University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag November 15
November 15, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 15, 2005
By Adam Lucas
Welcome back from the shortest offseason in basketball Mailbag history. We answered your questions into mid-April last season, and we'd happily do that again if it comes with another one of those shiny national championship trophies.
Before we get started on this season's first batch of questions, we've got a few very important points to relay. First, we've got a new Keeper of the Mailbag: Lauren Brownlow. She's essentially the traffic cop of this column, and she's as addicted to the Heels as you or me. You'll get to know more about her through our weekly mini-segment "Lauren's Email of the Week" that will run at the end of each week's column. By the way, the name for that segment is open to your submissions. Got something better? Send it our way.
Which brings up another important topic: the submission guidelines have changed. Only emails sent to this email address are eligible for inclusion. We can't respond to any Mailbag emails sent to any other email address. So please use that one for all future questions. And remember, there's a Mailbag double dose this season--the regular column will run on this site every Tuesday just as in years past. But Jones Angell, Eric Montross, and I will also answer a handful of questions in a pregame segment on the Tar Heel Sports Network before every game. That segment begins this Saturday in the pregame show before the Gardner-Webb game. All Mailbag questions (sent to the above address, of course) are automatically eligible for both the internet version and the radio version.
Now for a little something different. I'd like to spread some Mailbag holiday cheer this year and you can help. If you know a very special Carolina basketball fan, send us an email and tell us about them. Essentially, we want to hear about the most unique Tar Heel fan you know. You should only use that email address for this special question. We can't respond to every email individually and won't publish any of these emails except for the winner. We're not telling you what the winner will receive other than to say your chosen fan needs to be available to travel from wherever they are to Chapel Hill the weekend of Dec. 16-18. The winner is likely to be someone with special circumstances who wouldn't otherwise get to visit Chapel Hill, and we'll go ahead and tell you we've got a soft spot for kids (although the winner won't necessarily be a kid). Time is short on this: you can only send your emails through 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 18. If this goes well, we'll try and make it an annual holiday event. Remember, send all entries to this address.
Now, on with the questions...
I think I read in one of the columns on the website that Jackie and Melvin were both playing pro ball, Jackie in the NBDL and Mel overseas. Do you have any new information on what Jawad is doing since the Spurs released him? Also, do you know anything about why he wasn't drafted? I thought he was the one of the three seniors that had the best chance to be drafted.
Aaron Merritt, Fargo, ND
Just in case you had forgotten that Carolina basketball is a nationwide phenomenon, we wanted to start off with a question from North Dakota.
Manuel was slated to play for the Fayetteville Patriots this season. But a troublesome ankle injury required surgery yesterday morning, so he's unlikely to get to suit up for the Patriots. He's been around Chapel Hill recently and has even taken in a few practices. Scott spent a month in Greece on a short-term contract and is now back in Chapel Hill. He'll likely catch on with another pro squad at some point in the months to come.
Williams had a tryout with the Spurs but didn't make their loaded roster. Since then, he's been fielding offers from a variety of teams. His most recent opportunity came in a tryout with Spanish team Alta Gestion Fuenlabrada (no, not a character from Harry Potter) last week. Williams signed a 3-month contract with the squad over the weekend--as a side note, Fuenlabrada waived former Virginia star Norman Nolan in order to make room for Jawad.
Williams wasn't drafted for a couple of reasons. First, he didn't have a great series of pre-draft workouts. NBA teams seem concerned about where he would fit in the league--they'd like to see more rebounding from a player who would play inside, and they'd like to see a little more quickness and ability to create his own shot from someone who would play on the perimeter. He'll have the chance to prove where he fits during his stint in Spain.
In the great movie, "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", Paul Newman and Robert Redford could be heard often asking, "Who are those guys?", as they tried to figure out who was chasing them. I find myself asking the same question this year about this team roster.
