Did you wake up with the sweats Saturday night?

When Brady Manek made his last 3-pointer from the corner, barely looking at the basket before he let it go, I truly thought I was Arthur in Wonderland. Up 25 over Baylor in Texas!

Then reality hit us in the worst visible way. To make a very long story short, can you imagine losing that game the way the Tar Heels almost did? Regardless of what happens in Philly this weekend, Carolina avoided what might have been considered the most agonizing defeat in the history of UNC basketball.

It is almost impossible to squander a 25-point lead in 10 minutes unless you are contributing heavily to the collapse. Sure, the officials are being roasted for ejecting Manek with a too-punitive call where the penalty did not fit the crime.

And the refs are also catching it for 13 of 14 whistles against Carolina while the Bears were hacking and bumping the Tar Heels, who contributed to their near demise by continually trying to inbound the ball to the smallest players in the wrong spots on the court.

Sure, this will be a major teaching experience for Hubert Davis and his staff, who will be working on press offense this week before taking on athletic UCLA Friday night. One or two hacking fouls on Baylor, or one or two fewer bad passes or shots by Carolina would have kept the game from going into OT.

Thankfully, Leaky Black, UNC’s most dependable player, won’t have to live down his heave that hit nothing but glass.

Full disclosure, how many of you were praying the game ended in regulation because, without Manek and Love, the Heels had virtually no chance in overtime? And without freshman Dontrez Styles stepping up and rattling in a 3-ball from the corner, Baylor would have likely scored first and won.

It would have been too painful to contemplate had it happened, but now we can admit that almost every advance Hubert’s team had made over the last month would have evaporated with such an unimaginable loss.

So, let’s all take a deep breath together . . . and be grateful.

 

Photo via Todd Melet.

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