It was a dark and stormy night afternoon in Durham, NC. What had started two years prior as an innocent recruitment of a solid, all around 6’8″ (6’6″ if you ask him) wing forward from quaint Ames, Iowa was about to culminate into a spectacle no one in the college basketball world had ever seen.
Friday the 13th. Decision Day. A day that some talking heads said (we’re looking at you, Adam Gold) would drive the proverbial nail in the coffin of Duke Basketball if one player from a small midwestern town chose to don the wrong color blue for his college career. Many proclaimed from the mountaintops that Roy Williams and UNC, if they earned this recruiting victory, would be Kings of Tobacco Road Basketball, and thus Kings of the College Basketball Universe.
The day started off innocuous enough, with message boards at TheDevilsDen.com, DevilsIllustrated.com, and DukeBasketballReport.com all quietly confident that Barnes would be their savior, the one who would bring Duke Basketball back to Final Four contention after the longest break in Coach K’s career. The rivalry is cyclical, many would post, logging on multiple times that day to check the latest on what Barnes was wearing to school that day, what his best friend had told Evan Daniels of Scout.com as he followed Barnes from class to class for up to the minute updates. Winning this recruiting battle against powerful recruiter Roy Williams would help to balance the scales of the once even rivalry back to normal. As fans, we truly believed this to be the case.
Meanwhile, in Chapel Hill, fans on InsideCarolina.com and CarolinaBlue.com, fresh off a national championship win in a dominant tournament display and going into a season with the 2nd-ranked recruiting class in the nation, was more interested in getting Barnes just to keep him away from Duke. Many had deemed him a “luxury recruit”, as it appeared John Henson was going to step into that Small Forward role that Barnes was being recruited for. If they got Barnes, it would be icing on the cake, and Duke would be stuck looking up at the muddy heels of their champion Jordans for the foreseeable future.
None of this seemed far-fetched to either side. Looking back, it is amazing how much fans of both programs had riding on Barnes and what they thought was his unmade mind that day. Little did they know how different things would be from what they thought.
Just before 4 PM, to the delight of millions of Tar Heels around the country, Harrison Bryce-Jordan Barnes chose to play his college basketball in Chapel Hill, NC for a program at the time who was the defending National Champions. It came as a shock to many, including myself, as Barnes had done and said many things to lead Duke and Carolina fans alike into thinking he would choose to wear the dark blue. Between the surprise trip across the country to say Happy Birthday to Coach K, his multiple visits, the fact that he told the Duke staff to “Hold #40 for me.” all led people to believe he would choose to play at Duke.
No one doubts that Roy Williams is an excellent recruiter, and he clearly outworked everybody here, but did UNC Athletics inadvertently inflict a curse upon itself by garnering Barnes’ commitment? Let’s look at what has transpired since this happened.
- October 5th, 38 days prior to decision day. Roy Williams is golfing in a member-guest tournament at his country club when he leaves early to get a second in-home visit with Barnes, mere hours after Coach K has left the youngster’s home. It is highly unusual for a coach to have two in-homes and even more unusual to have two on the same evening. What’s important about this day is this is the day Roy Williams injures his arm on the golf course, leading to some bizarre behavior while on pain medication for the shoulder injury he suffers today.
November 18th, 5 days later. Jay Bilas joins a chorus of media members decrying the fact that Barnes didn’t have the common decency to contact the other coaches who were recruiting him before he made public his commitment to UNC.
November 20th, 7 days later. UNC suffers it’s first loss of the new season against 24th ranked Syracuse, who had lost to Division II Lemoyne earlier that same month. It’s hard to remember, but UNC at this time was ranked 34 in the nation and by losing as bad as they did, it seemed to tip the season on it’s edge as the young Heels let a 20 point run to start the second half rattle them into 18 turnovers.
November 29th. Coach Roy Williams, possibly under effects from the pain medication from his shoulder surgery, rips into UNC fans for not showing up to an early season matchup with Nevada in which he earned his 600th victory. “Tell them I sold their dadgum ticket.”
