University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tar Heels Working on Chemistry This Summer
May 18, 2004 | Men's Basketball
May 18, 2004
By Adam Lucas, Tar Heel Monthly
After losing to Texas in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Jawad Williams tuned out the rest of the games until the national championship, when he watched with casual interest and rooted for fellow ACC team Georgia Tech. Melvin Scott took the opposite route, watching virtually all the remaining contests.
No matter what approach they took to the remainder of the Tournament, however, all Carolina's players say they learned something important from the experience.
"The teams that advanced didn't care who scored," Scott says. "They had just one goal in mind, winning. Togetherness and team play is really serious. How far a team goes is determined by how hard they play and how together they are. That's what I learned from watching the Tournament."
The 2003-04 Tar Heels didn't have Kobe-and-Shaq-type rifts. Scott, Williams, and Jackie Manuel are close, as are David Noel and Raymond Felton. But all the players on the roster are used to taking the big shots, used to being the go-to man in the clutch. For some players, learning to defer to someone else in college has occasionally been difficult.
All the players involved feel the talent is in place to be a national contender next season. They have impressive credentials, All-ACC honors, and will likely be highly ranked in November. To live up to those rankings, they'll spend the summer working on team chemistry.
"We're making an effort on that, trying to hang out together more," Raymond Felton says. "Everybody is doing more things together instead of going their own separate ways."
When the topic is chemistry, of course, the discussion always seems to turn to Rashad McCants. Carolina's talented sophomore was the leading vote-getter on the 2003-04 All-ACC team and developed into a reliable clutch performer. But he'll have to string together even more standout performances before he can erase the memories of a dismal game at Kentucky or being sent to the locker room before halftime against UNC-Wilmington.
Those are the very public examples that are hard to forget. Behind the scenes, however, McCants has made a noticeable turn from the sometimes moody persona that occasionally confused teammates as a freshman. He's smiling more. He's hanging out with teammates more. At the postseason basketball banquet, the Tar Heel who once said he didn't care how anyone perceived him made a point of telling the crowd, "I know I can be hard to be around, but I'm a good kid." Combine that with performances in postseason pickup games that have been almost unstoppable, and you have a player on the verge of fulfilling his goal of seeing his jersey hang in the front row of the Smith Center rafters.
"With the reputation I have, it's imperative to try and get rid of the negatives," McCants says. "Some people give the smiles they need to give and shake the hands they need to shake. That's something I need to do. You can't go into some situations as a renegade. That's something I learned this year."
Other players may have to learn that McCants is the designated late-game scoring threat. The Tar Heels never had a problem with no one wanting to take the big shot -- instead, everyone wanted to take the big shot.
Next year's team, with three seniors desperate to cap rags-to-riches careers at Carolina, hopes to fit into their designated roles more agreeably.
Scott, one of that senior trio who says he plans to ask Roy Williams if he can be a captain, recognizes that responsibility for team chemistry now belongs to the players.
"We have to put egos aside and not worry about what this guy does or how much he scores," the Baltimore native says. "We had the leading scorer in the ACC and a bunch of All-ACC guys, and we got sent home early, so all that means nothing. If we put all that stuff aside, we'll be more successful, and that absolutely falls to me as a senior."
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.
