There’s snow stopping UNC basketball

ATLANTA — The North Carolina men’s basketball team faced an uncommon foe Wednesday. One it wasn’t prepared for, one it was helpless against.

Snow.

The Tar Heels (13-7, 3-4 ACC), who traveled to Atlanta and defeated Georgia Tech 78-65 almost didn’t make the game. In fact, the game itself almost didn’t happen.

Icy roads resulting from a few inches of snow in Atlanta triggered a gridlock in the city, with people abandoning cars on the interstate after 10-plus hours of a stalemate.

The team, which flew into Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Tuesday night, was stranded at its terminal until 1:45 a.m — five hours longer than expected.

“Oh my goodness,” said sophomore guard Marcus Paige, laughing.

“That’s a trip I’m not going to forget. We had some interesting travel.”

The Tar Heels eventually took Atlanta’s public transit system, MARTA, from the airport after their bus could not reach them. They then walked six blocks through the snow from the train station to their hotel.

“I was surprised I walked it myself,” said coach Roy Williams. “It was a tough situation in Atlanta.”

Williams also added that the team’s troubles paled in comparison to some of the more severe hardships faced during what students have been calling the “snowpocalypse.”

“We were so much more fortunate,” he said. “People had it ready for an excuse, and I told them we were lucky. A lot of people were out there 15, 20 hours in a car. We didn’t have any problems.”

In fact, Paige said the havoc gave him and his teammates plenty of much-appreciated bonding time.

“I think it brought everyone closer together,” he said. “We had a really fun time just hanging out and spending time on the train and whatnot in random parts of Atlanta.”

Maybe it was a result of the bonding, maybe the rushed travel schedule, but the Tar Heels found something besides snow in Hotlanta — a sense of urgency.

Though he’s definitely glad to see it back with the team, Williams doesn’t know where that urgency has been. Ask him if he talks to the team about it.

“Only 388 days out of the year,” he said. “To me it’s the whole key of a good basketball team — can you play with a good sense of urgency? And I think we did on (Sunday), and I think we did for the second half today, but we did not for the first half.”

That sense of urgency led to one of the more comfortable wins of North Carolina’s season. Perhaps the team deserved a carefree night after a kerfuffle-filled day. Whatever the reason, Paige is happy.

“It was a great trip,” Paige said. “And to cap it off with a win makes it better, so now we can be happy about it on the way home.”

Whenever it is they get there.

sports@dailytarheel.com