University of North Carolina Athletics
Doherty Era Begins Friday Evening Against Winthrop
November 10, 2000 | Men's Basketball
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vs.
Winthrop Eagles
Date: Friday, November 10, 2000, 7:30 p.m.
Site: Dean E. Smith Center (21,572)
Series Record vs. Winthrop: First meeting
Radio: Tar Heel Sports Radio Network, a division of Learfield Communications. Woody Durham (play-by-play) and Mick Mixon (color) provide the call. A live broadcast also is available on the University of North Carolina's official athletic website, TarHeelBlue.com
Websites: North Carolina (TarHeelBlue.com), Winthrop (Winthrop.edu)
Carolina Opens the Season in NABC Classic
The Tar Heels begin the 2000-2001 regular season by playing host to Arizona State, Tulsa and Winthrop in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Classic at the Smith Center.
Carolina tips off at 7:30 p.m. on Friday against Winthrop, which won the Big South last year and played in the NCAA Tournament. Following the UNC-Winthrop matchup, Tulsa plays Arizona State.
Saturday, consolation action begins at 6 p.m. and the championship game starts at 8:30 p.m.
Last year the Tar Heels opened the season in Maui and won the Maui Invitational with wins over Southern California, Georgetown and Purdue. UNC also won the two-game Food Lion MVP Classic in Charlotte in December and won the NCAA South Regional in Birmingham, Ala., and Austin, Texas.
Tar Heels Return Four Starters
Carolina welcomes back four starters from last season's squad that went 22-14 and advanced to the Final Four. It was the Tar Heels' third trip to the Final Four in the last four years and the sixth in the last 10 years.
Senior center Brendan Haywood, junior swing man Jason Capel, junior forward Kris Lang and sophomore guard Joseph Forte are back from last year's starting lineup and are expected to start again in the season opener against Winthrop.
This is the second straight season the Tar Heels have returned that many starters. Last year, Haywood, Capel and Lang were joined in the lineup by senior point guard Ed Cota.
Friday night's opener will mark the first time UNC has played a game without Cota on the roster since the March 17, 1996, NCAA second round game against Texas Tech. Cota finished his career as Carolina's alltime leader in assists with 1,030. He is third alltime in assists.
Capel is currently the Tar Heels' active leader in assists with 143.
Doherty Ready for Home Opener
Matt Doherty becomes the second former UNC player in history to serve as head coach of his alma mater when the Tar Heels tip off the 2000-2001 season against Winthrop. He is the only active Atlantic Coast Conference head coach who won a national championship as a player. Doherty, a 1984 UNC graduate, is in his first season as Carolina's head coach. He took over the program on July 11, 2000, following Bill Guthridge's resignation. Guthridge led the Tar Heels to an 80-28 record in his three seasons as head coach.
Doherty was head coach at the University of Notre Dame last year and led the Irish to a 22-15 record and a berth in the NIT championship game.
He was the starting small forward in 1982 when the Tar Heels won the NCAA championship by beating Georgetown, 63-62. In 1984, he tri-captained UNC to a 14-0 record in the ACC and a No. 1 berth in the final regular season Associated Press poll.
The East Meadow, N.Y., native began his coaching career with a three-year stint at Davidson College and then spent seven years alongside Roy Williams at the University of Kansas. He served as an assistant coach at KU in 1993 when the Jayhawks advanced to the Final Four.
Doherty played in four NCAA Tournaments and has coached in seven, all at Kansas.
As a player, he was part of Carolina teams that posted an overall record of 117-21. He averaged 9.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game and totaled 1,165 points, 446 rebounds and 446 assists in 129 games played.
Owens Doubtful This Weekend
Senior guard Max Owens scored 16 points in 17 minutes in Carolina's 96-87 win over the Yakima Sun Kings (CBA) on November 6. However, Owens sprained his left ankle in practice on November 8 and is very doubtful for the two games in the NABC Classic. Owens sprained his ankle when he landed on teammate Brendan Haywood's foot. Owens averaged 7.4 points per game last year.
