Hot! Uncs Harrison Barnes Overcomes Horrible Game Against Gritty Ohio

ST. LOUIS - This was one of those nights no basketball player should ever have to endure, but almost every one has. Cold as ice. Bricks by the dozen. This wasn t just a shooter s nightmare. This was a shooter s nightmare with a thyroid condition, gawdawful and just plain unsightly.

If basketball s sweetest sound is a ball swishing through the net, then everything coming off the fingertips of North Carolina s Harrison Barnes was a scratch track of the game s most horrendous noises.

Clang. Thunk. Doink. Bonk. Bang.

All night long as Barnes and his top-seeded Tar Heels teetered on the edge of a colossal Sweet 16 upset at the hands of feisty 13th-seed Ohio in Friday night s NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional semifinals, the UNC sophomore swing man kept jacking up bad shots with a shooter s oblivious bliss. Now these weren t just bad shots because of shot selection (OK, maybe some of them were). They were bad mostly because of the volume of negative result.

Air balls that didn t even clip the net on the way down.

Front-iron rattlers and back-iron clunkers.

By the end of regulation, Barnes had missed 13 of 15 shots from every imaginable spot on the floor. Now toss in a couple of travels and a charge or two just for laughs, and this was one really bad night. Whenever he hoisted up the next shot, half the building groaned (the Carolina blue half) and the other celebrated (that would be the Ohio cheering section).

But now, here it was in the tense opening moments of overtime in Carolina s 73-65 victory, and guess who had the ball in his hands and turned into pure money?

Harrison Barnes .

"Ninety-nine percent of players that have the game like Harrison had and they think, It s just not my night, I m going to stop shooting and change my game," said UNC s injured point guard, Kendall Marshall. "Harrison is that 1 percent who thinks, Give me the ball, coach."

That s why it s so much fun to watch players like Barnes, guys who have the cast-iron stomach that is required to rise to these nervous gut-tightening moments and have the guts to win games.

Short memories and calm resolve.

So what if he couldn t get off the big shot at the end of regulation? His coach, Roy Williams, put the ball in his hands and told him to win the game.

"If I had it to do over again, I would put it in his hands again," Williams said after the game. "He s unique individual. He is willing to try to make plays."

Williams glanced down at the stat sheet and grinned. "Three for 16, and he s still willing to try to make plays," said Williams.