Primed For A Championship Run
HARTFORD – On Saturday afternoon when North Carolina’s airplane landed in Connecticut, the destination as the team headed to take a tour of the “posh” ESPN facilities was Bristol. David Noel could not go. He was sick and headed straight to the hotel to rest before Sunday’s one o’clock tip-off against non-conference foe UConn. The abrupt news about Noel’s not feeling well, along with that of Rashad McCants, who after Sunday’s 77-70 win said he suffered from flu-like symptoms, is just a bit of hard times that UNC has now become accustomed to dealing with.
With just three weeks left in the season, head coach Roy Williams has had plenty to deal with in his second year at Chapel Hill and as the expectations mount and the national focus shifts to college hoops, the pressure for North Carolina to win is going to grow. A few reasons would unequivocally lead you to believe the pressure won’t faze them.
McCants strolled casually onto the court about an hour and one half before the scheduled tip on Sunday and did not say a word to anyone. And I mean anyone – a total business approach. He took some shots, listened to some music in his headphones and as Billy Packer laughed with Big East Associate Commissioner John Paquette and CBS set up shop with cameras and UConn went through warm-ups, McCants familiarized himself with the surrounding environment of the Hartford Civic Center. “Posh”? Anything but.
The 71-70 loss to Duke last Wednesday left a “sour taste” in everybody’s mouth but especially McCants as he finished with just 11 points on 3-of-13 shooting. McCants has become part of the reason the Tar Heel faithful have been frustrated at times. To start the season, McCants equated playing college basketball to doing hard time in prison. Coach Williams is as classy as they come, and a direct, to-the-point coach, so he had a little one-on-one with his boy. McCants must have gotten the message, because the junior forward has sensationally changed his approach. He had a similar problem to that of a former Tar Heel. When Michael Jordan entered the NBA, he was a scorer and that was that. The Chicago Bulls of the late 1980’s and early 90’s could not stop the Boston Celtics – that is, until Jordan learned to incorporate his teammates. And that is when they started winning world championships. McCants has finished 26 games scoring 20 points or more at North Carolina. Only one of those performances has come during the last 16 games. McCants has completely changed his me-first approach and is partially what now makes this team so dangerous.
The Tar Heels are definitely going to be a No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the NCAA tournament, and they will make a run. The eastern brackets will be filled with trap games and UNC will encounter problems in the latter stages of their regional and if they make it through to the elite eight. So far, it is unclear whether or not this team is capable of or has the stamina to make a run at the Final Four.
Trying to muster up the energy to bounce back off a depleting Duke loss and win one on the road versus a top 25 team in UConn, Sunday was a big game for North Carolina. And something had to give come game time. There were 32 scouts in attendance, including GM Joe Dumars of the defending champion Detroit Pistons, Denver GM Kiki Vandeweghe, and the bottom-of-the-NBA-barrel and soon-to-be lottery teams of Isiah Thomas and the Knicks, Allen Bristow and the Hornets and Pete Babcock of the Toronto Raptors. The scouts were looking at seven potential NBA players, so inevitably some were bound not to show up – but it was the other team that fell culprit. Connecticut’s Charlie Villanueva fell victim and had a miserable game with just two points. UNC’s backcourt game outshined UConn’s frontcourt depth. North Carolina may have padded the security blanket for at least four? five? six? players with draft potential.
Roy Williams obviously has the tools to make this a special season. Here are a few.
In the Duke and UConn games combined, center Sean May grabbed 31 rebounds. His new off-season workout routine is showing (remember when the Cameron Crazies used to hang a Big Mac box from a fishing pole when he would sit down on the bench?). Now Duke, along with the rest of the ACC, is trying to find a way to shut him down. May and the two Williams’, Marvin and Jawad, have been excellent. Jawad’s full-range game hands-down beat UConn Sunday. From three-point range to a post player with an interior presence, he is the total package. Coach Williams is being accused of hiding Marvin Williams from the NBA scouts by benching him and therefore not exposing him. But the freshman will be a key element to the Tar Heels making a run at an NCAA championship.
Then there is Raymond Felton. Tyus Edney comes to mind. Felton is a midseason Naismith Award selection and a candidate for top point guard in the country and is a lightning bolt that will not allow a defense to rest. He will usually beat everyone up the floor because he is just so incredibly quick. The junior guard had an 18-assist performance earlier in the season and is leading the ACC in assists (7.2 apg) and three-point field goal percentage (46.8 percent).
So the ingredients are there. People grimaced when Jameson Curry had his scholarship retracted in the pre-season and others were furious with McCants for making such wild accusations about being locked up. Things in good ol’ Chapel Hill have settled down and Roy Williams is excited, but not happy until his alma mater wins a championship, as is custom at UNC built on the rich heritage of the Dean Smith way. In an arena where they practically paint the toilet seats “Carolina blue”, the fans that religiously follow the Heels will travel and support this team wherever they end up. Watch out now, here they come.
Appetizers
- And you thought you had a tough job? Pete Babcock is the Director of Player Personnel for the Toronto Raptors. In attendance for Sunday’s game, he basically said things have completely hit the fan. The laundry list includes Vince Carter’s mother crying foul about how Sam Mitchell is a physically confrontational coach, an unhappy Rafer Alston wants an apology from the organization and Donyell Marshall wants out. Babcock did put an intriguing twist to things, however.
“Guys in our front office have valuable championship and Hall of Fame experience and so we can build on that and be optimistic,” Babcock said.
He was referring to Wayne Embry, who won a championship with the Boston Celtics in 1968, and Alex English, a 1997 Hall of Fame inductee. Babcock, the former General Manager of the Atlanta Hawks was fired more than one year ago by Ted Turner and AOL Time Warner because they wanted to go in a different direction.
- Roy Williams does not like playing non-conference games during the ACC season. He says if it were up to him, the Tar Heels would solely be focused on winning the ACC regular season title. According to Williams, once conference play begins, any non-conference games played are a considerable distraction and take away from the goal.
- Bob Ryan and Digger Phelps were in attendance, one working and one as a spectator.
- Former Husky Richard “Rip” Hamilton was honored at halftime and received a standing ovation. He was part of the Huskies first championship team in 1999. He attended the game with UNC alum and Detroit teammate Rasheed Wallace. They each sat behind their respective benches and Wallace stood up towards the end of the game and made a friendly gesture to Hamilton as if to say, “What now Rip”?