Forte Preseason All-America
Sophomore guard Joseph Forte was one of five players named to the Associated Press Preseason All-America Team. Last year, Forte led the Tar Heels in scoring with 16.7 points per game, was the ACC Rookie of the Year and the MVP of the NCAA South Regional. He had 28 points against Tulsa in the regional final.
Forte is joined on the AP Preseason All-America squad by Iowa State's Jamaal Tinsley, Notre Dame's Troy Murphy, Duke's Shane Battier and Arizona's Loren Woods.
Capel, Forte, Haywood Among National Candidates
Three Carolina players earned mention among the preseason candidates for National Player of the Year, including Joseph Forte, center Brendan Haywood and forward Jason Capel.
All three players were named to the preseason watch list for the John Wooden Award and Forte and Haywood were among the players to watch for the Naismith Award.
Carolina is the only school in the nation to have three different winners of the Wooden Award. Phil Ford (1978), Michael Jordan (1984) and Antawn Jamison (1998) were previous Tar Heel recipients.
Tar Heels in the Rankings
Carolina enters the season ranked No. 4 in the country in the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll and No. 6 in the Associated Press poll. The Tar Heels play seven other teams this year that are ranked in the preseason Top 25, including Duke, Michigan State, Maryland, Kentucky, UCLA, Wake Forest and Virginia.
This is the 16th consecutive season the Tar Heels have been ranked in the Top 20 or Top 25 in the preseason AP poll. The last time UNC was not ranked to start the year was 1984-85, but the Tar Heels joined the Top 20 at No. 19 in the second week and remained ranked the rest of the year. This is the 27th time in the last 35 years that the Tar Heels have been ranked in the Top 10 in the country in the preseason Associated Press poll.
UNC has been ranked in the preseason Top 10 17 times in the last 20 years. The only exceptions were 1984-85 (not ranked), 1995-96 (ranked No. 20 after Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace left early for the NBA), and 1998-99 (ranked No. 11 after Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter left early for the NBA).
Carolina's average preseason ranking in the AP poll in the last 20 years is No. 6.
Other national media outlets also rank the Tar Heels high in the preseason. ESPN's Dick Vitale, Street and Smith's and Lindy's place Carolina third, Blue Ribbon picks UNC 10th and The Sporting News has the Tar Heels at No. 11.
ACC Media Tabs Carolina Third
Ninety-three (93) members of the Atlantic Coast Sportswriters Association voted on the ACC finish on October 29th at Operation Basketball and the Tar Heels were selected third in the league behind Duke and Maryland. Wake Forest was fourth, followed by Virginia, NC State, Clemson, Georgia Tech and Florida State.
Sophomore guard Joseph Forte received the third-highest number of votes for the preseason All-ACC team behind Duke's Shane Battier and Maryland's Terence Morris.
Carolina at Home
The Tar Heels enter their 16th season in the Smith Center with a 164-25 overall record and a 72-4 mark against non-ACC competition. The only non-ACC losses were to Temple (2/21/88), Iowa (1/7/89), Michigan State (12/1/99) and UCLA (1/15/00).
The Tar Heels went 7-5 at the Smith Center last year, more losses than the previous four combined seasons. It equaled the school record for most home defeats in a season.
Eventual national champion Michigan State beat Carolina, 86-76, in the home opener a year ago. That marked the first home opening loss for the Tar Heels since 1928-29 (had won 70 in a row) and also snapped a 55-game home, non-ACC win streak.
Lang, Bersticker Healthy Again
Junior big men Brian Bersticker and Kris Lang both appear to have recovered from injury-plagued seasons of a year ago. Bersticker missed all but the first five games of the season due to a broken bone in his left foot. He broke the bone in December, then re-broke the bone in February as he attempted to rehabilitate in time to rejoin the active roster.
