University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: First Exam A Breeze, Tar Heels Roll
December 22, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 22, 2002
By Adam Lucas
Mid-December, as all college students know, is the time to show what has been learned over the previous semester.
Final grades won't be issued until March, but Carolina's youngsters earned an "A" Sunday night in Tallahassee.
The Heels were tied 30-30 with Florida State at halftime, a familiar situation. After all, they trailed Illinois by just four at half and led Kentucky 43-40 at the break. Bad teams repeat their shortcomings. Improving teams learn from their miscues.
Learn? Forget the Cliff's Notes, Carolina had this one down cold. Players and coaches alike made terrific halftime adjustments, coming out and dominating the final 20 minutes. Rashad McCants, who struggled through a miserable 1-for-8 first half, opened the second half by stepping back and, bing, nailing a three-pointer that set the tone for the rest of the game. He and his teammates put together a scintillating second half that ended in a 69-48 victory, the first of the Atlantic Coast Conference season.
"I'm really proud of the adjustments the kids made at halftime," Matt Doherty said. "They showed a lot of poise. We talked a lot about poise, about toughness, about togetherness...those experiences against Illinois and Kentucky helped us today."
Used to be, you could take wins in Tallahassee for granted. That's not the case this year, as Iowa and Miami already discovered, going down by a combined 30 points. The top-ten Florida Gators escaped the Leon County Civic Center with just a one-point victory over the 'Noles, a team featuring four juniors and four seniors on their roster.
Singling out any one player for praise after this game would be to do injustice to the whole of the roster, as everyone who saw action contributed positively. If it wasn't Byron Sanders stroking 15-foot jumpers like they were layups, it was Melvin Scott igniting a 12-0 run with a pair of three-pointers and filling in for Raymond Felton at point guard during crucial stretches in both halves. And let's not forget a second straight solid game from Jackie Manuel, who didn't score like he did against Vermont but didn't have to, and another highlight-worthy dunk by David Noel, who soared above FSU for a one-handed follow dunk in the second half.
The only negative that can be said about Felton's play was that he very nearly gave the entire population of Chapel Hill heart palpitations by going down in a heap and clutching his knee, but he returned and played maybe the finest game ever in light blue by a player who scored just five points. Jawad Williams, who has flown below the radar for much of this year despite being third on the team in scoring, chipped in 16 points, many of which came close to the basket, a point of emphasis for him this season. Sean May didn't have a great statistical game but provided a physical presence when the Heels needed him.
The occasional missed shots almost seemed to be just a part of the offense, as the Heels threw the ball off the rim and simply dove into the lane to recover it, gathering a phenomenal 20 offensive rebounds.
y late in the final stanza, Carolina was in Florida State's heads so effectively that just the mere threat of Jackie Manuel closing in behind him was enough to worry Tim Pickett so much that he bricked an easy breakaway layup.
The Tar Heels have now equaled their ACC road victory total for all of last season. But it's probably time to stop bringing up the 2001-02 campaign, because this group of six freshmen and three sophomores doesn't much seem to care about the past. Usually, a team builds on one year on their way to the subsequent season. This squad nuked last year's 8-20 record long ago; comparing this year's team to last year is like measuring a supermodel against her gawky seventh-grade mug shot.
The best thing about this game is that Tar Heel fans can wake up tomorrow morning and not have to turn the newspaper upside down to read the league standings, as they did throughout last season. Carolina is on top of the ACC, right where they belong.
The team will scatter Monday morning for two days of home cooking and present-opening with their families before reassembling in New York on Christmas Day to prepare for the ECAC Holiday Festival.
They'll go home with an eye-opening ACC opener and a 7-2 record.
And, oh yeah, an A on their first basketball midterm.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly, click here.
