class: irrepressible off the court, unflappable on it. When he drew the foul with 16.5 seconds left, a long-awaited media timeout finally was taken. After a two and a half minute break, he would shoot two free throws that could essentially clinch the game.

He ran to the sideline with a two-point lead and listened intently to his coaches. One of the first people to speak was assistant coach Joe Holladay.

"Relax, guys," the low-key Holladay said. "We're going to be up at least three points, maybe even four."

CBS requires that timeouts are even longer during the NCAA Tournament than they are during the regular season. Two and a half minutes can be a very long time. Stop and count it if you want. It seems like a long time right now. It seems even longer if you have the weight of the season on your shoulders.

Just before the Tar Heels broke the huddle, Roy Williams had one final thought for his team:

"Guys, we're going to be up four."

Then Ginyard set about proving him right. He nailed them both and Williams called a 30-second timeout.

This is when Ginyard had a variety of options. This is when perhaps he could pound his chest or maybe tilt his head back and roar toward the rafters. He'd earned it. Revel in it.

This is what he did: he patted his head coach on the back of the head.

Really, he did. He walked to the sideline, accepted quick handshakes from Reyshawn Terry and Danny Green, and then reached around with his left hand and patted Roy Williams on the back of his head.

No further images are needed to illustrate the camaraderie of the 2006 Tar Heels.

"It's such a great atmosphere with this team," Ginyard said. "Everybody is confident in everybody else on this team. That's what makes it work."

That...and a few huge plays by the senior leader. Ginyard's free throws wouldn't have been possible without a colossal rebound by David Noel. Murray State called a timeout with 38.4 seconds left. They were down just two, but you got the feeling they wanted three. That is what underdogs do in March. They somehow work free for a game-winning shot, it finds the net, and then they are running around celebrating while that blank look you know so well washes over the favorite.

That's what happened. The first part, anyway. Trey Pearson uncorked a three-pointer from the right side. It was off line, and it was off badly enough that it appeared to create the opportunity for an offensive rebound.

This was the area that had troubled the Heels all evening. The Racers had shot poorly, but too often they'd found their way to the offensive glass. Wiry center Pearson Griffith had four of those offensive rebounds, and he was slithering his way into position for a fifth when Noel decided he wouldn't allow it. For a second, it looked like Griffith had position. He got a finger on the ball and then Noel did what he's been doing for four years: he simply outworked Griffith for the basketball. As he'd left the Carolina huddle seconds before, Noel had heard Williams implore his team to do two things: get one must stop and box out.

They'd gotten the stop. Now Noel was going to make sure of the box out.

"When the ball came off, I did a good job of pinning him," the senior said. "Then he got a hand on it. But I couldn't let him get it. I just couldn't."

"A lot of people will underestimate that play," Ginyard said. "It was a big-time rebound by the guy who has been leading us all year. It was the story of his year."

It was deserving, perhaps, of a pat on the back.

Or maybe a pat on the back of the head.

Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.