University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag
December 9, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 9, 2003
You've got to love Carolina fans. Here at the Mailbag Home Office, we love Tar Heel hoops as much as anyone, but we've never seen such a bunch of forward-looking fans. Carolina is sitting 5-0, beat a top-10 team, Illinois, last week, and has four of the best players in college basketball. But the most popular questions-by far-out of the hundreds in the email inbox this week were about either the 2004-05 season or about a player who hasn't played a minute for the Heels this year. Here's some advice to help you keep your sanity during this holiday season: enjoy this year's Carolina team. They're a high-scoring, fun to watch, tough-defending squad that will win a lot of games. And if you get the urge to worry about next year, don't worry-Roy Williams spends 24 hours a day, seven days a week managing every aspect of this program, which includes planning for the future. Odds are, if it looks like there's a potential problem down the road, he's already considered every conceivable option at least twice.
With that out of the way, it's time to give the award for Most Popular Mailbag Question (Dec. 9 edition):
What is the situation with Damion Grant?
Trevor Schoonmaker, Brooklyn, NY
If Damion ever starts feeling underappreciated, we're going to let him take a look at our inbox. At least one out of every two questions we received last week mentioned Grant in some way.
For those who missed it in an earlier column, Grant was severely limited by gimpy knees in the preseason. After the fourth practice of the year in mid-October, his participation was limited primarily to standing on the sideline or serving as a passer in drills. That ended last Thursday, when he was able to participate in limited non-contact drills. If his knees hold up under those circumstances, Roy Williams hopes to mix the sophomore into contact drills this week. That's the best-case scenario. Keep in mind, though, that even if that happens Grant still has three crucial hurdles to overcome before he can be considered as a factor for this year's team:
1. His knees have to let him get enough practice that the coaching staff feels comfortable inserting him in games.
2. He has to pick up the new offense and defense fast enough that he is an asset on the court.
3. Perhaps most importantly, if he does see action, his knees have to respond positively to that action.
It's number three that gave him the most trouble last year, as he was frequently in severe pain on the day after an intense game or practice. "Last year, after practice I'd get up the next morning and hope and pray that by the next practice my knees would have calmed down so I could run," Grant says.
Let's also try to keep expectations realistic. In 19 games last year, Grant shot 39 percent from the field and averaged 1.5 rebounds per game. Those looking for him to make a sudden appearance in the starting lineup after missing a month of practice are engaged in wishful thinking.
Also, to head off the inevitable flood of David Noel questions-he was recently fitted for an air cast and will be evaluated by team doctors again this week. Noel, who would love to return by the Wake Forest game on Dec. 20, is more likely to return closer to the new year.
Tell us more about Jesse Holley.
John Massengill, Four Oaks, NC
Jesse likes long walks on the beach, the color blue, and moonlit dinners...oh, you mean tell us about him as a basketball player. The 6-3 guard from New Jersey who also plays wide receiver for the football Tar Heels dressed out for the first time Tuesday night against Illinois after practicing for the first time the day before. On Sunday against George Mason, he scored four points in three minutes. He'll wear number 45, which is less because he will be the second coming of Julius Peppers and more because it adds up to his football number, 9.
Holley has plenty of quickness but would be most helpful to this year's team if he would demonstrate solid backup point guard skills. Also, it's quite a bit more difficult for a guard to make the football-to-basketball transition than a big man. When Peppers finished on the gridiron, it was fairly simple to instruct him in his basketball role. Holley, who is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet, has a significantly more complicated task ahead of him if he is to have any impact on this year's team. Even Ronald Curry, who was a McDonald's All-American coming out of high school, struggled to make the midseason switch.
Just a line to inquire about Matt Doherty's well being.
Charles L. Rose Jr., High Point, NC
Doherty, who recruited every player on this year's team, is living just outside of Charlotte and doing some television analyst work. He's spoken to both Roy Williams and Dean Smith in recent weeks and it wouldn't be a surprise at all to see him back in coaching in the near future.
Do you ever envision a return of the "Blue" teams for the bench players that Coach Smith used so effectively?
Mark Pankiw, Chattanooga, TN
Roy Williams was asked about this topic earlier this year. To paraphrase the head coach, his answer was that he won't use a Blue team just to have a Blue team, but if he ever develops the depth in the program to warrant it, it will make an appearance.
Just a quick question about the point Roy Williams made in an early season interview about this team. He said after our top three players there is a big dropoff. I love Roy Williams but what kind of statement is that when you have a player like Jawad Williams, who brings so much to this team.
Jason Anderson, Buffalo, NY
We included this question to illustrate the danger of misinterpreting a quote. What Williams actually said was this: "We've got three or four guys who can really play. But you can't win in college basketball with just three or four guys, because you can't withstand an injury."
Keep in mind that when Williams says "really play," he means All-American-type level. We'd guess that the four players he was singling out were Jawad Williams, Sean May, Rashad McCants, and Raymond Felton. If you choose to focus on "three" players rather than four, it's entirely possible that Williams might have meant Felton, Williams, and McCants, because as you noted, this was a preseason quote, and in the preseason, May had yet to prove that he was full strength after last year's foot injury.
