University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag January 20
January 20, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2004
By Adam Lucas
It is with great sadness that we note the passing of a UNC Basketball Mailbag tradition.
That's right, folks: the Damion Grant health update is no more. Grant dressed on Saturday against Connecticut, which means that as soon as the coaches feel he'll make a contribution, he'll be able to play. As Roy Williams is fond of saying, he'll play who he wants to play when he wants to play them, so any future Grant minutes will be solely decided by the head coach.
It's almost painful to think of a Mailbag without some sort of Grant update. So we'll provide a Grant clothing update: Saturday after the game he was sporting what must have been the biggest pair of Nike sandals ever made. There's your Grant news.
At the same time that part of the Mailbag is retired, we're also making the Tuesday Talking Points a regular part of your Tuesday reading. This week's edition can be found here.
Rashad McCants picked up a technical foul for touching the ball out of bounds when Maryland was inbounding. What is the rule he violated? Was it just touching the ball, or did he foul the inbounder? Also, I can not remember seeing one player passing the ball to another player out of bounds. Is this allowed?
Scott McMahan, Asheville, NC
First, passing the ball to another player out of bounds is allowed on throw-ins that are not "spot" throw-ins. It's a relatively common tactic, especially late in games when the defense is applying some pressure.
Rule 7, Section 6, Article 5(b) of the Official NCAA Rules states: "Until the thrown-in ball crosses the plane of the sideline or end line no opponent of the thrower-in shall have any part of his or her person over the inside plane of the sideline or end line." The way you'll most frequently see this rule enforced is when an official backs up a defender who is guarding an inbounds pass. Rashad, unfortunately, significantly broke the plane to the point that it wasn't ignorable.
With this being another great year for the ACC, having 4 team in the top 25 and NC State receiveing votes, which mean Carolina will be facing numerous ranked opponents. I was wondering what is the most ranked opponents that Carolina has faced in a single season.
Casey Sears, Greensboro, NC
We'll limit this question to ranked teams faced in the regular season, since long runs in the postseason could skew the answer. Two teams share the honor--the 94-95 squad and the 01-02 team, both of which faced 11 ranked opponents during the regular season. That may not sound like much, but it's extremely unusual to play almost half your games against ranked opponents. The determining factor is usually the strength of the ACC, since the Heels will face a ranked league team twice during the course of the season. That was the case in 1995, when Carolina played just two ranked nonconference foes but had nine games against ranked league opponents. During the 2001-02 season, which you might not remember due to intensive therapy, there were three ranked non-ACC opponents on the schedule.
This year's team has faced five ranked teams and has four games left against teams currently ranked in the top 25.
I am a Kansas fan who has really realized in the past few months that I really am a Roy Williams Fan.
When Roy returned to UNC there were a lot of questions and discussion. Roy will deliver exactly what he promised, a TEAM. Looking at comments in various forums, I have concluded that some of the expectations the fans have at UNC are unrealistic as well as some terribly selfish opinions.
I particularly found the question of "enthusiasm" representative of spoiled fans, and impossible expectations. I am not a UNC Fan, but I find myself turning to and watching a good basketball team play whenever UNC is on ESPN.
Roy's teams will have a character of their own. Last year was different than this year, and each successive year will take on a personality reflective of that particular group's makeup. This is what makes Roy a great coach.
Give him the chance to do what he knows how to do, and give yourselves a chance to enjoy the fine effort by these outstanding young men.
Sam Reed, Augusta, KS
There wasn't a question in the above email, but we just thought it would be good for Carolina fans to read it.
I think that all of these early injuries to this year's team do have one good side effect. The team will be used to playing without all their starters when March comes around. So far I think the heels have done a great job of playing with some injuries, and that dreaded depth problem that people keep talking about hasn't completely destroyed the team. With the kind of resiliency and ability to put together a competitive team even in the face of injuries, I'd say that if they're all healthy come March the Heels have a very good chance of making it back to the Final Four, and even if they do have some people injured, their experience in playing without some of their starters will be very valuable and make them a very dangerous team.
Ray Baco, Castro Valley, CA
You're probably right, Ray. The time that Sean May missed during his freshman season paid off on Saturday, when David Noel's freshman year experience enabled him to step in for May against Connecticut and perform well. Noel has once again been invaluable off the bench, able to fill a couple different roles and eager to do whatever the coaches ask of him.
However, there is one position where an injury would be no help at all--point guard. The Heels don't have anyone to back up Raymond Felton, so we'd prefer he just stay healthy and avoid giving on-the-spot training to anyone else.
Being a huge Carolina fan up in the northeast has its disadvantages. I know next year the Tar Heels are coming back up to UCONN. Is there any easy way to get tickets to North Carolina away games instead of having to try and get them from the home team's box office?
Steve Francis, Pawcatuck, CT
Carolina gets a miniscule amount of road tickets from the respective schools and those usually go the families of players and coaches. That means, unfortunately, that your best hope is the box office. That won't help you at places like Duke or Maryland, but it can help at other venues. We suspect Clemson (1-800-CLEMSON) still has tickets for the game at Littlejohn Coliseum on January 31, and as of this writing, you can buy tickets online for Thursday night's game against Florida State by clicking here or by calling 888-FSU-NOLE. It also would be worth a call to Wake Forest's ticket office at 888-758-DEAC because in the past they've released some single-game tickets to the Carolina game.
All the rest of the Tar Heel home games are stone cold sellouts, so catching Carolina on the road is probably your best and most affordable way to see the Heels. Plus, there's nothing more satisfying than watching a UNC road victory and enjoying the sight of thousands of unhappy opposing fans going home muttering about another defeat.
How are the three former Tar Heels that transferred doing at their respective schools?
Jimmy Register, Greenville, NC
Adam Boone has started all 15 games for the Minnesota Golden Gophers and is averaging 8.7 points per game. He's handing out almost five assists per game for the 8-7 Gophers. Brian Morrison, meanwhile, has been slowed by a left hamstring strain but has played in six games for UCLA and averaged 11.8 points per game. He's hitting 46 percent of his three-point attempts. Neil Fingleton is seeing limited minutes for Holy Cross and averaging 2.1 points per game with eight blocked shots in 10 appearances.
I noticed Coach Williams went spastic when the crowd started chanting "over rated" late in the Georgia Tech game. I have never liked the chant myself because I have always felt you are "in a round about way" belittling your own teams achievement. What are Coach Williams's feelings behind his actions?
Mark Bunnell, Cameron, NC
Glad you asked, Mark. As you noticed, Roy Williams isn't a big fan of the chant. He's not into denigrating other teams and also not into minimizing his own team's accomplishments. It's a silly chant that sounds like something that might have originated at another ACC school, and Carolina's fans can do better.
Adam Lucas will answer your questions about the Carolina men's basketball program this season in an exclusive column published each Tuesday on TarHeelBlue.com. Lucas, editor of Tar Heel Monthly, will answer your questions on personnel, strategy, opponents and anything on your mind about the Tar Heels other than recruiting specifics. You can email your questions to Adam--please make sure to include your first and last names and hometown.