Oh sure, everyone knows Noel, Terry, Thomas, Sanders, Miller, Hansbrough, Green, Ginyard, and Frasor. But who are those other guys on the list? Burke? Copeland? Robinson? Wilkins? Wood? These are new names and it would be neat to know if they are expected to contribute? Are any of them on scholarship? Or are they just there to fill out the squad for practices?
Dr. Richard Rand, Cookeville, Tennessee
Seriously, where else can you read about Butch Cassidy and Fuenlabrada in the same article? Don't try to tell us you didn't miss the Mailbag.
The only scholarship player on your list is Mike (he prefers Mike to Michael, so think of him as the reverse Jordan) Copeland. A Winston-Salem Reynolds product, he signed late with the Tar Heels and has been going through a Carolina basketball crash course. His progress was impeded by a knee injury suffered during the scrimmage portion of Late Night, but he saw his first exhibition action of the season Saturday against Catawba. Copeland--a lifelong Carolina fan who grew up watching the Heels with his grandmother--has good basketball instincts but the question is whether he'll be able to work his way into game shape and learn enough of the Carolina system to make an impact. If he can just grab a rebound or two every game and absorb a foul or two every game, he'll make an important contribution.
The other four players came up through the UNC junior varsity system and three of them have two years of experience with that squad. Dewey Burke is a 6-foot point guard from Philadelphia. He played one year of varsity football at Fairfield before transferring to Carolina and switching to JV basketball. 6-foot-5 Surry Wood is another transfer--he practiced with JV last year but was unable to play due to transfer rules after coming to Carolina from Hampden-Sydney. Will Robinson is a 6-foot-6 former star at Chapel Hill High and Thomas Wilkins is a 5-foot-8 native of Cary who will henceforth be known in this column as Crib (That probably requires an explanation: Tar Heel football players regularly call teammates from their hometown "Crib." Your humble Mailbag scribe, along with football sports information director Kevin Best, is from Cary, so we'll be calling Wilkins Crib.).
I know every sporting team that wins a championship in any sport, has a chance to go to the White House and meet the President of the United States. I'm just wondering did the Tar Heels get to do that, if not when will they do it.
Dawayne Eason, Atlanta, Ga.
You're right, every team gets the chance. But it's only a chance and not a guarantee. The White House sent the Tar Heel basketball office several possible dates for the visit to Washington. But all the dates were problematic--on some of them, Roy Williams wasn't available, and on others Williams could have gone but several of the players couldn't. The head coach didn't feel comfortable going without his full roster of players and the players didn't feel comfortable going without the head coach, so no date could be found.
I know this will be the youngest team in recent history and maybe ever. How did the other teams that compare to this years team finish their season? What can we really expect of such a young team?
Chris Hamilton, Charlotte
There's no maybe about it--this year's team is definitely the youngest ever. In fact, no team in ACC history has ever lost its top seven scorers, as the Tar Heels did after winning the national championship.
There are two previous examples of Carolina teams losing their top three scorers--prior to the 1995-96 season (losing Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, and Donald Williams) and prior to the 1998-99 season (losing Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, and Shammond Williams). The 1996 team finished 21-11 and lost to backboard-breaking Darvin Ham and Texas Tech in the NCAA second round. The 1999 team finished 24-10 and lost to Weber State in the NCAA opener.
One advantage both of those teams had over this one: they both returned experienced point guards. Ed Cota piloted the 1999 team as a junior, while junior Jeff McInnis steered the 1996 squad. Much has been said and written about David Noel's leadership and all of it is true. But there's a difference between on-court leadership and off-court leadership, and Carolina also needs someone who will have the ball in his hands for a good portion of the game--as many things as Noel can do, you don't want him handling the point in the closing minutes of a game because that's simply not his game--to exhibit some leadership.
This year's team probably bears a closer resemblance to the 1996 team than the '99 squad because the '99 team returned Cota and senior Ademola Okulaja, whose 78 career starts entering 1999 are more than double the previous career starts (33) of this year's entire roster.
