The North Carolina Tarheels have prided themselves on having senior leadership on all of their basketball teams since the days of Dean Smith. The senior leaders are not necessarily stars or even starters but they are usually the ones that have been in the program for four years and have been there before.
The Tarheels went 5-1 while senior Marcus Paige was out, ironically losing to Northern Iowa which was supposed to be his "home" game. Paige scored 20 points in his return against Maryland but I believe he provided something more important than points and that was the senior leadership that is usually necessary for any Tarheel team to be successful over the long haul. Roy Williams described it as a "comfort zone" while Paige is out on the floor and he provided a calming influence to Brice Johnson's emotion. Paige has been there before and they were playing the #2 ranked Maryland team that would not go away when the Tarheels had them down by 11 points. Maryland went up by one point in the second half and there was Marcus Paige keeping everyone focused and together. That is the definition of senior leadership.
No comments:
Post a Comment