Lucas: A Life Changing Love

By Adam Lucas

I will never, ever forget the crowd at the Dean E. Smith Center on the night Roy Williams was hired by North Carolina on April 14, 2003.

Remember where we were then. Remember that it had been over a decade since a national championship, a decade since the Tar Heels had won the ACC outright, and that Duke had won seven of the last eight games in the series—including Carolina defeats by 26, 29 and 25 points.

Remember that reporters had made a habit of camping in the Smith Center parking lot to attempt to interview unhappy players, that barely enough alums returned to put together a full-court summer pickup game with the current team, that there were multiple players—core players,…