The 1996 team had to endure the growing pains of an outstanding freshman class (sound familiar?) that included Jamison, Carter and Okulaja. They were fairly unpredictable at times, lost three straight ACC games at one point, and were bounced from the ACC Tournament by Clemson's Greg Buckner dunk at the buzzer, but they still managed to finish third in the league and post nonconference wins over Michigan State, Georgia and Stanford.
We have seen plenty of flashes of the offensive abilities of Reyshawn Terry in his two years in Chapel Hill. He has so much talent but has been inconsistent at times. Do you think this season he will ultimately become the teams go to scorer?
Rob, Iowa City
This is the most fascinating storyline of the 2005-06 season. You're right, Rob, Terry has offensive ability. At times, however, he has followed those offensive flashes with bad decision-making or defensive mistakes. In years past, Roy Williams always had the depth to yank Terry for such offenses. Does he this year? We'll find out. It will be interesting to see if the amount of mental errors go down if Terry doesn't feel he's always looking over his shoulder for the next substitution. Will that get him more in the flow of the game and lead to more cerebral play? We'll find out in the months to come. Remember, just because a player makes impressive dunks doesn't mean he's not committing less visible errors. If the Winston-Salem native can eliminate those errors he will be an important member of the rotation, because he's the best athlete on the team.
I was wondering if you had any idea how the rotation is going to be this year especially for the big men...is Byron Sanders going to be involved?
Greg Schraf, Rochester, NY
Yes, he's going to be involved. How involved he'll be depends on how well he performs.
Sanders is probably the third man in a four-man post rotation. The first two, in no particular order, are David Noel and Tyler Hansbrough. Both are going to play major minutes this year. Sanders doesn't have the scoring ability of either of those players, but he has shown flashes of quality defense and rebounding ability. That's where his primary contribution will come; any offense will largely be a bonus. What makes Hansbrough so impressive is his fearlessness and lack of hesitation around the basket. Sanders doesn't yet have that same confidence in his offensive skills.
Wow, what a year in winning the national championship. The bad news is that we have lost 7 of our top 8 players and that brings me to my questions: I understand that Roy loves the uptempo style of play and obviously last year we had the players to execute it quite well, will there be a different style of play oriented due to the loss of so many star players and lack of depth?
John, Morrisville
Roy Williams doesn't just want his team to play the same style as last year. He wants them to play even faster. That might sound backwards at first, but consider that when the tempo slowed last year Carolina could simply turn to Rashad McCants, Raymond Felton, Sean May, or Marvin Williams for a bail-out move when the shot clock got short. With this year's freshman class still having not played a game, the offensive options on this year's team are much more limited. Hansbrough might develop into a reliable post scorer. Bobby Frasor might prove to be able to create his own shot off the dribble. Marcus Ginyard might show some slashing and scoring ability. But as of right now, no one knows that for sure.
To counter that lack of experienced scoring, Williams wants his team to push the tempo at every possible juncture to try and create easier transition scoring opportunities. Those 3-on-2 or 2-on-2 fast break chances you might have taken for granted in the past are even more important this year, because this year's Heels can't afford to squander easier scoring chances. The bad news? It'll likely be freshmen involved in many of those plays, and sometimes it takes a few weeks or months for their decision-making to catch up to ACC level. It was interesting to note the one characteristic of his team Williams chose to single out after the Catawba game: "I think this club is a very bright team," he said. "One of our greatest characteristics is that we're a smart basketball team." That bodes very well for the future.
Jesse Holley was a part of the 2005 North Carolina Championship team. Whenever he got on the court whether it was at the end of the game or the beginning, it looked like he knew what he was doing and he has some size. After not seeing his name on the roster, will Jesse Holley be a part of the 2005-2006 North Carolina basketball team?
Larry, Ky.
