Tar Heels 'glad' Johnson's on their team as W vs. Pitt stops skid

By Marilyn Payne

Chapel Hill, N.C. — Cam Johnson's game first game, the lone game of the season, versus the team he used to play for and the head coach who refused to let him leave easily is over.

No. 19 North Carolina stopped a three-game losing streak by dominating Pittsburgh 96-65 Saturday night and the teams aren't on one another's schedule again.

• UNC stops skid by beating Pittsburgh 96-65

UNC head coach Roy Williams told the graduate transfer "just pretend it's another game, that's what it is," and Johnson made every attempt.

"Obviously you're going to feel some things when you're playing against your former team," he said. "I spent three years there, obviously I have a pretty strong connection there."

• No. 19 North Carolina ends 3-game skid, beating Pitt 96-65

Treating the game normally was somewhat easier said than done admits Johnson, who also grew up in Pittsburgh. His dad played basketball there, his mom went to nursing school there and one of his three brothers is still doing research for the University of Pittsburgh.

"We were joking around a little bit in the locker room before the game and Cam's trying to get us all serious and keep our mind focused on the game and everybody was giving him a hard time," roommate Luke Maye said. "But it was a good win for us, we're so glad he's on our team."

"This game just means a little bit more no matter how much I try to push that aside," Johnson said. "So there was a little bit more urgency on my end, just kind of knowing that I put on that jersey for a long time and seeing that jersey across the way."

Johnson finished as UNC's third-leading scorer with 14 points, one of six Tar Heels (17-7, 6-5 ACC) to score in double figures. He went 5-for-14 from the floor but the 39.6 percent three-point shooter was just 1-for-7 from behind the arc. Johnson missed the first shot he took, splitting the front end of a pair from the charity stripe, and missed the first two shots he took from the floor before slamming in a dunk to give his new team a 20-19 lead midway through the first half.

Williams said Johnson "may've been," pressing some. "He missed some good looking shots and he's been shooting the ball well. One of those was a tough shot, the rest of them were pretty open."

After a neck-and-neck first half, the Tar Heels finished the first half on a 14-3 run in which Johnson scored eight straight points on his first layup, a free throw, a three-pointer and momentous layup off a steal by Garrison Brooks which caused Kevin Stallings to call timeout.

Those exciting moments for the team weren't anything extra because they came against the Panthers (8-16, 0-11 ACC) though, Johnson said.

"Garrison made a great play diving on the floor and passing it to me, I was almost a little confused like 'I'm right under the hoop with no one around me,' and the energy in the arena picked up a lot," he said. "That was the overwhelming emotion, and building up a lead."

Obviously, the story is more than merely a visit from an old familiar face. Despite him graduating in three years in May, Johnson's transfer process was the center of national attention last summer as Stallings refused his release to the in-conference foe and reigning National Champion.

"You’ve got to kind of think that if I was a coach, I wouldn’t necessarily want my player to leave either. There are no hard feelings on my end. I don’t think coach Stallings was trying to punish me for anything; I think they were kind of sticking to their ways," Johnson said.

"No, I did not speak to coach Stallings after the game."

Stallings refused commentary on his former player's performance just as he tried to nullify the transfer, first answering a question about "Cam," by discussing freshman Khameron Davis' game, then deferring to Roy Williams.

But Johnson sees there is hope still for the players on the winless-in-the-ACC team, which has only one player that he himself played with still on the roster.

"As you go on, and this isn’t a knock on them in any way, you learn things," Johnson said. "I’m a different player than I was a couple of years ago. They’ve got a lot to learn and they’ll learn it. Going forward, they’ve got some players there that can do some things”

Now that facing the most familiar foe is finished, Johnson will truly be indoctrinated as a Tar Heel in his first battle of the blues Thursday night

"This week is really big, ever since I got down here people've said there'd be a lot of excitement around this game," he said. "I'll talk to the other guys and see how this game is usually treated and work from there."