Big Cal gets excited when Young Cal rips a triple to right-center.

Almost as excited right now is his daughter, Andrea.

Because Big Cal’s daughter, who was recently the homecoming queen at Salisbury and is now a freshman at UNC, has a date coming up with UNC freshman guard Joseph Forte.

Big Cal likes Forte. “Wish all those Tar Heels would play like Joseph,” says Big Cal, a big basketball fan. “He’s tough.”

Little Cal’s sister “won” that evening out with Forte by being the highest bidder in a Chapel Hill charity auction last week. Let’s just say her timing was as good as Little Cal’s is when he jumps on a fastball. Forte’s value as an eligible bachelor and a basketball player went through the roof on Sunday when UNC upset Stanford 60-53 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Forte, a freshman, shot awful (6-for-19) against Missouri on Friday night in the first round and had shot awful or semi-awful over the last two weeks. He wasn’t a factor in the first half Sunday or for the first 13 minutes of the second half, either.

Hey, maybe his mind was on Miss Hayes.

But with UNC down 47-45, Forte finally banged in a bank shot to tie with Stanford’s Casey Jacobsen draped all over him.

Maybe point guard Ed Cota saw something in Forte’s eyes after that one. With the scored at 7-47, and with the shot clock running down on what looked like a fruitless possession, Cota shoveled the ball to Forte at the top of the key. The kid promptly swished the 3-pointer that put the Heels on top.

After a defensive stop, Cota and Forte repeated the formula. Screen. Curl. Pass. Jump shot for three. This one trickled in off the front iron. Suddenly, Forte had eight straight points and the Tar Heels were in charge. They never lost that lead that Forte so unforgettably forged.

The key to Forte’s sensational sequence was a timeout conversation with 7:06 left in the game. During that stoppage of play, UNC coach Bill Guthridge absolutely wore Forte out.

“He told me that I was playing scared,” Forte admitted. “He said for me to shoot the ball like I normally shoot it or come out of the game. And he was right. I needed that. I’d been short-arming everything. But once that first one fell, my confidence was back. After that, I wanted the shots. I knew they were going in.”

Guthridge’s decision to fry Forte — one he didn’t deny in his press conference — had to be a tough thing to do.

Because of all the Heels, Forte is the quietest, the calmest and the most polite. Plus, he looks like he’s about 16. Heck, even Duke fans like Forte, whose hobbies are chess, roller skating and ping pong, for crying out loud. No kidding, his middle name is Xavier.

But Guthridge did what he had to do. And then Forte did what he had to do. And the Tar Heels, as they say in Bracketville, survived and advanced.

The only bad news for Forte is that his “auction date” might have to wait another week. He’s headed to Texas for the Sweet 16.

I’m not sure about his daughter, but I’m sure Big Cal doesn’t mind Forte’s change in plans at all.

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