University of North Carolina Athletics
Woody: First Half Impressions
February 7, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2000
ESPN.com's Andy Katz lists Carolina and Wake Forest at the mid-point of the ACC season as the teams in danger of not making the NCAA Tournament. However, Joe Lunardi, also of ESPN.com, has Carolina among the five ACC teams making this year's field. He goes so far as to seed the Tar Heels seventh in the South Regional at Birmingham, Alabama.
At the moment, the Tar Heels could care less about going to a site where they've had mixed success, or possibly drawing their lowest seed since 1990. That's when they were eighth in the Midwest Regional at Austin, Texas, and upset top-seeded Oklahoma in the second round. This year they simply want to make the field for a record 26th consecutive season.
Three wins in the last four games, including a victory over nationally-ranked Maryland, have certainly helped. So did taking third-ranked Duke into overtime. Now the Tar Heels must continue to help themselves during the second half of the ACC season, and make up some of the slippage they suffered during the first half.
Balance was the hot topic during the pre-season. The ACC was expected to be more evenly matched than a year ago when Duke, Maryland and Carolina made it a top-heavy league. The lue Devils were supposed to be inexperienced because of graduation, one transfer and three early departures for the NBA. The Terps had only two returning starters, but there were four coming back for the Tar Heels. That was more than 70% of the team's scoring, and 65% of its rebounding. Bill Guthridge thought it was a pick based on the program's tradition, but the media put Carolina in the favorite's role ahead of Duke by a 74-16 vote.
The returning experience translated into a tough schedule. It's currently rated the seventh toughest slate in the country, but the Tar Heels started out without Ronald Curry in the backcourt or rookie Jason Parker up front. Kris Lang, bothered by a mysterious virus and then shin splints, was not at full strength, and then Brian Bersticker was lost in the fifth game with a broken foot. There were other distractions, yet the Tar Heels swept the Maui Invitational, and expectations for the team and freshman guard Joseph Forte got completely out of whack as Carolina soared to number two in the rankings.
Despite an early indication that turnovers would be a problem for Carolina, hot shooting led to the first Maui title. Then turnovers and lack of rebounding cost UNC an early loss at home to Michigan State. Guthridge had hoped experience and depth would allow this team to play the pressure defense which had been missing from the Tar Heel playbook for several years. But Carolina simply couldn't stop Michgan State, even without Mateen Cleaves. Defense was also a problem against Cincinnati, Indiana and Louisville. Lack of defensive pressure led fans and the media to criticize the team's work ethic and level of intensity.
Following the Christmas break, Guthridge made the decision to do away with the pressure and revert to the defense of last year. It could be effective, but the players had to relearn it. They had not developed the habits to play it by instinct. The defense does not force a lot of turnovers, and unfortunately, turnovers again became a problem for the Tar Heels. They shot lights out to beat N.C. State, but that was the beginning of a five-game stretch in which their loss of ball was greater than 20%. Poor shooting cost them the game at Wake Forest. They lost the rebounding battle against UCLA. And, their offense didn't have enough efficiency to take care of Florida State. Certainly those are three games from the first half the Tar Heels would like to replay.
Except for the first half against Duke, the most recent four-game stretch has been highlighted by diminishing loss of ball, and sticky defense. Three of the four opponents have shot less than 40%, while Carolina is over 52% in two of the games. The Tar Heels have also had the rebounding advantage in three of the four games. So they are doing what they need to do.
Sunday's win at Clemson was a "must" win. Carolina is one of two ACC teams to play five road games during the second half of the season, and road games at Clemson and Florida State fall in that category along with home games against Wake Forest, Virginia and Georgia Tech. There are question marks beside road games at N.C. State, Maryland and Duke. Winning any one of those contests, while getting the job done in the other games, would be real plus.
During the 90's, 15 different ACC teams went to the NCAA Tournament with conference records ranging from 6-10 to 8-8. Of course, during those eight years the conference had five or six teams selected for the tournament. Hopefully, there'll be five this year, but it may be difficult since the ACC is 7-12 against non-ACC ranked opponents, and 0-5 against Top Ten entries. This is the fifth losing mark for the ACC out of the last six years, and the league is currently rated no better than fourth among the top conferences. Over the last five years it had never been lower than second.
So don't take any chances. Keep your fingers crossed!
