CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Harrison Ingram stood before the media following North Carolina’s 93-84 win over Duke, donning a pair of decorative Nike shorts with designs of plants and basketballs all over them.
He swapped into them before the team celebrated the victory to avoid getting Gatorade stains on his game shorts. As he took questions from reporters after his double-double performance, his choice of shorts stood out like his explosive performance against the Blue Devils at the Smith Center.
“I still don’t really know what’s going on right now,” Ingram said with a chuckle.
The former Stanford wing made his UNC-Duke debut in front of a slew of North Carolina stars of old ranging from different eras. Ingram’s already met former UNC players like Leaky Black — who joined the team for the postgame celebration — Luke Maye, Harrison Barnes and Vince Carter, who have all established their places in the UNC-Duke rivalry. He even had his assistant coach, Sean May, tell him about the numbers he put up against Duke.
And on Saturday, Ingram left his own mark in the history of the famed matchup.
“This was the most fun game I’ve ever played in my life,” Ingram said. “The most lit game. The most happy, intense (game). Every shot.”
Ingram truly did it all on Saturday, from his 21 points with a career-high five made 3-pointers, to his game-high 13 rebounds, to his career-high four steals. He played like his usual fiery self, heartily clapping after knocking down jumpers and aggressively jumping at missed shots when crashing the glass.
Ingram is now up to five double-doubles in his last seven games, and double-digit rebounding efforts in eight of his last 10. North Carolina is now 7-0 when Ingram records a double-double.
“He’s a winner, and he makes winning plays,” Cormac Ryan said. “His stat sheet was incredible tonight, but he did stuff that didn’t show up on the stat sheet.”
Two days before the game, Ingram cited Stanford’s matchups against Cal as the biggest rivalry he’d been a part of. But it didn’t take the transfer forward long to realize the magnitude of the spectacle that he became involved in.
His moment of truth arrived when Armando Bacot scored on North Carolina’s first possession of the game — a deafening moment for everyone on the court.
“I couldn’t hear anything,” Ingram said. “We were on defense, I tried to call out the coverage. (Bacot) couldn’t hear what I was saying. It was crazy.”
The game’s up-and-down pace led to just one stoppage of play before the first media timeout at the 14:19 mark, and both teams — visibly fatigued — sped right past the under-12 timeout and played nearly seven minutes of uninterrupted basketball.
“I feel like (in) the first four minutes, I’ve never had that much energy in my life,” Ingram said. “I was so winded…I was just so tired because my adrenaline was so high that I was moving faster than I’ve ever moved in my life.”
Ingram’s 21 points on Saturday was the most he scored since he scored 20 against UConn in early December — 13 games ago. In the games that followed, his scoring numbers dropped due to a wrist injury he sustained in UNC’s Dec. 16 game against Kentucky.
He’s used several different tapes and braces to remedy the injury. At one point, he completely abandoned any type of protection on his hand. In the last three games, he’s had tape wrapped around both his wrist and his thumb to help him shoot.
“I think either next game or game after that, I’ll start playing with no tape,” Ingram said. “But for me, the tape is just for my mind.”
Ingram isn’t one to take specific measures away from the court to enhance his mindset on the hardwood. He prefers to compartmentalize when he’s not playing the sport by watching Netflix, playing video games or even playing chess — either online, with his dad and brother or with his teammate, James Okonkwo. When he does suit up, though, he strives to provide the well-rounded skill set he displayed on Saturday against Duke.
The shots didn’t fall for Ingram on Tuesday against Georgia Tech, as the junior went 3-14 from the floor and 2-7 from downtown. But Ingram found the range against the Blue Devils.
“He was terrific,” Ryan said. “He was hitting shots, rebounding, playing with energy, just like he does. And that’s exactly what we need in a game like this.”
Ingram picked a great day to show out. More than 50 of his family members attended from states like Texas, Georgia, Minnesota, Louisiana and Tennessee to watch him play. His sister, Lauren, who plays volleyball at Duke, was among those in attendance on Sunday, sitting behind the scorer’s table.
Ingram said that she talked trash to him throughout the week leading up to the game. On Thursday, he cited a FaceTime call in which she gave him a hard time for UNC’s loss to Georgia Tech.
After knocking down a 3-pointer on Saturday, he looked to the stands and pointed to her.
“I told you,” he said.
Ingram rebounded the last shot of the game, chucking the ball down the court to let the clock go out. North Carolina advanced to 10-1 in the ACC with the victory over Duke, solidifying the team’s first-place spot in the conference standings.
And for Ingram, his performance on Saturday solidified his place in one of college sports’ biggest rivalries.
“You never know how new guys will respond to being on this type of stage, because it is a first,” Hubert Davis said. “(Ingram), and others, I thought they responded really well.”
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