‘I looked right at him’: UNC routs NC State with show for Michael Jordan, legends in crowd

CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina guard Caleb Love connected on his first 3-pointer during the opening minutes of Saturday afternoon’s game and wheeled around, suddenly bringing into view a certain unmistakable someone.

There was Michael Jordan, seated courtside, looking back at him in approval.

“I looked right at him,” said Love, who never before had seen the basketball icon in person. “It wasn’t intentional, but I looked at him and we kind of made eye contact. It’s just crazy to see him there. He’s the greatest to ever play this game. So just seeing him sitting (on the) sideline and watching us play, and us playing good, it’s just inspirational.”

The Tar Heels gathered the enormous motivational fuel available and proceeded to pour it on against North Carolina State, raining a barrage of buckets from long distance and racing past the rival Wolfpack 100-80 in an Atlantic Coast Conference romp at the Smith Center.

With a special halftime ceremony and the unveiling of a new banner in the rafters honoring legendary coach Roy Williams, with members of North Carolina’s 1982 national championship team holding a reunion to commemorate the 40th anniversary of that magical season, the current Tar Heels built a 35-point lead while delivering a commanding performance to meet the magnitude of the moment.

Love pumped in 21 points and Armando Bacot supplied 18 points, 13 rebounds and six blocked shots, as North Carolina buried a season-best 15 successful 3-pointers — two shy of the 27-year-old school record — on the way to piling up a season-high scoring output.

It became a show worthy of the Carolina family luminaries in the crowd — namely the incomparable Jordan, but other beloved former stars and NCAA champions such as Raymond Felton and Marvin Williams — and an appropriate way to salute the retired Williams, who forever has delighted in defeating N.C. State.

Williams’ Tar Heels teams went 33-5 against the Wolfpack across his 18 years in charge of the program. On Saturday, his successor, first-year coach Hubert Davis moved to 1-0 in the rivalry.

RJ Davis and Brady Manek provided 17 points apiece. Manek (5-for-7), Love (4-for-6) and Davis (3-for-4) hit a combined 12-for-17 from beyond the 3-point arc. North Carolina shot 54.8 percent from the field on the afternoon, and knocked down a staggering 14 of its first 18 attempts from 3-point range to lead 73-38 a little more than five minutes into the second half.

“That’s an unreal experience,” said Manek, the Oklahoma graduate transfer. “It was definitely one of the reasons that pulled me here, for a game like that. And with Michael being here, it makes it 30 times better. That’s awesome. That’s unbelievable.”

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This was supposed to be the end of an energy cycle for the Tar Heels, playing their fourth game packed into an eight-day stretch. But North Carolina (15-6 overall, 7-3 ACC) had juice in excess and unleashed dominance, producing its fifth-most efficient effort on offense during the last four seasons, per Ken Pomeroy’s college basketball database.

Three days after laboring to dispatch Boston College in a 58-47 struggle and shooting just 29.1 percent from the field, the Tar Heels erupted for 56 points while splashing in 10 made 3-pointers here during Saturday’s first half, and sprinted out to a 25-point lead by halftime.

“To be able to play well with the ’82 team here and also a celebration for Coach Williams,” Hubert Davis said, “it just makes it a really good day. Today was a good day for Carolina basketball.”

N.C. State (10-12, 3-8) couldn’t keep up, even with big contributions from Terquavion Smith (34 points) and Jericole Hellems (25 points). Dereon Seabron, the Wolfpack’s top option, arrived ranked third in the ACC in scoring. He stumbled to a season-low two points, far below his 19.1 points per game average. It marked the first time Seabron has failed to reach double figures this season.

Here are more takeaways from Saturday in Chapel Hill:

UNC bombs away from deep

North Carolina knocked down 3-pointers in bunches, and when Puff Johnson sank the second 3 of his young college career, the Tar Heels had rocketed to an 8-for-10 start from long range to lead 40-19 with more than seven minutes remaining in the first half.

Kerwin Walton’s pull-up in transition soon thereafter meant six North Carolina players had contributed to the 3-point parade during the game’s first 14½ minutes. It became a shared assault.

“I love their ability to score,” Hubert Davis said. “But when we consistently pass up good shots to get great shots and we’re sharing the basketball, and it’s a combination of ball movement plus player movement, I think we’re really good offensively and I think we shoot the ball really well.”

Manek, the 6-foot-9 shooter, benefitted in that regard, spotting up for clean 3-point looks with N.C. State in explicably losing him at times defensively. Love, RJ Davis and Leaky Black found Manek in open spaces for comfortable in-rhythm releases.

Early in the second half, exasperated Wolfpack coach Kevin Keatts called timeout as Love went skipping past him in celebration of his steal in the open court and successful launch that gave the Tar Heels 13 made 3s and a 70-37 lead.

“We caught fire early,” Bacot said. “We’re hard to beat when we’re shooting the ball like that.”

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Roy Williams in the rafters

Standing beneath a spotlight at midcourt on the floor that’s named for him — Roy Williams Court — Williams took center stage during halftime. He joined coaching mentors Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge with a banner in his honor unfurled in the building’s rafters.

Williams retired in April 2021 having claimed three NCAA titles, six Final Four appearances and nine ACC regular-season crowns at North Carolina. His 903 career victories rank fifth all-time in NCAA Division I history, behind only Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Boeheim, Jim Calhoun and Bob Huggins.

“I loved being your coach,” Williams said Saturday, patting his chest and clapping and waving with the crowd standing here. “Folks, from the bottom of my heart, deep into my soul, I am a Tar Heel, and I will always be a Tar Heel.”

He concluded with a zinger aimed at the Wolfpack. “Let’s beat these guys in red a hell of a lot more,” Williams said.

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Emotions hit Hubert Davis

Hubert Davis described himself as especially emotional when he addressed his North Carolina team in the postgame locker room Saturday.

He said he felt pride in the Tar Heels sweeping their three-game homestand, with grinding victories over Virginia Tech and Boston College and the blasting of N.C. State accomplished across a compressed span of six days. A week prior, North Carolina had been reeling and searching, after blowout losses at Miami and Wake Forest on the road.

“Last week was a really rough week, and it just shows the perseverance,” Black said. “The way that we fought this week was huge. Hopefully that’ll give us a little boost going down the road.”

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Adam Smith is a sports reporter for the Burlington Times-News and USA TODAY Network. You can reach him by email at asmith@thetimesnews.com or @adam_smithTN on Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC basketball pounds NC State while honoring Roy Williams with banner