COLUMN: "They're going bananas on Franklin Street": Defending UNC's forgotten seasons
UNC forward Brice Johnson (11) dunks the ball during the 2016 ACC Championship March 12.
What are the forgotten seasons in recent North Carolina basketball history?
As a UNC fan, it’s easy to jump from Final Four to Final Four and gloss over what falls in the middle. Yet the ugly seasons stick out, too. That sort of review goes something like this:
If my scientific list based entirely on my personal interpretation of UNC basketball is indeed correct, the forgotten seasons are 2004, 2007, 2011, 2013 and 2014. Two of those years, 2007 and 2011, were actually good seasons. UNC made the Elite Eight and finished first in the ACC regular season both years, but I believe they were overshadowed by future great seasons. The other three were subpar by UNC standards, with mild success but with zero Sweet 16 appearances between the three.
I’m here to defend the forgotten seasons. That sort of yardstick measurement fails to capture all that is great about UNC basketball. It leaves out the in-season moments that mean so much at the time. The 2013-2014 Tar Heels are a great example of that. It was one of the most up-and-down teams I’ve ever seen. Early in the season, North Carolina had a trio of excellent non-conference wins: beating No. 1 Michigan State, No. 3 Louisville and No. 11 Kentucky. Yet it also lost to Belmont at homeand at UAB.
Though that team was incredibly frustrating, it was also fun as hell.
In December, Kentucky came to the Smith Center. The crowd was electric the whole time, partly because of the opponent, but also because that team gave them so much to cheer for. J.P. Tokoto had one of his more memorable games (he shot 7-10 — whaaa??), and we saw vintage second-half Marcus Paige. He scored 21 points after halftime to lead UNC to an 82-77 win.
But I remember one play in particular from that game.
Perhaps my favorite Tar Heel duo of all time, Paige and Brice Johnson, connected for the most hype alley-oop I’ve ever seen. I was going absolutely nuts, running around the house and slapping the doorways above to mimic Johnson’s slam. It didn’t hurt that one of my best friends was a Duke fan and he was there watching, too.
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First, Johnson basically bulldozed Kentucky’s Andrew Harrison to come up with this steal. It could have easily been called a foul, because Johnson shoved him in the back and grabbed the ball and kept going — all while the ref was looking right at it. But he basically got away with a tackle, and that makes it even better.
Second, let’s look at how people in the arena reacted to this. First is Johnson. He let out a scream of raw emotion, while dunking. It’s a prime example of how Johnson could energize a game. And then there’s Dick Vitale. While Vitale can bug me to no end, it’s hard not to love his calls when your team does something good. Here, his call was great.
It starts off with a pure moan. “Ohhhh, ohhhh. They’re dancing in the aisles, they’re high-fiving, they’re celebrating. They’re going bananas on Franklin Street!”
Don’t forget John Calipari. Kentucky’s head coach smartly called an immediate timeout, and the look on his face just says, “Well, there’s the game.” And that look is right. The dunk put UNC up 7 points with 1:15 left to play.
That year, the Tar Heels went on to finish tied for third in the final ACC standings, lost in their first ACC Tournament game and in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. If you judge a season based just on its end results, then this one was unremarkable.
But look past that and you’ll find so many moments that are worth remembering — like Brice Johnson’s dunk to put away Kentucky one night in December.
