University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heel Monthly: 24 Hours Inside Carolina Basketball
February 21, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 21, 2003
Tar Heel Monthly is the premier magazine devoted to the stories and personalities behind UNC athletics. The following story appears in the most recent issue of the publication. Click here for subscription information.
By Adam Lucas
For most fans, the window into Carolina basketball slams shut when the television cameras go dark and the latest televised game goes off the air. But for players and coaches, a two-hour game is only a small part of their everyday life. Tar Heel hoops is a 24-hour business, and for 24 hours, Tar Heel Monthly takes you inside a day in the basketball program.
The focus is on Thursday, January 16, 2003. Carolina dispatched Clemson two days before and will host Connecticut at the Smith Center in 48 hours. It is as close to a typical non-game day as can be found, but the truth is that there is no "typical day" for players and the coaching staff. Something is always changing, something new always needs to be done, a different problem must always be solved. And most days, at least for head coach Matt Doherty, do not begin...
12:00 a.m.: ...25,000 feet above the ground. At the request of ESPN, Doherty flew to Bristol, Connecticut to appear at halftime of the Duke-Virginia game and on "College Hoops Tonight" the previous evening. The scheduling just happened to work out, as the Tar Heels did not practice on Wednesday due to NCAA regulations that restrict practice time. That gave the Carolina head coach time to catch the private plane ESPN sent for him and be in Bristol by about 7:00 p.m., where he prepares to banter with former Duke Blue Devil Jay Bilas. The general consensus is that Doherty acquits himself well and gets his Heels some valuable exposure on a night that might otherwise be dominated by ACC rivals. But there is no time to read his reviews, because he has a breakfast meeting at...
7:45 a.m.: After arriving home around 1, there's time for a quick few hours of sleep before the head coach is off to a breakfast meeting. While Doherty is eating, the basketball office begins to bustle by...
8:30 a.m.: Assistant coaches Doug Wojcik, Fred Quartlebaum, Bob MacKinnon, and David Cason usually arrive in the office by 8:30. That gives them 90 minutes to catch up on paperwork, return phone calls, and try to organize the rest of their day. Wojcik is supposed to go see a recruit play that night, but the threat of inclement weather causes the game to be cancelled. "It was supposed to snow," Wojcik says with a sigh. "Of course, it didn't." The weather doesn't cancel his recruiting, it just postpones it. He will still make a recruiting trip the next evening, watching a game Friday night and then catching a 6:15 flight the next morning in order to be back to coach a JV game at 2:00 and the Connecticut game at 5:00. It is the life of a coach. Meanwhile, the head coach is wrapping up his breakfast, because he has an appointment to...
9:00 a.m.: ...shoot his television show. Doherty meets Woody Durham and the Carolina video staff in the Smith Center studio to tape "Inside Carolina Basketball with Matt Doherty," which will air that weekend on stations around the state. First, Doherty and Durham watch the taped highlights of Tuesday night's Carolina-Clemson game and provide the voice-overs that will run during the show. It's a quick process, and they're done by 9:30. Then it's downstairs to the players' lounge, where they shoot the remainder of the show, which includes comments on upcoming games. This week's show will also include an interview with Rashad McCants, which was finished the previous week. All the involved parties, which include Doherty, Durham, and video and production services maestros Bob Ellis and Jones Angell, have the show down to a science. That means they're able to finish by...
9:50 a.m.: ...which is the time that David Noel's alarm goes off in his dorm room. He has an 11 a.m. English class that takes place all the way across campus in the new East Building. He will get no sympathy from team manager Jonathan Broyles, a senior who has three straight classes (Geography 20, Geology 11, and Recreation Studies 111, all of which are electives he needs to graduate in May) on Thursday, beginning at 9:30. While Broyles is in class and Noel begins the long trek across campus, one teammate is just rolling out of bed at...
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10:00 a.m.: ...as the alarm goes off at Jonathan Holmes's off-campus apartment. He has just one class today, an 11 a.m. Communications 23 course (Small Group Communication). Coincidentally, there is some small group communication going on back at the basketball office, where it is time for...
10:00 a.m.: ...the regular morning meeting for the coaching staff. The meeting includes Doherty, Wojcik, Quartlebaum, MacKinnon, Cason, and usually graduate assistant L.J. Hepp, and it touches on every aspect of the Carolina basketball program. Typically lasting from one to two hours, the staff discusses recruiting strategies for current targets, practice plans, and any issues with the current team. "Basically, it's a way for all of us to make sure we are on the same page," Quartlebaum says. "We want to make sure everyone knows everything that is going on." What's going on across campus is...
11:00 a.m.: ...class. As might have been indicated by the name of the course, Holmes and his classmates get into groups, where they begin work on a project that is due at the beginning of February. It's with interaction like this that the bubble that sometimes exists between basketball players and the rest of the student body can disappear. "Sometimes, students have notions that we never go to class or things like that," Holmes says. "Once they meet us, they see that's not true." Many of the student body will get a chance to meet members of the team...
