CHARLESTON, S.C.—Brady Manek was walking around the TD Arena court approximately an hour before Tuesday night's game at College of Charleston. Manek, as you've probably learned three games into his Carolina career, is a different type of college basketball player.
So he took in the environment, looked around the stands, soaked it in. And he came away with a very important question.
"What's the point," he asked, "of wearing a Duke shirt to a Carolina game?"
Ah, Brady, you've just encountered the same question that every Carolina fan has asked at road games for the last decade. No one can explain it. Don't try to make sense of it. Some of it is likely just logistics. After all, let's be honest: there aren't too many places in polite company where you can wear that Grayson Allen jersey.
It happens everywhere and doesn't make sense anywhere. It's become almost comical. Opposing fans in Duke gear is just a common feature of Carolina road games, sort of like sellout crowds, an electric atmosphere at tip-off, and hot three-point shooting.
And, more often than not, a Tar Heel victory. That's what happened on Tuesday night, as Carolina emerged from Charleston with a 94-83 win. Carolina went 21-11 in voluntary road games during the Roy Williams era (that's right, they scheduled 32 nonconference games on opposing home courts, not counting the ones from ACC/Big Ten Challenge play), and now stand 1-0 in that category under Hubert Davis.
It had been two years since the Tar Heels played one of these, and it was fun to remember how enjoyable they can be. It's a big deal when Carolina basketball comes to town. College of Charleston students were in the building two hours early, and were treated to watching the last visit from the Tar Heels on the arena video boards while they waited for tip-off. Most of them, of course, are too young to remember the name Andrew Goudelock, a name many Carolina fans have tried to repress.
There were Lowcountry Tar Heels getting a rare hometown visit from their favorite team, and there were fans begging for tickets outside the arena, and there was a packed crowd roaring after every first half Cougar three-pointer.
"It was really amazing," said Kerwin Walton, who was playing in his first real college road game. "Seeing all those fans out there trying to go against us. It was like we were playing against them, too. It gave us some energy. It was really fun silencing them."
Oh, somewhere Roy Williams is grinning at that comment. Walton likely never got to hear Williams talk about making an opposing crowd go silent. In fact, it was Walton who first realized he'd gone through an entire school year--virtually, of course, due to the pandemic--without having a solid grasp of where the Old Well was located. For the love of the Davie Poplar, let's hope he somehow learned the significance of taking an entire crowd's brownies.
Walton finished with a key 14 points. One day earlier, there were signs that the old Kerwin was returning. In a transition defense period of practice, he swished a key three-pointer. Leaky Black ran onto the court to chest bump him, and Walton just stood there, resolute.
On the Walton scale, this qualifies as a Rasheed Wallace roar.
He deserved to do it again on Tuesday night. Charleston had closed to within 72-71 and it was as loud as it had been all night. Cougars coach Pat Kelsey was waving his arms like a free safety asking for more noise, and the Tar Heel bench was barking at the PA announcer for getting the fouls wrong, and it was madness inside TD Arena. It was exactly why so many teams don't play these games...and it was also pretty great.
That's because Walton took the opportunity to make a gorgeous move to free himself--that's a lot of summer hours in the gym right there--then swished a three-pointer. Ninety seconds later, he drained another one, and the game was essentially sealed.
"Kerwin Walton was unbelievable," Hubert Davis said on the Tar Heel Sports Network. "His shot had been going in and out for the first couple of games. He was outstanding on the defensive end. He did a terrific job moving his feet. He was awesome on both ends of the floor."
Don't overlook that defensive praise, because it was hard-earned. Davis has not been easy on Walton during the preseason. The head coach has publicly mentioned Don Nelson requiring a young NBA player named Hubert Davis to be more than just a shooter. That's the same tactic Davis has taken with Walton, pushing him to commit more defensively in order to earn his minutes.
Tuesday, Walton earned a season-high 28 minutes. And by the end, like in so many other road games, there was a different kind of noise in TD Arena.
"Tar!" shouted one tiny pocket of the crowd.
"Heels!" answered everyone else wearing Carolina blue.
There were no Duke shirts to be seen.
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