University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag November 22
November 22, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 22, 2005
By Adam Lucas
One thing about Mailbag readers: they never disappoint. So when we called for suggestions on what to call Keeper of the Mailbag Lauren Brownlow's weekly segment that will run at the bottom of this column, suggestions came in from across North America (really). We want to give special recognition to Marty Thompson, a Houston resident who sent in no fewer than 21 ideas. For his trouble, he receives the Prolific Emailer of the Week award.
His suggestions also included one variety of a very popular moniker: The Down-Low from Brownlow. Todd Moser from Archdale gets credit as the first to suggest it, and since that particular name is so clearly the people's choice, that's what we're going to use. Todd, Led By Your Dreams as a thanks for letting us steal your idea.
Don't forget the Heels play Cleveland State tonight at 9. If you're contemplating coming out, here's an extra reason to come to the Smith Center: assuming their plans don't change (which isn't a given now that they're big-time NBA guys) Raymond Felton and Sean May will be in the house. That duo deserves a warm welcome back from Carolina fans.
We want to thank everyone for their input last week regarding our request for the most unique Carolina fan. We'd love to help everyone who wrote, but sheer numbers just don't make it possible. We initially planned to grant just one request, but we received so many good emails that a couple of folks will be receiving a pair of tickets to an upcoming home game. But after consultation with the full staff here at Mailbag World Headquarters, the winner was clear:
The Greatest Tar Heel fan I know is my 15 year old son, Jared. He's a great young man, gets awesome grades, and loves basketball with all his heart. He was born in Dallas, Texas, but came home from the hospital wearing a tiny light blue Tar Heel t-shirt, thanks to me (his mom)! I am originally from Newton, NC and have loved the Tar Heels all my life! We live in Olathe, Kansas, where most of my son's friends are Kansas Jayhawk fans (we're about 30 miles from Lawrence), but he represents North Carolina very well, with much spirit as well as good-natured joking and fun among his friends.
4 years ago, Jared's father was seriously injured and is now a quadriplegic. It was a devastating blow to our whole family, but perhaps most of all to Jared. Jared and his Dad (Kirk) were and are still very close, it's just different now. Where Jared and Kirk used to be able to play basketball together, now Kirk can only sit and watch from his chair. This life-changing event at a crucial stage in Jared's life concerned me, as I hoped he wouldn't be bitter and angry, feeling like he had, in a way, lost his Dad. Instead, Jared has matured through all this and has put his energy as well as his frustrations into his love of basketball. Not only does he make the honor roll at school, he plays basketball for his school and for an AAU team. He is a huge help to me when it comes to helping take care of his dad, as I am the "nurse", due to the fact that our insurance will not pay for a home nurse. He is my "back-up" for many things that no child should ever have to do for their parents, and he helps me around the house, doing things that his Dad used to do. In other words, I'm not sure what I'd do without him, he is my rock, as well as a wonderful role model for his younger sister.
He loves the Tar Heels wholeheartedly and greatly admires all the players, along with (of course!) Coach Smith and Coach Williams, watching them on TV every chance he gets (He is the one who informed me there would be something about the Tar Heels on ESPN this morning, and we sat together and watched, neither of us saying a word until it was over.) I have described for him (with great pride) the beautiful campus in Chapel Hill and have told him many times that I'd love to take him there to show him in person......walk down Franklin Street, tour the campus, check out the Old Well, and the Bell Tower, and most of all, hopefully some day be able to go inside the Dean Smith Center. He always smiles and I see the sparkle in his eyes when he says......I really hope we can do that too Mom!
It would be such an honor and a thrill for Jared to visit Chapel Hill. I hope you will consider him for this contest, he is a very deserving young man, and I am the proudest mother in the world.
Amy Henry
Amy and Jared will be flying first-class from Kansas City to RDU on Thursday, Dec. 15, and spending the weekend in Chapel Hill as guests of the Mailbag. They'll attend the Dec. 17 game against Santa Clara and sit in some of the most exclusive seats in the building--the new front-row baseline seats that were added last year. We've got a full weekend of activities planned for them, some of which will be surprises so they can't be mentioned here. We should point out, though, that the weekend wouldn't have been possible without the Rams Club, the basketball office, the sports information office, Hampton Inn & Suites on Farrington Rd. (which is the perfect gameday hotel and is worth checking out simply for the great collection of Carolina photos on the walls), and Chapel Hill Sportswear. In the pre-Christmas mailbag we'll have an update on how Jared's trip went. Sometimes as Carolina fans we take for granted how special Tar Heel basketball can be to people. We hope this is a way to see the program through the eyes of someone getting their first-ever first-hand glimpse at what is truly the finest program in the country.
