University of North Carolina Athletics
Car-O-Lines: Opening Night For Matt Doherty
November 13, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 13, 2000
By Rick Brewer, SID Emeritus
More Car-O-Lines from Rick Brewer
Matt Doherty started his North Carolina head coaching career in better fashion than Dean Smith.
There was a basketball for officials to use in the game.
Smith has joked on many occasions that in his first game he thought he had every detail covered. However, as the Tar Heels went onto the court for the opening tip against Virginia, the referee turned to Smith and asked where the game ball was.
"I was so caught up thinking about so many different things that I didn't tell anyone to bring a ball out of the locker room," Smith has said. "I had to send Elliott Murnick, our manager, back to get one."
These days officials choose a ball while the teams are warming up so that was one less worry for Doherty as his team prepared to face Winthrop in the season opener last Friday night. This was the NABC Classic with Tulsa and Arizona State meeting in the second game.
Doherty came out with his team for its initial warmups. Bill Guthridge also did that in his three years as head coach, but took a seat on the bench to watch both teams get ready for play.
Rarely did Smith make such an early appearance. On the road, just his team taking the floor was enough to stir up a crowd and his presence on the bench would have provoked it even more. At home games he could handle last-minute work in his office or locker room.
Doherty, however, immediately headed to the Winthrop bench to welcome the Eagle coaching staff. He then stood on the court for a few moments, slapping hands with a couple of his players. It was almost as if he preferred to be in the layup line with them, instead of getting ready to coach his first game at his alma mater.
He chatted with people in the stands and at the scorer's table. In reality, he was probably trying to walk off any pre-game nervousness he might have had.
Doherty's first game showed he will be similar to the two men who preceded him in many ways, but different in others.
Carolina will still have more student managers than players. Well, that's a slight exaggeration. But, like Smith and Guthridge, he has enough managers to handle all his players' possible needs.
Before the team broke onto the court to begin the game, he had his players in the familiar, tight circle around him as he talked to his starters.
The Tar Heels came out in a pressure, man-to-man defense and did not play any zone until 13:10 remained in the game when they went to one briefly on an inbounds play in the Winthrop frontcourt. However, the following night against Tulsa, Doherty would use a zone much of the game.
Obviously, he's used these early two games to give him an idea of what might work best with his personnel. But, there's no question he wants to play as much pressure defense as possible. That's something Smith and Guthridge wanted to get back to doing in recent years, but had been unable to do so because of depth problems or inexperienced personnel.
There was the familiar yell from the Tar Heel coach of "Get it inside!"
Doherty stood on the sidelines, directing his defense or yelling offensive instructions throughout the first game's opening moments. He finally sat down for the first time with 17:50 on the clock when a Kris Lang layup gave the Tar Heels' their first points of the year. But, he was up quickly as Winthrop brought the ball near midcourt, encouraging his players defensively.
At 16:25 his coat came off and he never put it back on.
After Winthrop scored to take a 10-4 lead, Doherty urged his guards to push the ball quickly upcourt with a sweeping motion of his right arm-- a gesture seen regularly here over the last 30 years.
During timeouts, chairs were pulled five feet out on the floor. Reserves stood behind them to serve as a buffer from the crowd. This also allowed them to better hear his instructions to the players in the game.
With 14:12 to go in the first half, Doherty yelled for a foul on what he felt was an illegal screen. Instead, Michael Brooker was called for holding. Twelve seconds later a loose ball apparently went off three Winthrop players out of bounds, but was awarded to the Eagles.
Doherty slammed his foot on the floor and quickly drew the first technical foul of his Carolina coaching career. That gave him an opportunity to continue complaining about the missed foul.
"The technical wasn't really intentional on my part," he said afterwards. "I had yelled at Tim (Clougherty) about the previous play. I was really then trying to get a player's attention. I can't whistle so I stomped my foot. Tim thought that it was directed at him. It was just a misunderstanding and I told him that later.
"I know a technical can sometimes fire up a team. It wasn't meant that way tonight, but I guessed it worked out okay."
Trailing 13-4, Carolina immediately went on a nine-point run to tie the game. Still, the Tar Heels would not get the lead for good until a three-pointer by Jason Capel made it 26-25 with 5:35 to go in the half. This was set up by a series of crisp passes with Jonathan Holmes finding Capel open just left of the key.
A turnover led to a Joseph Forte drive and his crossover dribble got him a spectacular layup and a 28-25 lead. The Eagles would cut that lead to one before halftime, but free throws, an offensive rebound by Lang and two three-pointers by freshman Brian Morrison gave Carolina a 39-33 lead at intermission.
Doherty actually used his chair a little bit more in the second half. However, he was on his feet down the stretch as the Eagles trimmed an 11-point Tar Heel lead to three in the final seconds.
As Winthrop began narrowing the margin in the final two minutes, the new Carolina coach was signalling for an old offense--the four corners attack or a version of it, anyway.
Once the horn sounded, Doherty quickly got his team off the court. However, he did not head to the locker room. Tulsa was lining up in the tunnel where Carolina was exiting, getting ready to take the floor. Doherty went looking for Golden Hurricane Coach Buzz Peterson to wish him luck. But, Peterson was still in his locker room.
Told that his former teammate had wanted to speak to him, Peterson laughed.
"I hope he was okay," said Peterson. "Before the game he was a nervous wreck. He needed to work off some of that energy."
Doherty had certainly done that.
"It was good for us to play a quick, undersized frontline like Winthrop has," he said. "We played hard. Obviously we did not shoot well. But, we gave a good effort. That's all you can ask. Sometimes the ball just isn't going in. That makes it even more special to win.
"We were getting good shots. The ball will eventually fall. That's not a worry. Very seldom is Joseph Forte going to shoot two-for-11 from the field.
"I got a call from Coach (Roy) Williams, but missed him before the game. However, he left a nice voice message. I also heard from (former Kansas star) Paul Pierce. Coach Smith wrote a nice note that I read to the team. I got pretty emotional doing that because of the things he said.
"I talked to Buzz before our game. That was nice of him to spend time when he's getting ready to play."
It was not the prettiest of games with which Doherty has ever involved at Carolina. But, the 66-61 win over Winthrop will be one for the historians. It officially signals a new era for the nation's most successful basketball program over the last 25 years.
