Finally Hot Again, Marcus Paige Has UNC on Precipice of Career-Long Goal

PHILADELPHIA — Marcus Paige stood in the locker room Friday night after one of the most satisfying nights of his career. He'd just hit a season-high six three-pointers in the victory over Indiana—one rare "on" night in a season of off nights—and his team sat one win away from the Final Four.

So it was unusual that Paige, the journalism major who could put a nice spin on Mike Krzyzewski's Lecturegate, took offense to a postgame question.

"Were you desperate to fix this season that has not been ideal for you?" a reporter asked.

"Oh, this season has been ideal for me," Paige fired back.

"Didn't you say yesterday that it hasn't been the senior season that you anticipated?" the reporter interjected.

True, Paige's senior season hasn't been as storybook from an individual standpoint as everyone expected.

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Paige was finally healthy this fall after suffering foot, ankle and hip injuries during his junior season. The All-American honors that were expected in his junior year would likely become a reality if Paige were more of his sophomore self—the guy who averaged 17.5 points and carried the Heels down the stretch of close games.

But on Nov. 3, 10 days before the season opener, Paige broke the middle bone (the third metacarpal) in his non-shooting right hand on one of the final plays of practice.

He returned with a bang, dropping four threes and 20 points on Maryland in his season debut on Dec. 1. But soon after, he went on a cold streak and has had to answer many questions about "what's wrong with Marcus Paige and his jumper" after making just 32.3 percent of his threes prior to the start of the tournament.

An ideal season?

"I'm looking at it collectively now," he said. "What I've done, how I feel individually, is not important now.

"What's important is we're one game away from accomplishing another goal in the line of goals we've already knocked off. We've won the ACC regular season outright. We won the ACC tournament. Now we're one game away from the Final Four.

"Those are the things that I care about. Those are the things people are going to remember 15-20 years from now. They're not going to remember, Marcus, he's shooting 31 percent from three from the middle of the ACC play. I'm happy. I'm glad I was able to give my team a spark. But I'm not worried about my individual stuff at all."

That line of thinking could be why the old Paige was effortlessly flicking in threes against the Hoosiers. The NCAA tournament can often serve as a reboot, and Paige has gotten lost in the moment. 

He enters Sunday's regional final against Notre Dame coming off one of the best shooting games of his season. He's also had some recent success with the Fighting Irish—Paige made nine of 15 threes and averaged 18.5 points in two games against them this season. North Carolina blew out Notre Dame in the ACC tournament, winning 78-47 with Paige scoring 16 points. 

But during the course of the campaign, those kind of nights were rare, and the shooting struggles did get to him.

"It hurts to see him struggling the way that he was, because he really wants to help," senior Brice Johnson, who is Paige's roommate, said earlier this week.

"He is a leader. He's one of the leaders of this team. He wanted to help us out. He was getting down on himself at times. You could really tell. He was beating himself up about it. As long as we were winning, he was fine. If we were losing, he took it harder than a lot of us because he felt like he didn't do anything."

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It's telling that Johnson, who has surpassed Paige this year as the team's star and is the one earning All-American honors, would say that Paige is the team's leader.

Despite his struggles shooting the ball, Paige never lost that title or dodged the responsibilities.

"When Marcus is out there, it's like essentially having coach out there," Johnson said. "He's spent a lot of time talking to coach, more than any of us have. He really knows what coach wants us to do and goes out there tells us what we need to do."

Johnson said Paige is like the coach's son, and Roy Williams hasn't exactly hid that Paige, whom he often refers to as the "little rascal," is one of his all-time favorites.

"Marcus is a young man who's multitalented in every phase of his life," Williams said. "He does so many things on the basketball court. He's Academic All-American. He's the best leader. One of the greatest true student-athletes I've ever been around on the basketball court."

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The fact that Williams has kept his faith in Paige has helped the senior feel like his role never changed.

While his scoring has obviously gone down—12.3 points per game, which is his lowest average since his freshman year—Paige has been one of UNC's top defenders and has still played a large role in the Heels ranking as the second-most efficient offense in college basketball, as rated by KenPom.com.

"His reputation, or better term is, his respect that the other coaches have for him has helped him," Williams said. "I mean, remember, we're playing Virginia Tech, and Marcus goes this way, and Justin Jackson starts going the other way and both defenders go with Marcus. We throw the ball to Justin Jackson. He lays it up.

"So he does do so many different things for us, and I can't put a value on it just by looking at his points or his steals or his assists or anything, because he's the leader of the team."

And his teammates have hardly looked at him differently because shots haven't fallen in the games.

They say Paige hardly ever misses in practice, and as seen in warm-ups, he still has the stroke of one of the best shooters in college basketball.

"I've felt really good shooting the ball," Paige said. "They just haven't gone in, which is a little bit crazy. That's the reality."

Chris Szagola/Associated Press

The percentages have finally reflected his good form in the NCAA tournament. He's 11-of-21 from deep in tourney games with Saturday's 6-of-9 performance now fresh in his memory bank.

The Heels looked unbeatable with Paige draining threes again against the Hoosiers, and their shots seemed to improve simultaneously.

"You see the rest of the team feed off of that momentum," junior guard Nate Britt said.

In past years, the Heels often lived or died on whether Paige was hitting or not. Now they simply go from really good to borderline unbeatable.

As for Paige, he seems sincere when he says all he cares about is the team success now.

But don't be fooled by his media savviness too much.

"He's a lot more fun to be around when he's not in one of those funks," Johnson said.

C.J. Moore covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter, @CJMooreBR.