On with the questions...
Hey, I noticed that Carolina has to play Wake Forest at Winston Salem again this year. I thought they alternated sites each year?
Jason, Lehi, UT
Why is the blue/white game no longer played? It was a Carolina tradition for years that I never missed, but since Roy got here it is gone, why?
Richard Paynter, Pikeville, NC
Scheduling questions abounded this week in the Mailbag, and these have been two very popular queries (By the way, no one has written in with the scheduling question we'd most like to ask if we were submitting Mailbag questions--why so many 8:30 or later starts this season? If we got that question in the Mailbag, well, first we'd be concerned because we'd be talking to ourselves. Second, we'd say it's strictly because of TV.).
On the Wake issue, remember that the ACC had 11 teams last year and 12 this year. So a new scheduling format was needed. It's very close to the one used last year, but it's not identical. So repeats from last season are possible, which is why Carolina visits Wake again with no return game. It's not just the Heels facing this predicament--Georgia Tech has to come to Chapel Hill for the second straight year with no return game and there are countless other examples in the league.
This year begins a three-year scheduling rotation. The two primary partners stay the same as last year--for Carolina, that means home-and-home games with Duke and NC State. It's difficult to imagine an ACC where that wouldn't be the case. The other nine teams on the schedule are grouped into three trios. Those three groups will rotate into one of three categories every year--either Carolina plays a home-and-home with everyone in the group, they play everyone in the group on the road, or they play everyone in the group at home. Wake happens to fall into that road group this year. Next year, as you can see by checking out the schedule rotation, Carolina and Wake will play a home-and-home series.
The answer about the Blue-White game requires considerably less effort: Roy Williams simply doesn't like the game. If you're wondering why, just take a look at this year's very brief Late Night scrimmage, when Mike Copeland suffered a knee injury that set him back almost a month. Coaches don't want to see those types of injuries happen in a setting that is a glorified scrimmage. They usually want to use preseason practice time in one of two ways: competition against an outside opponent or dedicated practices. Carolina didn't play the Blue-White game last season and it's unlikely to return any time soon.
While at the Catawba game some friends and I wanted to go see the 2005 NCCA trophy, but much to our disappointment we found that it is not on display for the public. I know that after Maryland won its championship the Trophy was put on display just inside the entrance to the Comcast Center. I had to pass by it on my way in to watch the Heels play. The championship means a lot to all of the fans and I think everyone should get the opportunity see a piece of it. Why isn't the trophy accessible to the public?
Tim Wolf, Washington, DC
You're right, the current setup isn't ideal. The good news: it's changing soon. Visitors to the Smith Center memorabilia room will be able to view the trophy within a week or so by visiting anytime during business hours (9 a.m.-5 p.m. on weekdays).
Carolina's current memorabilia room isn't open to the public on weekend game days because it's used for a variety of game-related functions. But there's a new Carolina basketball experience on the horizon that will not just improve upon the current room--it will set the bar for facilities of that type in college basketball. You'll notice we're not using the word "museum." That's because this particular facility, which will be located inside the Ernie Williamson Building adjacent to the Smith Center, will be much more than just a museum. It's still at least a year away from reality but the wait will be well worth it. The good news is that fan input will be considerable. The Rams Club is taking suggestions for the complex and you can also make a donation that will go straight to the building fund. The preliminary work on this project has been eye-opening and there are numerous capable people involved who have been charged with making sure this is the most comprehensive college basketball shrine anywhere.
In last week's mailbag or in some other article on the University of North Carolina's official Web site it was mentioned that the first Roy Williams Live radio show of the new season would be Monday night, on November 14th.
If it was on, I couldn't find it anywhere on my radio or on Carolina's all access web page. I live in Greenville, North Carolina and I believe the radio station that I will listen to for the games is 106.1 WRDU FM out of Raleigh. I think I read somewhere that they will not, however, be carrying the Roy Williams Monday night call in show.
Is there a way to find out what station in my area will be broadcasting Roy Williams live on Monday nights?