Regardless, Williams has made a point of saying that everyone began this year with a clean slate, and at this point he'd probably tell you that he has six guys who can "really play" and has high hopes for several others.
I realize that we're only five games into what will no doubt be a grueling season, but after watching McCants, Felton, May and Williams, I can't help but think that we'll get two (maybe more) players on the All-ACC team come end of the season. Jawad Williams has really made an impact early on. Your thoughts?
Lee Modlin, Rocky Mount, NC
It's early to be thinking about All-ACC, but this is an interesting question. The only team in the half-century history of the league to get three players on the All-ACC first team is the 2002 Duke squad, which placed Jason Williams, Mike Dunleavy, and Carlos Boozer on the roster. That means some very talented teams have gotten just two selections. Carolina's 1986-87 team went 14-0 in the ACC regular season but just two players-Joe Wolf and Kenny Smith-made the All-ACC first team, with J.R. Reid relegated to the second team. Even Georgia Tech's "Lethal Weapon 3" triumvirate, which won the ACC Tournament and went to the Final Four in 1990, only got two selections (Kenny Anderson and Dennis Scott). Brian Oliver made the second team.
So, the odds are overwhelming that just two Tar Heels will make the All-ACC first team. Voters frequently seem to show a preference for upperclassmen and for players who have been voted to the team before, which should make this year's competition very interesting. Working against Jawad Williams is the fact that while he regularly will get the Heels 20 points a game this season, his 20 points may not be as spectacular-and therefore noticeable-as Sean May or Rashad McCants. Williams is the type of player you have to watch every game to appreciate, and most of the voters (who may still have an image of the freshman Williams, who was a much different player, in their minds) won't see every Tar Heel game.
If Williams does get snubbed, the announcement will come the week before the ACC Tournament. That gives him three games in Greensboro to prove the voters wrong, which is exactly what Hubert Davis did in 1992. Left off the first team by a handful of votes, Davis scored 23 points in the quarterfinals and 28 points in the semifinals in carrying the Heels to the league championship game.
Were Jawad and Jackie really as injured as let on, or was that a tactic by Roy to maybe get Illinois to relax a bit and say "Hey, we don't have to play against two of their top six, we should blow these guys out!"
Chad Garrett, Raleigh, NC
At the time, it did seem like a somewhat stunning recovery. But it wasn't gamesmanship. Manuel spent most of the second half against Cleveland State with a towel over his head on the Tar Heel bench, not even joining the team during timeout huddles. When he was evaluated Sunday in Chapel Hill, it looked like he would miss at least one game and up to two weeks. Jawad Williams, meanwhile, suffered a hip pointer in a collision with Byron Sanders in Sunday's practice, an injury that is very painful when it happens. If anything, though, the staff might have underestimated his resolve to play against the Illini. The junior from Cleveland was noticeably a step slower and also took a midgame bump that caused a twinge, but he turned in a gutty performance. Any doubt about the validity of his injury was erased later in the week, when two days after the game he had to sit out the last 30 minutes of practice after feeling more pain in the hip.
Byron Sanders proved last year that, though undersized in the low post and a non-scorer, he could defend, box out, rebound, set picks, and make good decisions. He's not getting any minutes this year. Roy Williams loves big men. Why isn't Sanders playing, and is there a chance he'll play more later in the year?
Frank Kowalski, Naples, FL
You may have answered your own question. Roy Williams loves big men. Byron Sanders's minutes are limited. Therefore, Williams sees something in Byron's game that needs improvement before the sophomore earns significant minutes. One of those areas where he needs to provide a bigger contribution is rebounding-he was the team's seventh-leading rebounder last season and through Carolina's first five games, Sanders had just two rebounds in the 20 minutes of action that he saw against Old Dominion, Davidson, Cleveland State, and George Mason.
There's always a chance Sanders's minutes will increase as the season progresses, but that's something that is up to him. Despite what some fans seem to think, Roy Williams wouldn't keep a player on the bench who could make a contribution to his team.
Why were we playing in Greensboro Coliseum against Illinois, where seats were left empty, rather than at home? If this was supposed to be a home court event for us in the Big Ten Challenge, why did they host it away from C-Hill?
Darrell Smith, Milwaukee, WI
The two leagues work in conjunction with ESPN to schedule the matchups and location for each game in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge. In general, they try to make sure each team has a balance between home, road, and neutral site contests. The Heels had hosted a pair of games in the event and played on the road on two other occasions, so it was their turn for a neutral game.
Despite the "neutral site" label, the game was overwhelmingly a home game for Carolina. Although the Greensboro Coliseum wasn't close to capacity, the fans in attendance made enough noise to impress Roy Williams, who wants to see the same type of rabid atmosphere in the Smith Center for all home games this season.
I'm just wondering how Raymond Felton developed his dribbling skills, thanks.
Gordon Burris, Durham
Some of it is natural ability, a whole lot of it is endless practice, and at least some of it is due to the fact that Felton honed his dribbling skills bouncing the ball on the dirt and grass in his backyard. "You really can't dribble that well on grass," Felton says. "But I'd always go out in the backyard and dribble. That was probably why I was so good at it when I got on cement."
His father, Raymond Felton, Sr., concurs. "Once he got to cement," the elder Felton says, "he probably felt like he was riding in a Cadillac."
