After an early afternoon stop at Liberty, it was off to Arena #123, the Dean E. Smith Center on the campus of the University of North Carolina for the lynchpin game of this trip, a top 15 matchup between Gonzaga and UNC. While the Smith Center is a surprisingly non-descript facility on the outside, you can’t help but to be in awe of the history and legacy of the UNC program when you look up into the rafters in the Carolina blue colored seating bowl and see jerseys from Jordan and Jamison to Worthy and Carter. For a non-conference game, the crowd was at capacity and the students were rocking for this one as the Heels were hosting a Gonzaga program that suffered their first defeat of the season in Phoenix the prior weekend to the top 5 Tennessee Volunteers. This was definitely one of the most entertaining, yet sloppy games of basketball I’ve ever seen live in my 123 stops to date. Let’s just say the shot clock never became an issue in this contest with both teams running and gunning throughout. At the end of the day, the Zags left too much of their defense back in Spokane as the Heels hung over 100 points on them in this one, yet drawing the loudest ovation of the night when the 100 point mark was eclipsed meaning the crowd won a free Bojangles biscuit! Gotta love the South!
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| The Dean E. Smith Center certainly doesn't have much in the way of exterior styling |
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| Inside the seating bowl of the Smith Center...whole lotta Carolina blue everywhere... |
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| So many jerseys hanging from the rafters in Chapel Hill |
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| Opening tip between the Bulldogs and the Tar Heels in front of a raucous crowd |
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| Rui Hachimura of Gonzaga with the emphatic dunk |
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