North Carolina Tar Heels: Starting to Defy Description

“That wasn’t goofy, that was supernatural. It was like the aurora borealis went off that night,” Pitcher Tommy John on committing three errors on a single play.

Free throws. It came down to free throws. Not made free throws either, that would have been too much to ask. The final seconds witnessed four missed free throws, two by Meeks and two by Berry. Bizarre, yes. Explainable, also yes.

First off, I have seen goofed free throw shooting before. There was the time that LeBron James whispered to Gilbert Arenas before crucial free throws. I remember Darius Washington, Jr. missed free throws that would have won the Conference USA tournament and sent Memphis to the NCAAs. It has happened before.

If you were told that the Heels would miss four straight free throws, you might even have singled out Meeks as one of the culprits. His 63% free throw percentage would be suspect in that moment. In fact, Meeks often was not present at the end of games to get a better shooter on the floor.

North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball

Berry you might have picked out too. A 79% shooter on the season, Berry had made his foul shots earlier in the game. Yet he had already started missing before the crucial two and we know his ankles are not right. Doubt your base of support and you can see what happens.

Enter offensive rebounding. The Ducks had gone somewhat small with an all shooters lineup though they subbed in Bell during timeouts for defense. Bell was alone on the block though. The Heels had Pinson slap Meeks’ second miss out to Berry over Bell. Meeks grabbed Berry’s second miss behind Bell and threw it to Pinson. The clock ran out.

If you ever need to teach the importance of rebounding then this was your game. If you ever need to teach the importance of foul shots, this was also your game.