How this ‘cool as a cucumber’ Raleigh fan hit a half-court shot during UNC game timeout
In his UNC hoodie, Carson Vargas stepped to the half-court line with 17,000 fans already screaming, an arena full of cameras pointing his way and a nation of Heels fans pausing to watch with their mouths full of Fritos.
He dribbled 16 times across his body and hurled the ball 47 feet to the rim — as relaxed as Stephen Curry.
And bang, his crazy, half-court long shot circled the rim and dropped in — just like he knew it would.
“I would have been a nervous wreck,” said his mother, Patti, “but he was cool as a cucumber. His autism doesn’t wire him for pressure. He just expected to make it.”
Vargas, who is 25 and from Raleigh, drew nationwide cheers Saturday at the CBS Classic in Atlanta, when he got picked to shoot the 1-to-100 shot during a timeout between UNC and Kentucky.
The Vargas family, a mixture of UNC and UCLA fans, saw the CBS team picking kids for the crowd-pleaser and volunteered Vargas, who by his mother’s description would shoot free throws in the driveway until midnight if left undisturbed.
“He won’t disappoint you,” his father, Steve, told CBS.
Vargas played tennis for Broughton High School, and plays basketball for YMCA squads along with notching what his mother called a “pretty-high” ranking in statewide special-needs tennis.
He got mobbed by fans after his long-distance three-pointer, and even after the game, people drove up, rolled down the window and gave the game’s hero a shout-out.
After all, no one on the Heels roster hit anything from that distance.
“He just expected to make it because that’s what he does,” his mother said Tuesday. “My sister texted and said ‘Way to go,” and he said, “What are you having for dinner?’ “
Vargas did step back from his triumph and wonder out loud, “What if I didn’t make it?”
But he saved those doubts for afterward, when the shot had already fallen and a small city’s worth of fans had already thrown their arms high.
This story was originally published December 19, 2023 at 2:24 PM with the headline "How this ‘cool as a cucumber’ Raleigh fan hit a half-court shot during UNC game timeout."