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If North Carolina misses the NCAA Tournament, it will be by the length of a toe. Literally
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The best rivalry in college sports – no, all of sports – has had its share of signature moments.
They’re games so legendary that they’re remembered by name with fondness or pain, depending on which shade of blue you prefer, even by those too young to have seen them when they happened.
Eight points in 17 seconds. Bloody Montross. Bloody Hansbrough. Wojo’s Senior Night. The Austin Rivers Game.
And now, the Lane Violation Game.
Years into the future, most of the important details of Duke’s epic 74-71 ACC Tournament semifinal win against North Carolina on Friday will likely be forgotten because of one decisive and incredibly rare play with 4.1 seconds remaining.
The Blue Devils’ first-half blitz without star Cooper Flagg. The second-half surge that helped the Tar Heels erase a 24-point deficit and put them in position to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
They’re reduced to footnotes by a single misstep at just the wrong time by UNC’s Jae’Lyn Withers.
The senior forward’s inspired play has been a catalyst for the Tar Heels’ resurgence over the past month. But on this occasion, he got too aggressive and was called for a lane violation that nullified what would have been a tying free throw by teammate Ven-Allen Lubin.
It was a stunning turn of events that allowed Duke to maintain its lead and hold on for the victory that sends it into Saturday’s championship game against second-seeded Louisville while relegating UNC to a precarious position on the NCAA Tournament bubble.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before, especially up by 1,” said Kon Knueppel, whose 2 free throws with 3.2 seconds remaining sealed the deal for the top-ranked Blue Devils. “That was very interesting. We were obviously pretty happy.”
As could be expected, the Tar Heels and their fans that helped pack the sold-out Spectrum Center weren’t quite as pleased.
Withers did step into the lane. But only by the length of a toe.
The only real controversy was whether it was an egregious enough step to warrant a call at that critical moment of the game.
It’s a subject UNC coach Hubert Davis wasn’t in the mood to talk about afterward. He deflected a question about the call by saying “I’m not answering that. We lost 74-71.”
Because they did, the Tar Heels will now have to sweat out the next 48 hours until the NCAA’s 68-team bracket is announced.
At 22-13, with wins in the last 10 games and a solid NET ranking of 35, their résumé looks good enough to the naked eye to warrant an at-large bid. But with only 1 quality win to their credit, there’s better than a 50-50 chance that they’re going to end up disappointed for the second time in 3 years.
Even after coming within the slimmest of margins of taking down the No. 1 team in the nation. Albeit without its best player.
“I think we’ve (shown) in the past couple of weeks that we are a tournament team,” UNC star RJ Davis said. “If you look at the trajectory of our whole season, the way we dealt with adversity, we overcame all that. You couldn’t ask for a better team than (one) that goes through that type of adversity, goes through that type of criticism and still perseveres through it all. That’s a tournament team for you right there. That’s what March is about.”
March is also about surviving and advancing to play another day.
And that’s what Duke did.
But in doing so the Blue Devils showed a vulnerability that might not cost them the championship of this tournament, but could become fatal in the next one Cooper Flagg isn’t healthy enough to play. Or at least play close to his national Player of the Year level.
Duke looked good enough without him for a while. With Knueppel hitting from long range and the freshman duo of Khaman Maluach and Patrick Ngongba dominating around the rim, the Blue Devils broke the game open with a 15-0 run to end the first half and a strong start to the second.
It wasn’t until the Tar Heels closed to within striking distance during the final 7 minutes – a time in which Flagg is usually called upon to have the ball in his hands and take control – that his absence began to show.
“Cooper makes so many plays for us,” Scheyer said. “His ability to break down defenders and teams don’t usually want to switch him. So what happened tonight, they were switching everything. They did a great job jamming us and they’re athletic. They make it hard on you. So you have to make some plays to break down the defense.”
The Blue Devils didn’t make many of those plays down the stretch. But as Scheyer was quick to point out, his team was able to make 1 more than the Tar Heels.
And that was enough to win yet another unforgettable game in the storied history of the North Carolina-Duke rivalry.
One that was decided by the length of a toe.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