We're giving Jesse Holley the preseason Damion Grant Award (that reminds us: neither Damion Grant nor Justin Bohlander will play for the Tar Heels this year) for most popular mailbag topic. But here's the thing: no matter what you've heard, Holley has said repeatedly that he wants to be absolutely committed to football while the gridiron Tar Heels are playing. We gave him a chance to alter that answer last week, and while he did say that he wanted to say hello to all the Mailbag readers (suck-up), he said he'd rather not answer basketball questions until the football season ends. We're going to respect those wishes until, hopefully, after a bowl game.
Lauren's Email of the Week
I have been wondering why Ed Cota's jersey has not been honored in the Smith Center and is not in the rafters. Cota guided the Heels to multiple Final Fours and he is third in NCAA history in assists with 1,030 and the all-time leader in assists at UNC. Any plans to put Ed Cota's number 5 jersey in the rafters?
Drew McDowell, Winston-Salem
Forgive me if this has been done before and I missed it...
I was wondering if you could do a statistical and summative
comparison of Raymond Felton's career at Carolina versus that of
Ed Cota. Specifically, what makes one a top ten draft pick while
the other seems left behind?
Matt Warren, Gainesville, Fl.
Lauren writes: Ed Cota's 1,030 career assists (7.5 per game) is third in both NCAA and ACC history. He is one of only three Tar Heels to start in three different Final Fours, and he is the only player in NCAA history to have at least 1,000 assists, 1,000 points and 500 rebounds (1,030 assists, 1,261 points, and 517 rebounds).
There are 40 jerseys hanging in the Smith Center rafters. Seven of those jerseys are retired (meaning no Tar Heel can ever wear the number again), and all of those players are National Players of the Year. But the requirements to honor a jersey are less strict, largely due to the University's Athletic Council changing the rules in 1994, allowing for 25 additional jerseys to be honored (there had been only seven). A player must have achieved at least one of the following criteria to have his jersey honored:
1. the most valuable player (as voted by his teammates) of an NCAA championship team,
2. a first- or second-team All-American,
3. ACC Player of the Year, or
4. a member of a gold-medal winning Olympic team.
Though Cota led the Heels to three Final Fours (1997, 1998 and 2000), he managed only Honorable Mention status on most All-America teams. He was voted MVP by his teammates in 2000, but since the Heels did not win the National Championship, he is still not eligible.
As for the Felton vs. Cota comparison - it must be pointed out that Felton played one less year than Cota. However, even giving Felton the extra year and assuming the Tar Heels played the same number of games they played in 2005 (37), Felton would have had to average nine assists a game and total 332 assists to tie Cota's 1,030. (Note: Cota's 284 assists in 1999-2000 is the best single-season assist total in Carolina history and ranks 8th in ACC history.) Cota had a whopping 32 double-digit assist games, and Felton is second all-time at Carolina with 18.
An important discrepancy between Cota and Felton is also one that hurt Cota come draft day - scoring. Felton averaged 12.5 points per game during his career, while Cota only averaged 9.1 points per game.
Felton was one of the "big three" on last year's championship squad (in addition to May and McCants). Any comparable attention Cota might have received was swallowed by players like Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter, Joe Forte, and Brendan Haywood, as Cota spent his time getting those men the ball rather than taking the shot himself. Cota's leadership abilities were often overshadowed by players like former team captains Shammond Williams and Ademola Okulaja. In fact, Cota was not a team captain until his senior year. Not being known for scoring or leadership, distribution skills alone were not enough to attract NBA scouts. Cota was passed over in favor of flashier point guards, like former Spartan Mateen Cleaves. Felton was also known for his defensive skills more so than was Cota. The long and short of it is, in a shot-happy league like the NBA, Cota did not seem to fit because he was what a point guard should be: a distributor before a shooter.
Cota has played in NBA summer leagues almost every year since he left Carolina, but has never been signed. He played with a CBA team for a year, and then went abroad to play. He recently signed on to play a sixth season for Zalgiris Kaunas in Lithuania, a team partially owned by former NBA center Arvydas Sabonis.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. All Mailbag questions should be sent here. Lucas is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and 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 Going Home Again, click here.
