University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag November 25
November 25, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 25, 2003
By Adam Lucas
At some point in the next couple of years, North Carolina's basketball program is going to sign a highly-touted center. About the same time that happens, something else will simultaneously occur: the volume of email to the Carolina Basketball Mailbag will dramatically decrease.
The most popular email by far in the first three weeks of this feature has centered on, well, the center. The question usually goes a little something like this...
I see that the Tar Heels have a great recruiting class coming in next year. But what I do not see is a true big man. I am used to seeing guys like Jamison, Wallace, Montross, Salvadori and Chilcutt. When is Roy going to address the height issue?
Ken Bolin, Cleveland, TN
Roy Williams is aware of "the height issue." Unfortunately, by the time he was hired, all the top center prospects in the class of 2003 had already signed elsewhere and many of the recruits in the class of 2004 had already pared down their list.
It's also time for Carolina fans to redefine their idea of "a true big man." You say that you're used to seeing players like Rasheed Wallace, but a player with his skill set will never play college basketball again, because he'll go straight to the pros. The trend over the past five years is for the NBA to snap up the best three or four high school centers, leaving the colleges to fight over what would have once been second-tier prospects. It used to be that if the Tar Heels missed out on a top-flight center, they could just drop down to the second level of recruits. But these days, with the top players paying for pay, the second tier has become the first tier and the third tier has become the second tier. The best center in college basketball today, Emeka Okafor, was almost an accident, as he was not all that highly thought of coming out of high school.
It's also worth pointing out what everyone seems to forget--Sean May is a pretty good basketball player. There seems to be the feeling in some circles that just because he's not seven feet tall he can't be effective in the post. But look down the rosters of Carolina's opponents this season and you'll find that the days of a team fielding three seven-footers, as the Tar Heels did in 1993 with Montross, Kevin Salvadori, and Matt Wenstrom, are over.
It appears the Heels don't get out of North Carolina much for their first few weeks of play. Plus I dont think they play in any big Preseason Tourneys. The only road test is at UK. Do you think this cozy beginning will affect their road play when ACC comp begins? Does Roy have more of a say in who the Heels play next year?
Thad Fine, Columbus, OH
Saying "The only true road test is at UK" is kind of like saying "The only pretty girl there is Ashley Judd." The rest of the field may not be much, but the best of the crew is still pretty impressive. Roy Williams has acknowledged that this year's schedule is not a typical Carolina slate. The Tar Heels are in discussions with Arizona for a future series that probably won't begin until the 2005-06 season, and next year's schedule could include Connecticut, Texas, Butler, and Southern Cal. "We're going to play a big-time schedule," Williams says. "It's something that is coming, but it's not here now."
With all of the talk about Justin Bohlander, and him being a walk-on. I was wondering, who are the most famous, and successful Carolina walk-ons?
David Hall, Ararat, NC
Assuming you mean successful in basketball terms, the patron saint of Carolina walk-ons is probably Pearce Landry, who played for the Tar Heels in 1994 and 95. Landry is an even more remarkable story than Bohlander, who was an invited walk-on--in other words, the coaching staff was well aware of his talent before he arrived on campus. Landry worked his way up the junior varsity team and started during the 1994-95 season when Dante Calabria was nursing an ankle injury. Incidentally, that 1995 team had roughly the same amount of depth--very little--as this year's squad, which has concerned many with its shallow rotation.
Could you just clear it up for all of us who are out of the loop? Exactly who is on scholarship this year, and who isn't?
Richard Rand, Cookeville, Tennessee
Good question. Carolina has three scholarship juniors: Jawad Williams, Melvin Scott, and Jackie Manuel. There are six sophomores on scholarship: Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, Sean May, Byron Sanders, Damion Grant, and David Noel. Just one freshman, Reyshawn Terry, is on scholarship. That gives the Tar Heels 10 scholarship players, well under the NCAA limit of 13.
What Carolina basketball class (4 yrs) has the winningest record over a four year span?
Emory Robertson, Hamptonville, NC
The honor for winningest class goes to the 1984 group--Matt Doherty, Sam Perkins, Cecil Exum, and Timo Makkonen--that won 117 games in their four years. That group also captured a national championship in 1982, finished as the national runner-up in 1981, and won three ACC regular-season championships. Second place goes to the class of 1989's (Steve Bucknall and Jeff Lebo) 116 wins, with third place a tie between the class of 1985 (Buzz Peterson) and 1987 (Dave Popson, Kenny Smith, and Joe Wolf), each of which racked up 115 victories.
I attended Coach Doherty's coaching clinics. I was impressed with his assistants. Where have they landed?
Sean Smith, Belmont, NC
Doug Wojcik, who was a finalist for several head coaching jobs during his time in Chapel Hill, is an assistant to Tom Izzo at Michigan State. That's a plum position, as Izzo is well known for sending his assistants on to solid head coaching jobs. The Spartans play Kansas tonight as part of their brutal nonconference schedule.
Fred Quartlebaum is an assistant coach at Iowa State, where he already has been instrumental in helping the Cyclones' recruiting fortunes. Bob MacKinnon, meanwhile, is the senior assistant at Marshall.
What type of team is likely to give Carolina the most matchup problems?
Brian Brennan, Middletown, CT
As has been talked about quite a bit during the preseason, the Tar Heels don't have much depth in the post, and any squad with more than a couple of talented rebounders is going to present problems. Keep in mind that that doesn't necessarily mean the tallest teams, just the ones with a handful of athletic, hard-nosed rebounders. Also remember that Roy Williams comes straight from the Dean Smith school of thought, which favors getting high-percentage shots on offense. The corollary is that the Heels are willing to give up lower-percentage shots on defense in favor of preventing easy buckets, meaning that if a team gets hot from three-point range, Carolina--like any team in the country--is vulnerable. Kansas opponents made over 40 percent of their three-pointers last season.
One piece of good news is that the Tar Heels don't appear to be as susceptible to a good zone as they have been in years past. Old Dominion tried to play some zone Saturday night, but Carolina instantly picked it apart and got several good shots from the paint.
We have heard a lot about Justin Bohlander, but what about Reyshawn Terry. Is he going to be involved in the rotation? Is he going to make any impact at all this year?
Gavin Roper
It's great that the Tar Heels have benefited from some fabulous freshmen over the past few years, but the downside to that is the expectation that all freshmen are capable of playing like Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, or Antawn Jamison. Those players are the exception, not the rule. Most rookies spend the first part of their freshman season confused, and once they start to understand what's going on, they're too tired to make a difference.
Terry has the type of athletic frame that will eventually make him a contributor in Roy Williams's system. But it's a big adjustment going from a high school offense to a college set that requires constant screening. On several occasions, Williams has had to remind the former Winston-Salem Reynolds star that he can't just stand around, that he has to be doing something at all times.
"It's really different in college," Terry said after Saturday's win. "In high school, I was a superstar. But here you've gone from being a superstar and a leader to being the baby. You have to be disciplined enough to learn how to follow directions, and it's very aggressive with a lot of running and conditioning.
"Having to learn two positions has thrown me off a little bit. It's a learning process for me."
Adam Lucas will answer your questions about the Carolina men's basketball program this season in an exclusive column published each Tuesday on TarHeelBlue.com. Lucas, editor of Tar Heel Monthly, will answer your questions on personnel, strategy, opponents and anything on your mind about the Tar Heels other than recruiting specifics. You can email your questions to Adam--please make sure to include your first and last names and hometown.