Greg Lee, Greenville, NC
This was another popular question this week. The easy answer is to point you to the online listing of Tar Heel Sports Network affiliates: Tar Heel Sports Network affiliates
That list isn't completely updated as of this posting, but it should be updated during the day with a completely revised list.
In the past few years, FM stations have expressed a reluctance to preempt their (ad revenue-producing) regular programming in favor of sports programming. When 106.1 signed as the Triangle affiliate for the Tar Heels, they declined to run any coaches' shows. So a Triangle-area outlet had to be found, and the shows landed on 850 AM. Here's the bad news: 850 already has a priority contract with Duke basketball. So any Triangle listeners trying to tune into Williams's show last Monday got a double dose of bad news: not only could they not hear Coach, they were stuck listening to Duke against Boston University. 850 did replay the show on Tuesday at 7 p.m. but many listeners weren't aware of the replay. Network affiliates are a constantly evolving business. They'll certainly be reevaluated after this season and it's possible that even more changes could be made.
Red Auerbach, former Celtics coach, is credited with this formula: subtract a player's game minuses (turnovers, missed foul shots, missed shots, personal fouls) from his pluses (rebounds, points, assists, steals, blocked shots) and divide the remainder by the number of minutes played. Under the Auerbach formula, MJ averaged 75% for his NBA career. Last year the Tar Heels averaged 45% as a team for the entire season, and Sean May was high man with 79%. Would a formula like this be at all useful in measuring performances by this year's players? FYI, in the first two exhibition games Danny Green averaged 79% and Marcus Ginyard averaged 19%.
Creighton Abrams, Springfield, VA
A new wave of stats has taken over baseball in recent years, but the progression has been slower in football and, to some extent, basketball. The Auerbach formula you reference is an interesting one. It's the height of arrogance to suggest flaws in a formula suggested by one of the greatest figures in basketball history so, of course, here are two: one might be that it doesn't give much weight to defense--there's no stat to quantify defensive lapses, so a player could have a good offensive game, give up 30 points to his man, and come out with a decent rating under this system. Another is that everything is weighted equally. An assist leads to a basket, so shouldn't it count for more than a rebound? We'd also probably weigh a turnover more heavily than, for example, a personal foul.
The person I've been most impressed with in terms of using unique stats in today's game is Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks. His blog is a mixture of topics, some of which I actually understand, and a frequent topic is the use of stats in basketball. In fact, that was a part of the recent spat he had with Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith (Warning: don't click on either of the above links without plenty of free time). Cuban and the Mavs employ approximately as many assistant coaches as Carolina's JV team has managers, and their job is to interpret those stats and use them in a way that helps the Mavs. How so? Well, check out this Cuban blog entry. Some of the numbers and stats on that page look like handouts from classes I would've dropped in college without even bothering to open the textbook, but it's pretty interesting stuff. I also feel like I read an article recently that detailed Cuban's use of unconventional stats, perhaps in Sports Illustrated. If someone could email the link it would be much appreciated.
Of course, it is Mailbag tradition that any time this subject is broached, it is a requirement to mention Dean Smith's book, Multiple Offense and Defense. If you're not familiar with points per possession and possession analysis, put the book on your Christmas list and consider it essential Tar Heel reading.
How will this freshman group of players rate against the, Montross, Reese, Phelps, and Sullivan class? This may be a loaded question,but I saw them in some All-Star games and thought that they were pretty daggone good.
Woody Stowe, Alliance, NC
What's more fun than baseless speculation about things that are essentially incomparable? Nothing, and that's why the Mailbag exists. And of course it also exists to utilize emails in which the word "daggone" is used correctly.
As loyal readers know, your humble Mailbag scribe detests everything about recruiting except for the part when the recruits become actual Carolina basketball players and start winning games. So this column admittedly isn't a good resource for ranking prep reputations. In my opinion, historical rankings of recruiting classes should take into account the players' success in college, not their high school award lists.
Bob Gibbons recently listed his top 5 all-time recruiting classes in a News and Observer story from Nov. 9. His picks:
1. '91 Michigan--Fab Five
2. '79 Kentucky--Sam Bowie, etc.
