University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tough Enough
December 2, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 2, 2003
By Adam Lucas
GREENSBORO--Most stories about this Carolina basketball team have focused on their talent. Typically, words like "athletic" or "talented" are used. Throw in a "quick" or a "gifted."
Maybe it's time to add a new word: tough.
Going into Tuesday night's game against Illinois, the Tar Heels had been outrebounded by a cumulative margin of 154-124 over the last four years of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. These Big Ten teams--these Michigan States, these Indianas--always seemed to include one hard-nosed player too many.
This year, Carolina's seven-player rotation featured a pair of juniors with gimpy legs--Jackie Manuel with a sprained knee and Jawad Williams with a painful hip pointer. Sean May, as has been mentioned ad nauseum, is the only true post player.
So how do you explain Tuesday night's 88-81 victory over the Illini, a brawny team that throttled UNC by 27 points last season?
Toughness.
"I've seen a lot of things that say this team is not very tough," Sean May said. "People think we've got a bunch of guys that whine a lot. But we've got a lot of guys with a lot of heart."
Maybe that explains how the Heels were outrebounded just 42-41 by a significantly taller team. Maybe that explains how a defensive combination of Manuel, Raymond Felton, and Melvin Scott held Dee Brown--who although he didn't score much, boisterously congratulated himself after each shot he made--to just 3-of-17 from the field and 2-of-10 from three-point range. Maybe that explains the following conversation that took place during the pregame shootaround between the Tar Heel head coach and his allegedly injured junior leader, who was only able to participate in the walk-through portion of practice on Monday:
Roy Williams: "Jawad, what do you think?"
Jawad Williams: "About what?"
Roy Williams: "About playing."
Jawad Williams: "I'm playing."
Maybe you had to see Jawad's face, had to see the way he set his jaw when he said it. Or maybe his words say it all.
"I knew I was going to play when they started questioning me," Williams said. "The last thing I need is somebody questioning me. I'm going to go out there and prove them wrong."
The Cleveland native has seemingly mastered the art of the tip-out of a missed free throw. After getting the Tar Heels two additional possessions on that play Saturday night at Cleveland State, he did it again against the Illini, recovering a missed Rashad McCants free throw with under a minute to play and squeezing precious seconds off the clock.
How limited was the 6-foot-9 junior, the guy who was occasionally described as soft early in his Carolina career?
He played 36 minutes, most on the team.
That's tough. Not just Cleveland tough, but Carolina tough. Tough like a certain seven-foot center, Eric Montross, who was sitting under one basket Tuesday night and who once won a game against Duke with blood streaming from a cut near his eye.
That's exactly what the Tar Heels needed to show their head coach. They entered the game 3-0, but you got the sense that Roy Williams wasn't exactly sure about this group of guys who were strangers to him just eight months ago. Wasn't sure they were willing to compete, wasn't sure they wanted to win as badly as he did, wasn't sure they had the grit he demands.
He had to come onto the court against Davidson last week to forcefully tell his team not to talk trash on the floor, and he was visibly disheartened after the win over Cleveland State. You could almost see the doubts forming in his mind. Would this team ever play with the fire he requires? Could he get through to them?
Maybe that's something that can't be answered against a Davidson or a Cleveland State. Maybe it takes a pulsating win over 11th-ranked Illinois.
"I know Coach is a little unsure of what this team can do and how much fight we have in us," May said. "This shows him we have grown a lot and are ready to take the next step."
That next step has just been elevated another notch. By midnight Tuesday, Carolina fans had gone from merely expecting their new coach to work immediate miracles to expecting him to turn water to wine, walk-ons to superstars, and NIT teams to national champions. Understand, even in your euphoria over what truly was an old-time Carolina victory, that this team will eventually lose some games.
But even when they do, they just might do it in an unexpected way--they might do it with toughness.
"Everybody can say anything they want about us," May said. "But there are 15 guys in this locker room and five coaches who are going to fight every night."
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.
