University of North Carolina Athletics
ACC Honors 50, But Leaves Out Many More
February 4, 2003 | General
Feb. 4, 2003
y Rick Brewer, SID Emeritus
Call it greed if you like.
Disbelief might sound better. Disappointment is probably the best word.
Carolina fans felt all three recently when a list of Top 50 athletes in Atlantic Coast Conference history was announced.
Despite placing 12 athletes, or nearly 25 percent of the total, on the Top 50 men's team, Tar Heel fans felt they were shortchanged in the selections.
The same was true for the women's Top 50. Carolina also dominated that group with 15 members. Still, there was a desire for more.
In looking at the teams, it's obvious that the same is certainly true at the league's other eight schools. Everyone believes they had worthy athletes who were not chosen.
The ACC is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Picking the Top 50 athletes is perhaps the most visible aspect of this special celebration. A panel of longtime conference observers-coaches, administrators and members of the media-had the job of voting on the teams.
It was a hopeless task. Deserving athletes had to be left off ballots. There simply wasn't room for everyone.
The idea of the Top 50 was to make people in this area, and across the nation, more aware of the athletic tradition the ACC really has. Conference officials knew there would be controversy about the teams. But, it was a chance to honor as many athletes as possible. A side effect would be getting people talking more about the ACC, even if it was in the form of argument.
And some of the choices have definitely caused debate-among both the men and women. The men's team has sparked the most interest and controversy at some schools.
As expected, basketball (21) and football (15) dominated the team. That left only 14 spots for athletes from the Olympic sports where the ACC has produced many of the nation's top performers.
For example, Carolina, Virginia and Maryland have combined to win 15 national championships in lacrosse. But, there wasn't a single lacrosse player in the Top 50. There were only two soccer players although the ACC is regarded as the nation's best in the sport.
The missing athletes include some of the league's greatest stars-Florida State linebacker Marvin Jones, Wake Forest shortstop Bill Merrifield, Virginia wide receiver Herman Moore and Duke's Art Heyman a great performer in the early 1960's.
Six of Carolina's 12 selections were basketball players-Billy Cunningham, Phil Ford, Michael Jordan, Lennie Rosenbluth, Charlie Scott and James Worthy. In addition there were three football stars-Don McCauley, Julius Peppers and Lawrence Taylor-baseball standout B.J. Surhoff, three-time NCAA wrestling champion T.J. Jaworsky and distance runner Jim eatty, who set four world records in 1962 alone.
Carolina had the greatest diversity in its selections with athletes from five sports. The 12 choices doubled those of Duke, Florida State and N.C. State who had six each.
Still, Carolina fans were surprised at some of those who were not chosen. As at other schools, the missing athletes got as much attention as those who made the team.
Four names immediately sttod out-Larry Miller, Antawn Jamison, Allen Johnson, and Tony Waldrop. There were others such as Sam Perkins, Dre' Bly and Amos Lawrence. But, the first four are the most difficult to believe.
Miller was one of the greatest clutch performers in ACC history. With freshmen then ineligible for varsity competition, Miller broke onto the ACC and national scene with a great sophomore season. He averaged 20.9 points that first year and followed that up with marks of 21.9 and 22.4.
Despite playing just three seasons he is still the sixth-leading scorer in school history with 1,982 points, a 21.8 average. Although just 6-4, Miller loved to play inside. He grabbed 10.3 rebounds as a sophomore, 9.3 as a junior and 8.1 as a senior. He had a career mark of 9.2.
Miller was one of the key figures in Dean Smith rebuilding the Tar Heel basketball program. Carolina went 26-6 and 28-4 in his final two years, finishing first in the conference both seasons.
He was ACC Player of the Year and the ACC Tournament's MVP in both 1967 and 1968. Sparked by his play Carolina swept both tournament titles and advanced on to the Final Four each year. At that time only the league's tournament winner was eligible for post-season play. Because of that, the ACC Tournament featured the most pressure-packed games of the entire season. Miller thrived in those type situations.
In 1967 he scored 31 points against Wake Forest in the semi-finals. His performance against Duke in the finals is one of the greatest in Tournament history. He hit 13 of 14 field goal attempts and scored 32 points in an 82-73 win. That's still the sixth most points ever in the ACC title game.
Miller won All-America honors in his junior and senior seasons and was a consensus choice in 1968. As a senior he was named to the All-East Regional and All-Final Four teams.
Jamison was college basketball's unanimous National Player of the Year in 1998. He is the only player in ACC history to make the league's all-conference team in each of his first three seasons. He made himself available for the NBA draft after his junior year.
As a junior he led the ACC in scoring (22.2) and rebounding (10.5). He also posted 36 double doubles in 38 games.
Like Miller before him, Jamison was at his best in the biggest games. In 1998 he averaged 24.3 points, 10.6 rebounds and shot 61.1 percent from the floor in conference games, all ACC highs. He had 35 points and 11 rebounds against then top-ranked Duke in Chapel Hill. In three career home games he averaged 30.3 points and 12.0 rebounds against the Blue Devils.
Jamison was the ACC Tournament's MVP as a junior, scoring 22 points and grabbing 18 rebounds in an 83-68 win over Duke in the finals. With Jamison leading the way, Carolina went 28-7 in 1997 and 34-4 in 1998, reaching the Final Four on both occasions.
Johnson was the 1996 Olympic gold medalist in the 100-meter hurdles. Although injured much of 2000 and 2001, he came back to win the 2001 world championship in 110-meter hurdles. He has won five world championships.
Waldrop trimmed more than a second off the world record for the indoor mile in 1974. That was the first of five straight sub-four-minute miles in his senior year. He would eventually turn in 11 sub-four performances.
Waldrop's indoor time (3:55.0) is still the fastest by any collegiate student in the world. He also holds the American collegiate record for the indoor 1,500 meters (3:39.8).
Picking just 50 of the ACC's all-time best athletes was unquestionably difficult. To Tar Heel fans, leaving those four out was even more so.
Greed, disbelief and disappointment all seem to fit.
