This past season saw plenty of firsts for me.

It was my first time playing basketball away from home. My first time ever stepping inside the Smith Center was the day I moved into my apartment in Chapel Hill. And, of course, it was my first time being a Tar Heel.

I came to Carolina wanting to find out what it was like to advance past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in my career. I did that — and much more, as we were able to go on my first trip to the Final Four and national championship game.

I couldn’t have picked a better year to be a Tar Heel. The first time I noticed how different it was to play basketball at Carolina was this past fall at football games. I noticed immediately that people cheered for all the players when they were just walking around the stadium. Even me — and I hadn’t even done anything yet!

But that’s the kind of support you get at Carolina. The people here don’t realize what a big difference that makes because it’s “normal” here. It’s not normal everywhere else. All season, the fans kept believing in us and kept showing up. Even when we were playing a December home game and had just lost two games, there were still almost 20,000 people at the game. That doesn’t happen anywhere else. When we needed our fans, you were there for us.

That kind of support definitely has a tangible impact on the way we play. We played some road games this year that didn’t have a great environment. Then we came home, and there was that buzz in the Smith Center, and it made us remember, “Oh, this game is fun.”

Fans don’t realize it, but when you show up and there’s that energy in the building, it changes the way we play. That energy is something we can feel on the court.

I took a chance coming here. I hadn’t experienced Carolina Basketball in person. I didn’t know what Chapel Hill would be like. When I committed, I had no clue we were going to have the experiences we had this season. I was just hoping that it might be an enjoyable year. I got so much more than that.

The support I received during my first — and only — year at Carolina is something I will never forget. You adopted an Oklahoma boy and made him part of your family, and of the Carolina Family. When I look back on this year, I’m not going to remember the times we struggled or the practices when I couldn’t make a shot. I’m going to remember the way we kept winning games, and the fans who cheered for us and waited for us back at the Smith Center and packed the
team hotel in New Orleans.

It was my first time experiencing anything like that kind of support, and the first time I truly understood what it means to be a Tar Heel.

But it won’t be the last.