SYRACUSE, N.Y.—This was a nice moment.
Freshman Andrew Platek had scored five points in his first trip back home as a Tar Heel. Carolina won the game, 78-74, an important road victory that puts them in good position for the final week of the Atlantic Coast Conference regular season.
Coming off missing the Louisville game with a concussion, Platek was able to return for his first trip back to New York (he is from Guilderland, N.Y.), where his home sits approximately two and a half hours from the Carrier Dome. His parents, grandmother (a Syracuse grad who was wearing Carolina blue on this night, of course, because grandson trumps alma mater every single time), and approximately a dozen friends and other family were on hand.