NEW ORLEANS — Armando Bacot’s right ankle twisted again in the national title game and had no support to offer him. He had already spent most of the last 24 hours setting it up for this game and with the ball going down by 1 the Tar Heels ran out of chances with 50 seconds left.
Bacot stubbornly refused to accept the betrayal, pulling himself up off the ground where he had briefly collapsed as play continued on the other end, and with a face showing the pain of every movement, attempted to leap to where the play was had been continued.
That one moment that was so well summed up for North Carolina this season, one that started with smashing losses and blowout losses and toughness questions and ended with an unlikely, magical run that fell short of a few breaks.
Bacot had said he must be without a right leg.
Less than two months ago, former UNC forward and current Pitt assistant Jason Capel made his feelings about the Tar Heels known.
Capel was right at that moment.
But after this moment?
Carolina decided they wouldn’t be that team anymore.
Caleb Love also sprained his ankle. Twice. Brady Manek shot multiple times in the face. Puff Johnson vomited after being hit in the stomach and was already struggling with a serious hip injury.
Playing through injuries is one thing. A lot of players do, especially this time of year.
Earlier this season it would have taken a feather to knock UNC down. By the end of the season? It would need a bulldozer.
All year long while UNC was running they looked unbeatable.
But they didn’t roll often and were often quite hittable. And even the slightest setback would send her into a tailspin.
Bacot was like this when his career started in Carolina. He would have great games and then disappear. As a freshman, he was on one of the worst Carolina teams in 50 years. His lack of self-confidence was evident and he often got so lost in his own head that he wasn’t seen for long periods of time.
But now? This player seems a world away.
The freshman version of Bacot wouldn’t have thought twice about walking out with an injured ankle.
The junior version of him didn’t think twice either.
“I don’t think there were any difficulties. We all really wanted to win. We’ve come this far and just putting up a banner was a huge goal for us,” said Bacot. “And we just really wanted to win. I really wouldn’t let anything stop me from reaching that point.”
Trying and losing is sometimes harder than not trying because at least you can say you didn’t care. It’s what we normal people deal with on a daily basis. Who wants to try to make friends when they could be rejected? Who wants to go on a date when it can end in heartbreak?
But without the risk there is no reward.
Carolina knew that to get where she is, she had to be fully committed to every game and possession. And that’s exactly what it did, beginning and growing at least in part with that loss of Pitt, that sense of determination, tenacity and perseverance.
Every time things looked bleak, every time it seemed like things were over for UNC in that NCAA tournament, they weren’t over yet. UNC always had an answer.
And it tried to have one again in the national title fight.
UNC had a mini version of their game against Baylor in which they almost annihilated a 25-point lead.
This time their biggest advantage in the first half was 16 and at the break they were 15 ahead. However, UNC never shot well and that continued as the game went on. But they stopped ricocheting off their own misses.
Even so, Kansas would always have a run. Carolina had an answer, but ultimately not enough of it.
There was a lot of talk leading up to this game that UNC was playing house money after beating Duke. There is, of course, some truth in that.
But not for Carolina’s players and coaches. Sure, they shouldn’t be in this national championship. But they were in. It’s hard to get to that stage of the NCAA tournament no matter how good you are. It is possible that no UNC player will return there.
House money is for the fans. The players don’t want any of that.
They just wanted to win.
RJ Davis’ eyes were red and swollen. Davis, who was so magical against Duke and Baylor, couldn’t score enough points in that game to lead his team to victory.
Puff Johnson sobbed as the Tar Heels left the pitch. Just a freshman he will have a chance to return to the title game. But ask his older brother Cam how easy it is to get there.
He put on a heroic performance reminiscent of Grayson Allen’s star turn in the 2015 national title fight. But it wasn’t enough.
“I can honestly say I gave everything I had and I try to do that in every single game and every single day of my life,” said Johnson.
In fact, by the time his vomit had been cleaned off the Superdome floor, he had left everything he had on the seat.
Caleb Love, unable to reprise his role as hero as his 3-pointer would have missed, which would have tied him, stared straight down during the post-game press conference. Until he had to talk about his teammates.
“It hurts us to come this far and come up so short, everything we’ve been through. But the positive thing is I don’t want to go through that with anyone else,” Love said, trailing off as his eyes filled with tears.
Hubert Davis is an emotional man. Leaky Black said on Sunday that he sometimes cries before games. No national title games or Final Four games – just regular old games.
Davis, like any good father, wants his players to be equals and then pass on his accomplishments.
In Year 1, his team did, achieving a national title game that Davis’ teams never equaled, falling a game behind in 1991.
It’s hard to tell whether or not Davis has grown as a coach, or at least in the X and O department. Because we don’t know what he was like before. But he obviously has a handle on many aspects of being a head coach, and especially when he got the last element done – making a team want to do anything to win.
And he loved her. Fiercely and without reserve.
He wanted them to have the kind of moments he had. He helped lead her there. But he was also allowed to participate.
In the dressing room, looking at a sea of swollen eyes and faces in hands, he remembered where they had come from. A program in transition, a program in doubt, players who couldn’t make it, an unknown coach.
Now he’s gone to a national title shot in his freshman year and has shown the world that his players are special. Maybe it’s because they’re special, but it’s also because Davis himself is.
“I told them after the game that my desperation that they wanted to have that experience in a Carolina uniform was very important to me. I was very grateful that I felt like they were able to have a series of experiences this year that they could lean on and lean on and smile about,” Davis said. “I can’t remember a time in my life that I was in I should be disappointed but I’m just filled with so much pride I’m so proud of these guys, what they’ve done individually, as a team, for themselves, the way they support our university, this program, our community have represented.
“I can’t ask them to do more than they’ve done. And I’m very proud of each of them.”
Whether it was Bacot dragging his useless ankle across the court to try and make a play or Johnson literally throwing up, they left everything they had on the floor in New Orleans.
And it’s a harbinger of what’s to come at Chapel Hill.
“Just having Coach Davis as a coach, he’s been amazing all year. And everyone on our coaching staff has been great. And just that program, we all loved being here all year and just playing for Coach Davis,” Bacot said.
Then, just before he and his teammates and head coach exited the final press conference of the college basketball season, he added:
“This will not be the last time you see this program here.”