University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Deacs Make Heels 'Dogs?
January 14, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 14, 2005
By Adam Lucas
The question caused Jackie Manuel a brief pause.
His Tar Heels are 14-1. They are 3-0 in the toughest basketball conference in America. They are third in this week's Associated Press poll.
But are they underdogs in tomorrow's titanic clash at Wake Forest?
"Hmmm," Manuel said. "I hadn't really thought about it. I guess we might be."
Remember, these Demon Deacons boast the ACC's preseason player of the year, Chris Paul. Justin Gray was a first-team All-ACC pick last season. At least one Wake player is in the top six in the league in every major statistical category, the only school that can make that claim. They're winning their home games by an average of 17 points per contest, and the only team to play them to a single-digit game at Lawrence Joel was Texas.
Manuel's fellow senior said Saturday's roles are clear.
"We definitely are the underdog," Jawad Williams said. "I always think we're the underdog. Every single game. That's how you stay humble."
That's also a powerful psychological weapon. Just ask the 1988 Loyola Marymount team that was supposed to run all over Carolina but instead got blitzed by the old-school Heels. Or the 1990 Oklahoma team that spent so much time crossing and uncrossing their legs on the bench after made free throws that they didn't have time to stop Rick Fox's buzzer-beater. Or check on those victory party reservations the Kentucky Wildcats made before the 1995 Southeast Regional final in Birmingham.
These Tar Heels have a more recent reminder--they've got last year's Connecticut game. By the time the Huskies arrived in Chapel Hill as the nation's top-ranked team, Roy Williams had convinced his team no one believed the Heels could beat UConn. That "us-against-the-world" mentality led to a freewheeling 86-83 "upset" win.
"I love being the underdog if we're really good," Roy Williams said this summer. "If we're not any good, I don't like it. It's a great weapon if you can make a team that is really good feel that everyone is against you or they're the underdog. Against Connecticut, I preached about how we can win this game but no one else believes we can."
There are significantly more believers this year. Carolina has become a trendy national favorite, even with two months until the NCAA Tournament.
But Wake presents their most complete challenge of the year. They've got a dead-eye outside shooter in Justin Gray, the former AAU teammate of Rashad McCants who leads the league in three-pointers made per game. They've got versatile Jamaal Levy, one of the toughest players in the conference to defend. They've got a bevy of inside beef led by Eric Williams.
And, of course, they've got Paul, the latest in a series of rigorous defensive tests for Raymond Felton. Prior to Wednesday night's game against Georgia Tech, Felton had won five straight of the defensive awards handed out by the coaches after they review game tape. He'll get another challenge from Paul, who Roy Williams described Friday as a "beep-beeper," coach slang for someone who zips up and down the floor.
"When Chris Paul is on the floor, you have to have him as a focus," Williams said. "You have to make sure Chris doesn't get into the lane and create so many opportunities."
After slogging through a 67-64 win at Temple on Dec. 13, the Deacs have averaged 89 points per game over the last month, putting them in the same rarified offensive air as the Tar Heels. Maryland's Gary Williams saw his Terps crushed by both teams over the past week and said after losing to Wake he expected a fast-paced game with both squads over 100 points.
That happened last year when the teams met in Chapel Hill, but it took three overtimes to accomplish it. Barring extra periods, Roy Williams doesn't expect the century mark to be in danger.
"Both teams will play really, really hard defensively and most of the time when that happens, it's difficult to have a free-flowing game where you both score over 100. But both teams want to play at such a fast tempo, I wouldn't be shocked, but it could be one of those ugly games too."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. His book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about the book, click here.