3. '97 Duke--Brand, Battier, Burgess, Avery
4. '81 Carolina--Jordan, Brownlee, Peterson, Martin, Robinson
5. '06 Carolina
The players on the top three teams on that list have a combined one championship--Duke won it in 2001, but the only player from that class still around for that game was Battier. We'd throw out '06 Carolina on principle because those players are in high school this year.
This year's freshmen are very good, and like the group that entered before the 90-91 season, they're a large class that features someone for every position on the floor. The 90-91 class had a pure point guard, Derrick Phelps, which this group doesn't, but this year's class is probably more versatile than that one.
The bottom line is that we won't know for sure until this year's class plays a couple seasons (at least). Remember that the 90-91 class wouldn't have won a championship without the right mix of older players (George Lynch) and younger players (Donald Williams). It's very unusual for a single class--like '91 Michigan--to carry a program for multiple years.
Matt Morgan is currently researching Smith Center-era recruiting classes. He'll rank them based on those findings in the next issue of Tar Heel Monthly.
And now, the debut of the newly named Down Low From Brownlow:
I was at the Catawba exhibition game and noticed that there seemed to
be something different with the rules when a player kicked a ball. I
seem to remember that when a player kicked the ball, the other team got
the shot clock fully reset. However, only one time did I notice the
shot clock get changed after a kick, and it was to only 15 seconds. Is
there a rule change for that this year, or was that just an
experimental rule change or did I just miss something?
Scott Goldston, Chapel Hill
Lauren writes: Good eye, Scott - there was a rule change. Beginning this season, in the event of a kicked ball, the shot clock will not be reset. The NCAA felt the punishment didn't fit the crime, so to speak. Scott also aptly noticed that the shot clock was reset to 15 seconds just once. That's because in the event of a kicked ball with less than 15 seconds remaining on the shot clock, the shot clock will be reset to 15 seconds.
Officiating mistakes are as much of a certainty as death, taxes, and a Roy Williams one-liner, so the "boos" that rain down from the rafters of the Smith Center are sometimes warranted. Sometimes, we as Carolina fans just see things through our own shade of light-blue lenses. But there are also times where fans might hear a call, or see something happen on the court, and like Scott, say, "Huh?" So on that note, here are some of the other significant NCAA rule changes this year:
1. Officials will be allowed to use the courtside television monitor to determine whether a foul committed near the expiration of time in the first half or second half (when it affects the outcome) occurred before time runs out.
2. After using the official courtside television monitor to determine if a foul or try for goal occurred before time runs out, the official shall be permitted to put the exact time back on the clock when it is determined that time remained when the foul was committed or the ball passed through the net.
The monitor was previously allowed to be used to determine whether a shot-clock violation or shot attempt occurred before time expired - this just adds fouls to that list. Also, the referees were not formerly able to put the exact time back on the clock after the foul or try for score.
3. Twenty seconds will be allowed to replace a disqualified player. The warning signal will be sounded five seconds before the expiration of the time limit.
The time limit for substitutions used to be 30 seconds.
4. A courtside television monitor may be used when in the judgment of the official a timer's mistake has occurred. Such a mistake may be corrected only during the first dead ball and before the ball is touched inbounds after the game clock should have been started or stopped or once the ball is in play before the second live ball, is touched inbounds when the game clock should have been running.
It used to be that the mistake could only be corrected after the first dead ball after the game clock should have started or stopped or once the ball is in play before the second live ball when the clock should have been running or while the ball is dead.
The experimental rules for this year, which will be used only in certified games: The three-point line was extended to 20 feet, 9 inches and the lane was widened to 14 feet, and a restricted area arc that is three feet from the center of the basket. This arc was at two feet last year, and was created to provide a more identifiable reference point for coaches and officials when trying to determine whether or not a defender established position under the basket trying to draw an offensive foul.
The NCAA also lists two "points of emphasis" for this season's basketball officiating: rough play and palming the basketball. The league defines a point of emphasis as something that was called inconsistently the previous year.
Rough play is a point of emphasis for the ninth consecutive year, and the NCAA claims this is due to their commitment to the notion that basketball is a game of skill. The league is especially concerned with low post play. In theory, according to this point of emphasis, moves such as an offensive post player backing in on the defender and dislodging him from position or a player using the "swim stroke" maneuver to lower the arm of their defender should be whistled as fouls.
Palming, according to the league, gives the dribbler an advantage over the defender that is "inconsistent with the spirit and intent of the rules."
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.
