Carolina men’s basketball suffered a bad loss to what turned out to be a better-coached opponent on the 39th birthday of the Dean Smith Center.
Coming into Saturday’s game, Stanford was a Quad 3 team with a NET ranking of 85 after losing by 13 points at Wake Forest — where the Tar Heels go Wednesday night and absolutely must win to make up for their 72-71 loss.
And, to pour salt into the wounds of defeat, the Cardinal’s winning basket was scored by Duke grad transfer Jaylen Blakes, who made a short jumper over Seth Trimble with 1.5 seconds left. Trimble had given UNC its last lead with two clutch free throws but was then victimized by an ill-advised defense after Hubert Davis called a timeout. Carolina came out in soft man-to-man that allowed Stanford to race down the court unimpeded.
Blakes inbounded the ball and then got it back in stride as he barreled up the left side with the Tar Heels in pursuit. After his shot went in, Blakes raised both arms in the air and yelled at the Carolina crowd on his way down the court, surely delighting Dukies everywhere.
Why was the defensive plan not to double team Blakes, who had already scored 18 points, to keep him getting the ball back and finding an open spot? That’s exactly what he did, using a slight push against Trimble to get a wide-open look for the winner.
And then with a timeout and 1.5 seconds left, Davis did not use a favorite ploy of his mentors Dean Smith and Roy Williams by firing the ball to half court and calling the TO. That still would have left an improbable shot, but with a better chance than the floor-length pass that Ven-Allen Lubin hurled and was deflected away as the buzzer sounded.
The Tar Heels scraped by each of UCLA, Notre Dame and N.C. State on the last possession, when the Bruins and Irish missed poorly defended last shots and the Wolfpack had its five-footer blocked by Jalen Washington. This time, Stanford and Blakes got another great shot and canned it.
The ACC’s leading scorer Maxime Raynaud — a 7-foot-1 senior center from Paris — led the Cardinal with 25 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks. But Davis said it was the former Blue Devil who controlled most of the game in his team-high 38 minutes, also getting 4 rebounds and 7 assists.
“Maxime is one of the better players in the country, but Blakes was the deciding factor — not just on the last second shot, but the entire game,” the UNC head coach said afterward. “He dominated with the ball, getting to his spots, his presence defensively, his ability to play under control on the offensive end to get the shot that he wanted, and also shots for his teammates.”
Jaylen Blakes of Stanford backs down UNC’s R.J. Davis in the first half of the Tar Heels and Cardinal’s game on Saturday. (Photo via Todd Melet/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
Stanford players celebrate on Roy Williams Court after the Cardinal defend a last-second effort from UNC men’s basketball to beat Carolina 72-71. (Photo via Todd Melet/Chapel Hill Media Group.)
The opposing head coach, Kyle Smith, is a veteran with a career record of 269-198 at Columbia, San Francisco, Washington State and now Stanford, which improved to 12-6 and 4-3 in its first ACC season. Smith’s team climbed to 77 in the NET and closer to Quad 2 status. He had the Tar Heels well scouted, as Stanford routinely scored on similar inbound plays against UNC’s predictable defense.
After Carolina blew out SMU and Cal (who has since notched its first conference victory by winning at N.C. State), Stanford looked like the best of the three new ACC teams. In ending the Tar Heels’ four-game win streak, the Cardinal did not seem bothered by a raucous capacity crowd in defeating UNC for the first time in their 14-game series.
Carolina, which fell to 12-7 overall and 5-2 in the ACC, committed just five turnovers but shot only 43 percent — which included 5 of 18 from the 3-point line, with R.J. Davis draining three of them on his way to 19 points. Lubin, who played for seven more minutes than Washington, added 13 points and 5 rebounds compared to J-Wash’s 8 and 4. Elliot Cadeau had 12 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists but missed a critical free throw near the end that impacted the result.
The big surprise was the sluggish play of freshman Ian Jackson, who scored only 6 points and shot 1-8 from the floor (including 0 for 5 from outside) after having a torrid scoring run over the last few weeks.
“Basketball’s no different than life,” Hubert Davis said. “There’s going to be sunny days and rainy days and windy days and clear skies. I wish we could all score 20 points and win every game. That’s just not life and it just doesn’t happen in basketball. And so you always have to show up regardless of the outcome, come back to work hard and continue to improve and see which ways we can all get better. And Ian has done that all year, and he’ll continue to do that for the remainder of the season.”
If you didn’t care who won, it was an exciting and competitive game with 14 lead changes and 12 ties. Carolina led for 15 minutes more than Stanford but could not hold a 5-point advantage from R.J.’s late scoring burst. It was a tough ending for the Heels after outscoring the Cardinal from the paint (30-24), on fast break points (11-6) and off the bench (23-1).
The Tar Heels dropped in the NET rankings from No. 34 before the loss to 38. The visit to Wake Forest is followed by a home date with Boston College, road and homes games with Pitt sandwiching a trip to Duke, and a trip to Clemson. That stretch, as expected when the schedule was first released, will be critical for UNC. By mid-February, Carolina may have solidified a seed in the NCAA tournament or be back on the bubble.
The home loss to Stanford does not have to be a death knell on the season if the Heels return to playing and winning the close ones like they had been doing. But, certainly, it is a damaging defeat.
* * * * * *
On Saturday, Jan. 18, 1986, UNC’s $32 million Student Activities Center opened after a seven-week construction delay (the original debut was scheduled for Nov. 24 against UCLA, which was played in Carmichael Auditorium).
The night before, the building was named for Smith, the Hall of Fame coach and considered among the best in the country. He agreed to play the Duke game in the new building that had been dubbed the “Dean Dome” by students and fans. It was risky, since the third-ranked Blue Devils would be a challenge for 17-0 and top-ranked UNC as No. 3 Duke was 16-0 and only a slight underdog.
The excitement was palpable. As the Duke players walked into the arena, seniors Jay Bilas and Johnny Dawkins were in awe. “We have to get us one of these,” Bilas told Dawkins.
Their teammate Mark Alarie scored the first basket at the Smith Center. Warren Martin’s dunk was the first for the Tar Heels.
In the 39 years since, UNC’s 95-92 victory that afternoon remains one of the best games ever played in the Smith Center. Both teams shot better than 50 percent from the floor and combined for 58 free throws. Carolina had 22 assists on 34 made baskets, a hallmark of Smith’s share-the-ball philosophy. Senior Steve Hale led all scorers with 28 points, and senior center Brad Daugherty had 23 points and 11 rebounds.
The Tar Heels’ all-time record in the Dean Dome is now 484-89 for a winning percentage of .844.
Featured image via Todd Melet/Chapel Hill Media Group.
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.Chapelboro.com does not charge subscription fees, and you can directly support our efforts in local journalism here. Want more of what you see on Chapelboro? Let us bring free local news and community information to you by signing up for our newsletter.
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