Lang had a series of illnesses and injuries, the most serious of which was a virus that caused him to lose 22 pounds before last season started and a severe case of shin splits that prevented him from practicing and playing much more than half of each game.
Lang is currently in great shape and responded with an unofficial career high of 22 points in the win over Yakima on Monday. He made 10 of 15 field goal attempts against the defending CBA postseason champions.
Bersticker also has returned to action and is expected to be one of the first reserves for the Tar Heels.
UNC vs. NABC Foes
This is the first-ever meeting between the Tar Heels and Winthrop. Carolina could meet either Arizona State or Tulsa on Saturday. UNC has played the Sun Devils on just one previous occasion. On December 23, 1984, the Tar Heels beat ASU, 85-66, in the finals of the Suntory Bowl in Tokyo, Japan.
Carolina is 2-1 against the Tulsa Hurricanes, including a 59-55 win last March 26 in Austin, Texas, in the NCAA South Regional championship. The win lifted Carolina into the Final Four for the 15th time in school history.
Carolina beat Tulsa, 78-70, on December 3, 1981, and the Hurricanes knocked off the Tar Heels, 84-74, at Tulsa, on December 17, 1982. Current UNC head coach Matt Doherty played in both of those contests. In the UNC win, Doherty made 9 of 12 fiels goal attempts for 18 points and added five assists. At Tulsa, he had 10 points and five assists.
Doherty was a teammate of current Tulsa head coach Buzz Peterson for three years (Doherty's sophomore, junior and senior seasons). They were both members of the 1982 team that won the NCAA title and the 1984 squad that went 14-0 in the ACC and was No. 1 in the final AP poll.
Fingleton to Miss Early Season Action
Freshman center Neil Fingleton is out of game action indefinitely after he underwent surgery to repair disks in his back in August. The Durham, England, native has begun shooting drills and light running and is expected to be able to compete later this season. At 7-5, Fingleton is one of the tallest players in ACC basketball history.
Haywood to Qualify for ACC Leaders
Senior center Brendan Haywood needs just 14 more field goals to qualify for the ACC's alltime leaders in field goal percentage. Haywood has made 386 career baskets in 587 attempts, a percentage of .658. That is the highest percentage in Carolina history, ahead of NBA All-Star Rasheed Wallace (.635).
Wallace currently holds the ACC alltime record. Players must have a minimum of 5.0 field goals made per game or 400 total field goals. Haywood has 386 and will qualify for the ACC leaders with his 14th basket this season.
Haywood led the nation last year with a field goal percentage of .697, the highest in ACC history.
He averaged 15.8 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.0 blocked shots in Carolina's five games in the NCAA Tournament last season.
Capel Third in Carolina Free Throw Shooting
Junior swing man Jason Capel enters the 2000-01 season with the third-best free throw percentage in Carolina history. Capel has made 192 of 229 free throw attempts for a percentage of .838. The only players in school history with higher percentages are guards Shammond Williams (.849) and Jeff Lebo (.839).
Haywood Closing in on Blocks Record
Brendan Haywood enters the season third alltime at Carolina with 184 blocked shots. He needs just 62 more blocks to become the school's alltime leading shot blocker. Sam Perkins holds the record with 245 and Warren Martin is second with 190.
The Greensboro, N.C., resident blocked 91 shots last year and 60 as a sophomore.
Freshmen Starters
Guards Adam Boone and Brian Morrison could start at point guard tonight. If either one does appear in the starting lineup, he would be the 16th Tar Heel to start in his first game as a freshmen since first-year players became eligible to play in 1972-73. Current UNC players Joseph Forte (1999), Kris Lang (1998), Jason Capel (1998) and Brendan Haywood (1997) also started in their first games as a Tar Heel. Other UNC players to do this include Phil Ford, Mike O'Koren, James Worthy, Michael Jordan, Kenny Smith, J.R. Reid, Pete Chilcutt, Rick Fox, Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison and Ed Cota.
