University of North Carolina Athletics
Led By Their Dreams Excerpt: Title Preparations
December 15, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 15, 2005
Led By Their Dreams, the inside chronicle of Carolina's 2005 national championship, makes the perfect Christmas gift for your favorite Tar Heel fan. It's available now in all your favorite bookstores or you can order online by clicking here. Every book includes a CD containing the Tar Heel Sports Network broadcast of the title game against Illinois, exclusive first-person insights from all your favorite players and coaches, and a selection of Thoughts for the Day used in Carolina's 2004-05 practice plans.
An excerpt from the book, by Adam Lucas, Steve Kirschner, and Matt Bowers, is below.
Thought for the Day: April 3, 2005
To leave footprints in the sands of time, wear workboots.
It is the night before the national championship game, and every player on Carolina's team has gone out to a party.
Well, not out, exactly. Just out of their rooms to the elevator lobby on the 14th floor of the team's downtown hotel. It's a surprise birthday party for Sean May, who turns 21 on April 4, game day.
"I love things like that," Roy Williams says. "Sean's mother, Debbie, had been concerned that it would be a distraction. But I thought it would be good for everyone."
It is good. The Tar Heels have 24 hours to endure before they can play the basketball game most of them have been waiting for all their lives. The hands of the clock do not move quickly.
10:00 P.M. Sunday: Jawad Williams walks over to the Gateway Arch. It is dark, and Williams is alone. The lines of tourists that usually surround the monument are gone. "I wanted to be by myself," Williams says. "I took a couple of pictures and talked to myself, thought about how far I had come and about the chance we had to do something very special."
4:00 A.M. Monday: May is wide awake. Normally a sound sleeper, he hasn't rested well during the Tournament. His last sleepless night came the evening before the Wisconsin game, which he finished with 29 points and 12 rebounds. A repeat performance would be welcome.
5:30 A.M.: Jawad Williams is dreaming the same thing over and over, each time with a different ending. His Tar Heels have just won the national championship. "But every time I'd wake up doing something different to celebrate," he says. "One time I ran and slid across the floor. One time I ran into the crowd. One time I ran into one of my teammates."
7:30 A.M.: May finally falls back asleep.
9:00 A.M.: In the world of college basketball, where killing time in hotels is an art form, this qualifies as an early wake-up call. The team has been shooting around on game days throughout the NCAA Tournament; they continue the trend at the Edward Jones Dome before returning to the hotel for a quick brunch.
1:00 P.M.: The afternoon turns into torture. There are still almost eight hours before tip-off. Assistant coach Joe Holladay barricades himself in his hotel room with one more Illinois game tape, hoping to find one last edge that might make a difference. He has noticed that the Illini make their play calls by jersey number--for example, a call of "four" means that number four, Luther Head, will probably shoot the ball.
2:00 P.M.: Former Carolina coach Dean Smith is inside his hotel room, catching up on some of the correspondence and dictation he's brought with him from Chapel Hill. He speaks to Roy Williams on a couple of occasions during the day but, true to his personality, prefers not to intrude.
2:45 P.M.: Still wired from the night before, May is watching a DVD of his father's sensational performance in the 1976 NCAA final. The elder May, Scott, scored 26 points and grabbed 8 rebounds as the Hoosiers defeated Michigan for the national championship. A handful of players--Jackie Manuel, Jawad Williams, Reyshawn Terry--trickle through the room as May watches. None is able to sit still for more than a few moments at a time.
Rashad McCants is watching a different DVD. He pops in the basketball movie "Coach Carter," the inspirational story of a high school coach. "I was so amped about the game," McCants says. "I just wanted to play. I could have gone to a court anywhere around us at that moment and played."
3:15 P.M.: Melvin Scott reads his usual pregame scripture, Romans 5:1-5. Without any fanfare, faith has played a major role in the lives of Scott and fellow senior Jawad Williams this season. Both were baptized earlier in the year, and Williams has taken to carrying a Bible with him at all times. One part of Scott's selected passage: "We rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us . . ."
Scott turns to David Noel. "We're going to win, man," he says. "We're going to win it all."
4:00 P.M.: Everyone gathers for a meal at the hotel. Roy Williams goes over the keys to the game identified by the coaching staff.
5:15 P.M.: Finally, the time is melting away. The head coach takes his customary pregame nap, as does Jawad Williams. Some players read scripture. It is quiet on the team's 14th-floor retreat. Downstairs, Carolina fans turn the lobby into a noisy sea of blue.
7:00 P.M.: McCants is one of the first Tar Heels out of the locker room. He does his usual pregame shooting routine, culminating with 25-foot three-pointers. Each time one of them finds the net, the early-arriving Carolina crowd--vastly outnumbered by the sea of Illinois orange that has turned the Edward Jones Dome into a road venue for the Heels--roars.
8:00 P.M.: The 2005 North Carolina Tar Heels gather for pregame instruction for the last time. By now, they know the plan: Watch for the Illini guards to penetrate and pass rather than penetrate and shoot. Keep Roger Powell off the glass. Help Raymond Felton contain Dee Brown, the quicksilver Illinois point guard. Create foul trouble for Illinois; make their bench contribute.
His team knows all the details. So Roy Williams focuses on the big picture.
"Last year, we had a reunion," he says, referencing the Lettermen's Reunion that drew hundreds of Tar Heel basketball alums back to Chapel Hill. "Four of the five starters from the 1957 championship team were at that reunion. They look for a reason to celebrate, look for a reason to have a party. And they're always remembered as a national championship team. And 47 or 48 years later, the relationships they have and the memories they have are some of the strongest things about them.
"You guys have a chance to have that same feeling. You guys can get this done tonight. Somebody has to win. Why not let it be us?"
The message is powerful, but Williams debated using it.
"I fought with myself about whether to bring it up," he says. "But I thought it was a way for them to be led by their dreams, not pushed by their problems."
Led By Their Dreams, the inside chronicle of Carolina's 2005 national championship, makes the perfect Christmas gift for your favorite Tar Heel fan. It's available now in all your favorite bookstores or you can order online by clicking here. Every book includes a CD containing the Tar Heel Sports Network broadcast of the title game against Illinois, exclusive first-person insights from all your favorite players and coaches, and a selection of Thoughts for the Day used in Carolina's 2004-05 practice plans.
