AJ: The Proper Mode

CHAPEL HILL – Roy Williams said it didn’t matter to him how his team played Monday night as long as his North Carolina Tar Heels won the game.

The Hall of Fame coach’s words were driven by the emotions of Senior Night, the last game for a trio of Tar Heels that have been through a lot in their four years at a time when the coach himself has been through the most turbulence of his storied career.

But in a way, the coach was right. In the end, it didn’t matter how the Tar Heels played, all that mattered is that they won. And they did, defeating Syracuse 75-70 at the Smith Center sealing a bye until Thursday of the ACC Tournament and positioning themselves to outright win the ACC regular season title with a victory at Duke on Saturday night.

And you know what, it won’t matter one hoot how the Tar Heels play Saturday, either. The only thing that will matter is if they win.

End a recent curse against their arch rivals, take one on the road - a place that hasn’t been too kind to this bunch of late - and just win, because from that point on, especially given what’s at stake in Durham, the Tar Heels are officially in survive-and-advance mode.

“This is a survive-and-advance time of the year, (and) I think this starts now,” senior guard Marcus Paige said. “It’s not necessarily survive-and-advance on Saturday, but it’s ‘Do you want at title or do you not want a title?’ it’s a similar situation and from there on out is when it gets fun and it allows you to kind of forget about all the other stuff that’s going on and just play.”

In a strange twist of fate, if you will, that process began against the Orange.

Carolina led by 13 with 14:57 left to play, but then the offense stalled for various reasons and Syracuse took advantage, cutting it to 62-59 with 7 minutes left to play. But it wasn’t until Michael Gbinije’s 3 made it 69-68 with 2:23 left that the prospect of losing became a reality. The heels were at a crossroads.

Williams admitted to being stressed all day and throughout the game because he wanted so badly for his seniors to go out winners at home. He was more emotional than usual, the players later said.

“Oh man, we sensed it before it even started,” said Isaiah Hicks. “He pointed out from the beginning when we was in here talking he was like, ‘Just play. Play hard.’”

Yet, instead of tightening like they did against Duke a couple of weeks ago and not taking care of business at Virginia two nights ago, the Heels handled the moment and took their coach’s mandate to heart.

A Hicks layup cutting to the basket off a feed from Paige offered a glimpse of the Heels’ late-game spunk. A stop on the other end was followed by Johnson putting back Joel Berry’s missed 3-pointer. And after a Syracuse driving dunk, Berry calmly drained a pair of free throws to essentially salt away the game.

Survive. And. Advance.

“That’s what it gets down to,” Hicks said.

What’s interesting is that in some ways the Tar Heels grew on this night, too. They improved.

Some of the same questions continue to persist, but moving Paige on the ball more appears to have relaxed the team some. Paige isn’t shooting well but his 8 assists and 1 turnover was very much a veteran performance. Joel Berry’s 13 points, which included two more 3s, didn’t appear as forced as when he was almost exclusively at the point.

And the Heels weathered some foul trouble, more curious lineups, and a long bout with Hicks and Johnson on the bench with 3 fouls each in the second half.

But what got them through were some spinach and desperation, which isn’t a bad thing at all this time of year. Moreover, it’s actually a necessity.

Now, on to the next one. And maybe, just maybe, this team figured out its winning formula Monday.