For close to 37 minutes on Tuesday night, all hope looked lost for the struggling No. 9 UNC men’s basketball team.
Vertigo sent head coach Roy Williams to the locker room in the second half, and the Tar Heels trailed Boston College all game long.
However, a late rally gave the team a much-needed road win, snapping a two-game losing streak by a score of 68-65 over the Eagles.
Not until it was almost too late did UNC look like a team widely thought to be among the best in the nation.
Boston College, the squad at the bottom of the ACC standings with a record of 7-17 and 0-11 in the conference, scored the game’s first basket and held on to at least a share of the lead until the Tar Heels ended the game on a 19-9 run under the leadership of assistant coach Steve Robinson.
Even though UNC, at 20-4 and 9-2 in the ACC, moved back into sole possession of first place in the league, Williams’ health scare dominated the postgame discussion.
“I’m alive, and I’m kicking,” the coach told reporters. “I’m not well, mentally. I’ve had some vertigo attacks over the last 17 or 18 years—this is the first time I’ve really had one during a game.
“It’s called benign positional vertigo,” he continued. “I’ve been diagnosed at the Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Kansas, the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and Chapel Hill Hospital—all three.”
Williams collapsed on the sideline during a timeout huddle with just over 14 minutes left in the game. He angrily turned his head around after a disagreement with the referee and the quick, jerking motion triggered the attack.
Robinson, who has been an assistant to Williams for 21 years—both at Kansas and UNC, showed great poise down the stretch, never appearing flustered amidst all the chaos.
“We work for a great guy,” Robinson said. “He has us prepared. I’ve always said going into each and every game that I should always be prepared [in case] he gets sick, or he gets tossed in a game—[so] I can just step right in.”
Much of the chatter surrounding the Tar Heels recently has focused on senior guard Marcus Paige, as he finally snapped out of a six-game shooting slump in Saturday’s loss at Notre Dame.
He had 12 points and hit a trio of three-pointers against the Eagles in this game, but it was another slumping teammate—sophomore Justin Jackson—whose 20 points off the bench led the way.
It was the first game all year in which Jackson and senior forward Brice Johnson did not start, as Williams sat them and junior Kennedy Meeks in search of a spark for the team.
“He responded the way you’d like a guy to respond,” Robinson said of Jackson. “He competed. He played hard. He was involved. He got his shot to go.
“Marcus hit a big three for our team,” he added, referencing the long-ball Paige drilled to put UNC ahead 62-60 with 1:47 left. “And we had a lot of guys make a lot of plays.”
Johnson and Meeks combined for just 11 points and 12 rebounds, but UNC got back on track with its shooting—finishing above 50 percent for the second time in its last seven games, both against Boston College.
Senior guard Eli Carter kept the Eagles competitive by scoring 26 points and hitting five three-pointers, continuing a trend of great perimeter shooting by Tar Heel opponents.
But as the game reached its conclusion, Robinson and the UNC players had Williams on their mind and simply would not be denied.
“He’s like a brother to me and he coached his buns off tonight,” Williams said about his longtime assistant. “And my kids played their rear ends off.
“I was very concerned because I didn’t want to be a distraction.
“I’ll be fine,” he continued. “I’m not dead yet.”
Up Next:
After going 1-2 on this three-game road trip, the Tar Heels return to the Dean Dome for their next game, a Valentine’s Day matinee against Pittsburgh (17-6, 6-5 ACC).
Game Notes:
- UNC allowed 40 combined second chance points in the losses to Louisville and Notre Dame but allowed only six tonight, including zero in the second half.
- Boston College led by six at the half, UNC’s largest halftime deficit of the season. The Tar Heels are now 3-1 this year when trailing at the break.
- It is the 57th 20-win season in school history, and the 12th in Roy Williams’ 13 years.
- Williams left with the team and traveled back to Chapel Hill.
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