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Chapel Hill was Funville Tuesday on Senior Night.
What a way to end the home part of the regular season and clinch at least a tie for first place in the ACC (last time was in 2019) with an 84-51 blowout of overwhelmed Notre Dame, which had been one of the hottest teams in the conference over the last month with five wins in its last six games.
And aren’t even-numbered years great, when Senior Night is not the white knuckler against Duke, where the Tar Heels go Saturday and try to win the league outright? When the opponent is a big underdog, and you have a joyous night watching your team play as well as it has all season, it is serious fun.
Armando Bacot, who’s definitely ending his college career, was one of five players in double figures and made two 3-pointers for the first time in his 162-game career, the most of any player in ACC history. Bacot’s first long bomb was in the middle of a 16-point run to start the second half. The Dome got goofy as AB swished it from the arc. His second ended the Tar Heels’ next run of 19-0 that gave them a 35-point lead, as the place burst into Smith-ereens. It was AB’s last basket on Roy Williams Court, the coach Bacot thanked on his video remarks for “taking a chance on me.” He was replaced by third-string center James Okonkwo, who had two blocks in his, and the game’s final, three minutes in the impromptu curtain call orchestrated by assistant coach Brad Frederick.
Frederick had gone to the officials to say they were making five substitutions at the next whistle. Then came Creighton Lebo, the coach’s son and one of three walk-on senior starters, a UNC tradition since the Dean Smith days, who replaced R.J. Davis, the ACC Player of the Year to be named next week.
Davis had 22 points, including four 3-pointers, and was serenaded with “one more year” by the fans who want him to come back for his COVID season.
After that, sixth-year senior scrapper Cormac Ryan was subbed out by freshman Zayden High after he had 14 points with two 3-pointers and 5 rebounds against his old Irish program. Ryan said in his video clip at a timeout that he feels “blessed” to be spending his last season of eligibility at UNC.
And, finally, Paxson Wojcik went out for Rob Landry. Both had fathers (and mothers) there with Carolina connections, Doug Wojcik was a three-year assistant under Matt Doherty and Pearce Landry looked like he could still play big minutes like he had for Smith in the 1990s.
All the players participated in the “I’m A Tar Heel” promotion with Davis last wearing a sweatshirt that said NERD. We all freaked out. What if it meant Not Ever Returning to Dome? Then R.J. thanked the fans for “treating me with love.”
And it didn’t end there. With 2:05 left, as ND emptied its bench, Matt Zona stepped to the foul line and bricked two free throws, driving the crowd crazy one last time as Crumbl Cookies will be giving away product all day.
One comely coed held up a sign that read, “It’s My Senior Night.” Not exactly. It was hers, ours and most especially the Tar Heels.
Featured image via Todd Melet
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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