University of North Carolina Athletics
View From The Press Box
December 7, 1999 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 7, 1999
By Rick Brewer
Associate AD for Communications and Sports Information
He was not a point guard in the truest sense of the term.
Certainly, he was not the type of playmaker that Ed Cota is today.
But, until last Saturday night in Charlotte, Jeff Lebo was the only player in North Carolina's incredible basketball history who had ever had as many as 17 assists in a single game.
Cota tied that record against Nevada-Las Vegas last weekend in the Tar Heels' 102-78 victory over the Runnin' Rebels.
Lebo, who brings his Tennessee Tech team into the Smith Center Sunday, had 17 assists on November 18, 1988 against Tennessee-Chattanooga in the Pre-Season NIT.
That's not to say Lebo was not a premier backcourt player. He certainly was. In fact, when he first came to Carolina in the fall of 1985 he was regarded by many as the top guard coming out of high school that year.
But, that reputation was built on his scoring ability, not his playmaking skills. As a senior at Carlisle High School he had led his team to the Pennsylvania state championship. His father, David, was his high school coach and now is an assistant for him on the Golden Eagle bench.
Because of his shooting touch and the presence of Kenny Smith during his first two years on campus, Lebo played the second guard spot in the Tar Heel lineup. Even as a freshman, he showed such constant improvement that by mid-season Coach Dean Smith had inserted him into the starting lineup. Smith moved Steve Hale to small forward, giving Carolina the same type of three-guard look it has displayed the first part of this season.
Lebo played some point guard in those first two years, but did not become the regular there until his junior year. As a senior, he split time at both guard positions as King Rice became a part-time starter as the team's basketball quarterback.
Early in his final year, however, it was Lebo who was getting most of the starting time there. He was running the team in that November season opener when he smashed what had been the school's single-game assist mark of 14. Phil Ford had accomplished that feat three times in his brilliant career - against Brigham Young, N.C. State and Howard.
Continually, Lebo would set up teammates, most notably Kevin Madden and Rick Fox, for easy baskets. Madden hit 13 of 16 shots from the floor and scored a career-high 31 points. Fox was 11-for-14 from the field and finished with 25 points.
Lebo got his final assist with 4:56 to play when he fired a crosscourt pass to Jeff Denny for an open three-pointer. He scored eight points himself in 29 minutes of action.
Cota's assists in Charlotte came on an assortment of lobs to Brendan Haywood and Kris Lang, driving handoffs to Jason Capel and pitchouts from the lane to Max Owens and Joseph Forte.
Lebo's performance marked the sixth time he had reached double figures in assists during his Carolina career. Strangely, it was also the last. But, in a way, that's understandable as Rice took more of the playmaker's role.
Cota, more of a pure point guard, had 23 games in which his assist total had reached double figures after the UNLV performance. Hopefully, he has several more left in him as the injury-riddled Tar Heels must have his playmaking ability to keep their offense flowing.
The game against UNLV also pushed Cota's career assist total to 805. He's the school career leader with Kenny Smith now second at 768. Lebo is sixth on the school's career assist charts with 580.
Even when he operated from the point, Lebo's assists generally came in a different manner than Cota's. With players like Joe Wolf, Brad Daugherty, Warren Martin, J.R. Reid and Scott Williams able to grab defensive rebounds, the Tar Heels got more fast break points than they do today. Usually, it was Lebo in the middle of those breaks feeding teammates for layups.
Because of his outside shooting touch, Lebo worked mainly on the perimeter in Carolina's halfcourt attack. But, with opponents fearing his long-range firepower he was able to draw defenders to him anytime he got the ball. He could then whip a pass to an open player for a dunk , someone moving into a spot vacated by the defense for a medium-range jumper or an open shooter who had set up behind the three-point line.
Cota, on the other hand, has an uncanny ability to weave into the lane. His tremendous quickness allows him to penetrate most defenses. He can then pitch the ball back out to an open teammate as defenders collapse around him. Cota is also a master of the lob pass for dunks by Haywood, Lang and Capel. In addition, with defenders trying to stop him from going straight to the goal himself for layups, he often can simply drop the ball off to a breaking Owens or Capel for layups.
In fact, it is hard to imagine a better pure point guard in the game today than Cota. He sees things on the court which are seemingly just not there. He can even throw passes through defenders - like his pass between a UNLV player's legs to an open Capel last week. He is savvy and a tenacious defender. Plus, he has worked to become a scoring threat from the outside. Through the team's first six games, he had hit seven of 12 three-pointers. By the time this game is played he may have become Carolina's record 49th player to reach the 1,000-point figure.
He's still not the scoring threat Lebo was and never will be. But, again, Cota is a totally different player than Lebo with a completely different role for his particular team.
In addition to his assists, Lebo finished his career with 1,567 points. Ford and Kenny Smith are the only Carolina point guards ever to score more than that. He was a brilliant shooter who late in his senior season hit 41 consecutive free throws, still a school record. His career free throw mark of 83.9 percent ranks second to Shammond Williams (84.9) among Tar Heel players.
Only Hubert Davis has a better career three-point percentage than Lebo at Carolina. As a senior he put on a dazzling shooting performance against Indiana at Madison Square Garden in that Pre-Season NIT with 29 points, hitting nine of 13 field goal attempts, including six of eight from three-point range. He made all five of his free throws that night.
And, oh yes, he also did hand out five assists. But, it was his 17 just a week earlier against UT-Chattanooga which had stood as the Carolina record until Cota equalled it with his eye-popping passing show last Saturday in Charlotte.
