DURHAM — “Hey, Haywood! Yeah, you Brendan! I’m talking to you, Brendan! You’re a disgrace! You’re bleeping, bleeping bleep! You’re bleeping horrible! You’re the bleepingest piece of bleep in the world and you know it don’t you, you big bleeper?”
That’s how one crazed Duke student, hair and face painted dark blue and a long white horn protruding from his forehead, greeted UNC’s senior center Brendan Haywood, as the 7-footer warmed up just a few feet away on Thursday night.
And, hey, that guy was one of the friendlier “Cameron Crazies.”
The odd thing is that over the last four years, the bigger-than-life Haywood’s own fans haven’t treated him a whole lot better than the horned guy.
But Haywood was huge (literally) when the Tar Heels survived against N.C. State in Raleigh on Sunday. He made the key block and the decisive free throws. There would be more key blocks and more key free throws in the Tar Heels’ one-for-the-books 85-83 win over Duke.
Tar Heel fans will remember the night of Feb. 1 for Shane Battier’s wonder of a blunder, for Joseph Forte’s 24 points and 16 rebounds (the most ever by a Tar Heel guard) and for Jason Capel’s 20 points. The latter had to be divine intervention if you watched “Cape” stink it up Sunday against the Wolfpack.
But the man of the hour was still Haywood.
Haywood took Duke center Carlos Boozer, a 6-foot-9, 270-pound, soft-shooting, ambidextrous muscleman, who terrorizes most teams as if he were carrying an uzi, right out of the game. Duke had a number of ugly shooting stats in the first half — Mike Dunleavy 2-for-6; Shane Battier 1-for-8; Jason Williams 4-for-11. But the killer stat was Boozer’s 0-for-0. Boozer looked up at Haywood like it was the first day of school and Boozer was the first-grader and Haywood the teacher. You wondered if Boozer might hand the big guy an apple.
Total intimidation.
That led to all sorts of good things for the Tar Heels. Usually teams are so concerned with Boozer chewing them up in the lane that they give Duke open 3-point shots. Thanks to Haywood, the other four Heels could forget about Boozer and contest those 3-point shots. They got hands in faces and often forced Duke to shoot from two feet deeper than normal.
Haywood picked up his third foul with 10 minutes left to play and his fourth at 6:52. But with even four fouls on him, Haywood, who had 14 points and 10 rebounds, made a giant play, rejecting Boozer when the Duke soph made a finesse move with 5:03 remaining and the Blue Devils down 67-64.
The Duke coaching staff screamed at Boozer that he had to take the ball directly at Haywood. With 3:13 remaining and UNC clinging to a 72-71 lead, Boozer did just that — with equally poor results. Haywood blocked his shot again.
Haywood was still around at the end, of course, and Battier fouled him with 1.2 seconds left and the score tied at 83, sending the big man to the line and sending all sorts of wild thoughts spiraling through that head that sits on those mammoth shoulders.
Haywood stood at a Shaquille-like 48.6 percent for the season — with even worse numbers in ACC games — when he was fouled. Memories flooded back of his freshman year when he missed two free throws late in the game at Cameron, helping Duke pull off a miraculous rally and a 77-75 win. Now, it was the same bucket and a similar rowdy crowd was calling him every name in the book.
“I was definitely remembering missing those free throws,” said Haywood. “That was running through my mind. I had to focus and follow through with my mechanics.”
During that timeout with 1.2 seconds on the clock, coach Matt Doherty told Haywood to imagine he was back at Dudley High in Greensboro — to relax and put them in.
Haywood looked nervous, shaking his head around and flapping his arms around like a prize-fighter loosening up. But his first try swished and the Tar Heels led. Then Haywood left the line and raced over to the Tar Heel bench to talk to Doherty.
“Brendan asked if he should miss the second one on purpose and let time expire,”Doherty explained. “But I told him to make it. I figured I’d trust my defense.”
“Besides,” Doherty added, with a rueful chuckle, “I knew if Brendan missed, all you guys would write about is how Brendan misses free throws.”
Haywood nailed the second one, too, and moments later the Tar Heels had their first win over Duke since the ACCTournament (March 8, 1998) when Haywood was a freshman.
“You know, I said a prayer for Brendan,” said Doherty. “He deserved this. He really did. He’s a great defender, a great player and he gets scrutinized and criticized so much.”
But now he’ll be lionized as the guy who beat Duke in Cameron.
And that’s not a bad thing at all, because Haywood really is a good guy.
Know what he did when the guy with the horn got on his case? He smiled and winked at him.
Maybe he knew what was coming.
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