UNC honors Dean Smith by running trademark Four Corners

Roy Williams stood and held up four fingers.

And as the North Carolina men’s basketball coach looked out across the court of the Smith Center, so did Marcus Paige.

The junior point guard took the ball across the middle of the North Carolina logo and the rest of the team followed suit, fading into each corner of the half court — the Four Corners to be specific.

It was one more tribute to the man whose name is etched on the building the No. 15 Tar Heels call home, in their first game back in Chapel Hill since Coach Dean Smith passed away February 7.

“It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time,” said Williams after his team’s dominating 89-60 win over Georgia Tech. “Some way to do something that would mean a great deal to him, that would mean a great deal to me.”

After the Tar Heels (19-8, 9-5 ACC) basketball team finished looking over film of the Yellow Jackets (12-15, 3-12 ACC), Williams went over his plan.

“He drew it up on the whiteboard and the four people in the corners and the guy in the middle and said that this was gonna be the last way we were gonna honor Coach Smith,” said Paige, who finished with 13 points and 10 assists.

So there was Marcus Paige, running the play Smith had used decades before, wearing a throwback jersey in remembrance of the days when Smith walked up and down the sidelines of the court.

“Our first offensive possession, man or zone, we were gonna go Four Corners and hold it,” Paige said.

To Paige’s left there was Justin Jackson, a freshman familiar with the Four Corners offense, even if he wasn’t so familiar with the man who created it.

“I didn’t know him personally,” Jackson said. “But growing up a North Carolina fan and now being here, the legacy he’s left here with Coach (Williams), Coach Davis played for him ... Just being around those guys and learning what kind of man Coach Smith was definitely affected me.”

To Paige’s right there was J.P. Tokoto, a junior forward more excited to be a part of an offense he wasn’t familiar with than the multiple highlight reel dunks he threw down Saturday.

“I didn’t know anything about it,” said Tokoto in the player’s lounge after the game. “You say Four Corners and you can kind of depict what it means ... But you know, there’s a little history behind it and that was pretty cool to be able to go out there and run it.”

So Paige drove in toward his defender and picked up his dribble — just like he was supposed to do. He panicked a bit with the ball — just like he was supposed to do. And then he found a cutting Brice Johnson for a backdoor layup — just like he was supposed to do.

The Four Corners offense worked for the Tar Heels, just like it worked many years ago for Dean Smith. A simple play; according to the players, they only practiced it for about five minutes. In this moment, the play lasted just a few seconds. Some people in the stands likely missed it entirely. But that was fine.

“I wanted it to be something from my team to Coach Smith,” Williams said. “And that worked out great.”

And on the sideline, after the ball went through the basket, and his team ran down the court with teammates on the bench pointing to the passer, there was Roy Williams.

He sat down, and put his head into his hands.

sports@dailytarheel.com