December 1st. Bad press continues to hit Roy Williams as Delvon Roe’s father speaks his mind about the cheap shot taken at Roe by Roy Williams in his new book, Hard Work. Not only does Roy take jabs at recruits he lost out on, he also takes jabs at high school coaches in Florida:
“This is the first time he’s ever had to think and play at the same time,” Williams said recently. “You have to do that at this level, I don’t care how gifted you are. Michael Jordan never made a mistake on running a play. James Worthy never made a mistake running plays. … You could really count on those guys knowing what they were doing.
December 3rd. Roy doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone. He takes another shot at Roe after his team beat Michigan State handily in the ACC/Big 10 Challenge.
December 5th. UNC loses to Kentucky after an embarrassing 1st half. After the game, Eric Bledsoe lets on that John Wall took this game personally:
The win provided redemption of sorts for Wall, a native of Raleigh, N.C., who grew up wanting to play for the Tar Heels. Though North Carolina pursued him throughout high school, the Tar Heels never offered him a scholarship. It’s something Wall said he’s over, but Bledsoe knew better after listening to his roommate. “That’s all he talked about when we’d go back to the room,” Bledsoe said of the days leading up to the game. “John wanted this game real bad.”
December 12th. Roy Williams again garners bad press as he loses it on an opposing fan who yelled innocently enough, “Miss it, Deon.” as Senior Center Deon Thompson was shooting free throws in the Dean Dome. Williams had the fan ejected for little to no reason. The fan would later take in the Duke-UNC game in Cameron. More on that game later.
January 4th. The biggest upset in College of Charleston’s basketball history. The Heels lose to the Cougars 82-79, proving that this season was spiraling out of control.
January 13th-20th. UNC’s first 3 game ACC losing streak of the season includes a 19-point beatdown at the hands of Clemson. There will be more.
January 31st-February 10th. UNC’s first 4-game losing streak of the season, culminating in a loss to the Duke Blue Devils at home. Ed Davis breaks his arm in that February 10th game.
February 10th. After that Duke beating, Roy Williams addresses reporters in the locker room and tells them he feels like this season is worse than the Haitian Earthquake which killed thousands. More bad press ensues.
February 16th-20th. UNC’s second 3-game losing streak of the season includes a 21-point punishment by Maryland and a 15-point stomping by Virginia.
March 6th. 82-50. An epic beatdown of beatdowns would have been even worse if K hadn’t called off the dogs with a few minutes remaining. Watch the epic fail video by dukeblueforever here.
March 31st. Larry Drew aka “Turnover Jesus” can not find a taker on any West Coast teams and has to remain as PG for the Heels.
April 5th.
“It’s tough because (Krzyzewski’s) such a fierce competitor, a winner with a lot of pride,” Vitale said. “I know Mike will roll up his sleeves, get after it and work harder. He won’t feel sorry for himself. You’re not going to get everyone you want.”
May 6th. The Wear Twins transfer, leaving the Tarheels dangerously thin up front.
July 15th. NCAA investigators launch an investigation into the UNC Football program. Multiple players and Assistant Coach John Blake are interviewed and and the investigation is ongoing. It is possible that players could be suspended, Coach Blake could lose his job, and the entire ’09-’10 football season could be forfeited.
For what many believe to be a one-year player (at most 30 games), UNC had to endure it’s second worst season of the past 40 years, the worst record of any season coached by Roy Williams, massive PR hits by speaking blunders from the head coach, repeated injuries to multiple players, the transfer of two of only four post players, the nontransfer of one of the most hated point guards ever to play at the school, 82-50, rival Duke winning the National Title, and an ongoing investigation into the football program. Looking back now, was it really worth it?
At the time, that Friday the 13th was considered to be the death blow for Duke and one of the brightest days in the rivalry for the North Carolina Tar Heels. Looking back from this Friday the 13th, nearly one year later, it seems to be the exact opposite. Duke came out on top…
