University of North Carolina Athletics
Sanders Likes the Dirty Work
September 11, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Sept. 11, 2003
TarHeelBlue.com continues an exclusive series focusing on the returning 2003-04 Tar Heel basketball players. Today, we focus on sophomore forward Byron Sanders. Check back each Thursday for updates on a different returning player. By Adam Lucas, Tar Heel Monthly
CHAPEL HILL -- When Sean May went down with a broken foot against Iona last December, everyone on the Carolina bench had a different thought. Some despaired, some were optimistic, and for some it didn't sink in for a few more days.
Byron Sanders had just one thought: "I've got to step up."
The sophomore admits that he didn't arrive in Chapel Hill prepared to play a major role as a rookie.
"Honestly, I thought it was going to be my break-in year," he says. "I wasn't expecting to have to step in."
When his first game filling May's role arrived the next night in Madison Square Garden against St. John's, the results weren't encouraging. Sanders didn't make a shot against the Red Storm, going 0-for-9 from the field and generally looking overwhelmed. He was downtrodden in the postgame locker room until his teammates and the coaching staff gave him some important advice.
"They told me not to worry about it because we got the win," Sanders says. "They told me I just needed to have fun and relax."
From the on, the soft-spoken kid from Gulfport relaxed. Although he never put up monstrous scoring numbers, he was a key part of several Tar Heel wins, providing screening and rebounding that freed his teammates to concentrate on scoring.
Sanders stepped up from college hoops to the pros this summer, playing in several pickup games with former Tar Heel and current Washington Wizard Brendan Haywood. Shammond Williams-not a post player but always willing to share everything he knows about the game of basketball with the current Tar Heels-also played with the current Heels every day.
"Brendan kept telling me not to bring the ball down," Sanders says. "I have to either keep it up or bring it to my chin. And Shammond, he teaches me so much it's hard to retain all of it."
In fact, the past year was full of learning experiences. Sanders roomed with May last year, and although May was out with a foot injury, he still took the opportunity to dispense some knowledge to his roomie.
"I told him not to think so much," May says. "I told him he was going to make mistakes. You can't play basketball and not make mistakes. He just had to learn that he can play with these guys, that they're no different from him."
Sanders responded with a series of solid games against some of the best big men on Carolina's schedule, including Clemson's Chris Hobbs, Virginia's Travis Watson, and Connecticut's Emeka Okafor. Full of confidence, Sanders even chipped in key three-point plays against the Tigers and Huskies.
With May's return this season, any scoring from his roommate will be a bonus. But the Tar Heels still need someone to pass, screen, and do all the things that rarely show up in a boxscore.
That's a job description that Sanders is eager to fill.
"I really don't mind doing the dirty work," he says. "If you've got somebody who can shoot better than me, let them shoot the ball. I'd rather pass it to them."
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.