12:05 p.m.: ...at lunch in the cafeteria, where Noel and freshman teammates Byron Sanders and Raymond Felton are regulars. "I do think some students think we're stuck up," Noel says. "But once they get to know us, they treat us like normal people." After lunch, the freshman from Durham hops on the U bus for a trip back to his dorm room in the new Hinton James North. While the players are criss-crossing campus, the coaching staff can still be found...
12:15 p.m.: ...in the basketball office. Wojcik is the head coach of Carolina's junior varsity team, a position held in the past by a collection of accomplished coaches such as Roy Williams and Eddie Fogler. Wojcik uses his post-lunch time to plan Thursday's junior varsity practice. The planning takes about 20 minutes. Down the hall, fellow assistant Quartlebaum is...
12:30 p.m.: ...recruiting. Always recruiting. There are faxes to send, FedEx envelopes to address, calls to make. "Every day is a recruiting day," Quartlebaum says. "You always have to ask yourself how you can help the program get better today. Something has to flow out of this office to a young man or a call has to be made or an email has to be sent." Quartlebaum's infectious enthusiasm will soon carry over to practice, but not before...
1:45 p.m.: ...the team managers get the Smith Center court ready for the Tar Heels. Broyles lugs in an exercise bike and fellow managers Allison Whichard, Eric Hoots, Chris Reeder, Russ Lauten, Bradley Vanhoy, Emily Cozart, and Kristine Denholm help prepare water and lay our an extra set of jerseys for every player on the team. Practice is scheduled for...
2:00 p.m.: ...but begins not with on-court action, but with film study in the locker room. The coaching staff shows clips from the Clemson game that they want to emphasize. The team hits the floor at approximately...
2:45 p.m.: ...and the Thought of the Day, a holdover from the Dean Smith era, is "Continue to grow." Doherty wants the team to focus on defense and rebounding as the Heels prepare for Connecticut, a strategy that will pay off two days later when Carolina holds the Huskies to 42 percent field goal shooting and limits star shooter Ben Gordon to 6-of-19 from the field. Connecticut is Quartlebaum's team to scout, which means he spent the previous weekend preparing the scouting report, which typically includes a package of video clips for the players to watch, a one-page summary of UConn tendencies for the players, and a more extensive written report for the staff. The practice is, by normal standards, brief, because...
4:00 p.m.: ...Thursday is a scheduled weight lifting day. After strength coach Thomas McKinney puts the players through their paces, they scatter for dinner. Holmes goes for...
6:30 p.m.: ...a quick bite at Wendy's (#7 with a Coke, according to the senior point guard), while Noel against joins some of his teammates for his final meal of the day. The freshmen will have to return to the Smith Center soon, where...
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7:05 p.m.: ...the coaching staff is wrapping up recruiting for the day, because the drop-dead time for FedEx packages to leave the building is 7:15. Carolina is somewhat unique in the basketball world, because all the coaches except Hepp have young children at home who want to see their daddies before they go to bed. Like the coaches, players also have non-basketball responsibilities at night, including...
7:30 p.m.: ...Holmes attending a meeting of Campus Crusade for Christ in Gerard Hall. Learning how to balance basketball, academics, and extracurricular activities isn't always easy for college basketball players. "I tried it when I was a freshman and it got overwhelming because I had so many things going on at once," Holmes says. "Now I'm in the routine of college life and it's easier to balance different things." Six people who know exactly what he is talking about are the Carolina freshman class, which is...
8:00 p.m.: ...returning to the Smith Center for study hall, which takes place under the watchful eye of longtime academic guru Burgess McSwain. Freshmen are required to attend study hall five nights a week, Monday through Thursday and Sunday evening. Achieving a certain GPA can exclude players from participating their final three years. "Burgess is tough," Noel says with a smile. "As long as we get our stuff done she's fine, but if we don't have something finished, she gets tough." Study hall lasts for two hours, by which time...
8:15 p.m.: ...the assistant coaches have long since put their children to bed. Wojcik's oldest son, Paxson, normally greets his father with a request to play basketball, which is, of course, usually granted. After driving to University Mall for his radio show, which airs from 7 to 8 p.m. on Thursday nights, Doherty will return home to spend some time with wife Kelly, son Tucker, and daughter Hattie.
9:00 p.m.: Seniors Holmes and Broyles are enjoying the advantages of being an upperclassman. Holmes hangs out with former teammates Brian Bersticker and Michael Brooker, with the trio eventually checking out the latest Austin Powers movie. Broyles, a Greenville native, watches the East Carolina-Louisville game on ESPN. Across town, another member of the Heels is also watching television, but...
10:00 p.m.: ...it's not the ECU-Louisville game. After spending some time with his children, Quartlebaum pops in some tapes of Connecticut in his home VCR. Wife Christy is working late tonight, so the only sounds in the house come from the television, where the assistant coach pauses, rewinds, and reviews every part of a recent Connecticut game. He will watch film until about 1:00 a.m. That's about the same time Doherty sometimes arrives home, because he is...
10:15 p.m.: ...back at the office. The head coach's usual routine is to go home mid-evening to spend some time with his wife and children, but once they go to bed it's time to head back to the office. That's where he'll be at 11:59 p.m., preparing for the next day in the life of the Carolina basketball program. In 60 seconds, it will begin all over again.
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.
