University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag Feb. 15
February 15, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 15, 2005
By Adam Lucas
Good news for all Mailbag readers: we've filed job applications for most of you with the ACC. As soon as Wednesday night's game against Duke was over, emails started flooding in regarding the operation of the clock in the final two minutes. We knew our readers were a sharp bunch, and it was confirmed when we received hundreds of messages about the irregularities. There's more on that topic below.
On the DelayPlay front, Phil Duncan is hoping to test drive it for the first time during the Feb. 22 game at NC State. We should have a report shortly thereafter.
Of course, it's Tuesday, which means it's Tar Heel Talk time at Champps at Southpoint from 12-1. We've got a special guest this week--Tar Heel standout Eric Montross will be with us live in the restaurant for the full hour. Jones Angell and some other guy will get Eric's thoughts on this year's team, reminisce about 1993, and we'll also have Norwood Teague from the UNC marketing department to fill us in on all the details of Wednesday night's retro game plus some news about video boards in the Smith Center. We'll be registering folks to win tickets to both of this week's home games, so come out and join us or listen live.
What exactly is the role of the junior varsity team (with freshmen eligible to play)? Also, I see their schedule. How are they doing this year?
Sean R. Smith, Belmont, NC
Carolina is one of the few schools in the country to maintain a junior varsity program. It's a holdover from the Dean Smith era, when he believed the JV program created an important bond between the student body and the varsity program. Tryouts are open to anyone willing to participate, and the team usually fields a heavy percentage of homegrown North Carolina talent who weren't good enough to get a Division I scholarship offer but want the thrill of wearing a North Carolina jersey and playing all their games in the Smith Center. Talent-laden prep schools and community colleges make up the majority of the opposition.
The JV program also provides an important testing ground for Tar Heel assistant coaches. Roy Williams coached the JV team when he was a Carolina assistant. Jerod Haase handled the duties last year, and C.B. McGrath is taking his turn this season. "It has been the greatest experience coaching-wise I have ever had," McGrath says. "I have learned so much more than I thought I would."
The JV record currently stands at 2-9 with five losses coming in the final minute. All games are played at the Smith Center, so if you're going to the next couple of home games you can check them out Wednesday at 4 p.m. before the Virginia game and Saturday at 10 a.m. before the Clemson game. The roster is as follows:
Joey Frye, Cameron, NC
David Bardin, Burlington, NC
Jon Mark Baucom, Matthews, NC
Chris Bostick, Jamaica Estates, NY
Dewey Burke, Philadelphia, PA
obby Murphy, Columbus, OH
John Putnam, Reidsville, NC
Chris Tully, Clemmons, NC
Maurice Alexander, New Bern, NC
Matt Brenner, Greensboro, NC
Mario Alexander, New Bern, NC
Anthony Massenburg, Henderson, NC
Surry Wood, Raleigh, NC
Ryan Semchenko, Apex, NC
I know that the diamonds on the side of the Tar Heels' uniforms are argyles, but how long have they been on the uniforms and what -- if anything -- do they represent? When were the old school shorts with the heel on them changed?
Zach Hamilton, Marietta, GA
Dean Smith asked famed designer Alexander Julian to redesign the Tar Heel togs prior to the 1991-92 season, a task Julian famously referred to as, "Like God calling asking you to make new halos for the archangels." Julian added the argyle, a bolder trim, and an upgraded fabric. Julian came up with several sketches with widely varying themes; several other uniforms were considered, including one that closely resembled a sweater vest and thankfully never saw the court.
Jordan Brand and Julian tweaked the uniforms before the 1999-2000 season, a change that resulted in the ill-fated "NC" uniforms. The jerseys--which did make a Final Four appearance, so they can't be all bad--were almost universally loathed and were mothballed after one season.
You'll get to see the old school shorts on Wednesday night, as it's retro night at the Smith Center. Players from both teams will be wearing early-1980s togs and fans are encouraged to come decked out in their best 80s apparel.
I recently read your article about unsung hero's being a factor in many of the UNC vs. Duke games. I remember the games with Rice and Hurley during those times, it seemed that King Rice was the only person in the ACC that could get Hurley out of his game. On many occasions they had to be separated by the refs and then Hurley would self destruct trying to do to much after the incident. Where is King Rice now and what is he doing, just your mentioning him brought back some great memories in the I've got your number column.
Scott Murphy, Fayetteville, NC
There's a good chance that Bobby Hurley still has nightmares about King Rice. The scrappy Tar Heel point guard limited Hurley to a combined 4-for-20 shooting performance and just seven assists in their two meetings during the 1989-90 season. Rice, never known as a scorer, contributed 33 points and 17 assists in those two games. The Binghamton native did it to Hurley again in the 1991 ACC championship game, scoring 12 points and handing out seven assists while holding Hurley to 0-of-4 from the field. The Tar Heels won all three of those games.
Rice currently works with Rick Fox's company on the west coast. He returned to Chapel Hill last year for the letterman's banquet, and his moving speech at the Saturday evening dinner was one of the highlights of the weekend.
It seems like we haven't beaten any top 25 teams on the road lately. So I was wondering what our record has been against top 25 teams on the road for the past three years?
Matthew Little, Wake Forest, NC
The Tar Heels had two road wins against top-25 teams last year (beating #14 NC State and #16 Wake Forest). But those are the lone bright spots in a bad road stretch for Carolina--they're 2-15 in their last 17 road games against ranked teams (not counting Connecticut).
This year, of course, Carolina is 5-2 in true road games, including a win at Indiana that always seems to get overlooked despite the fact that it was the most emotionally charged atmosphere they've seen so far this year. We've read endless stories in newspapers and seen countless stories on television informing us that the very best teams always win on the road. But is that really true? Maybe not. Last year's national champion, Connecticut, was 6-4 in true road games. The 2003 national champion, Syracuse, was 6-3 in true road games. And Maryland was 7-2 in their championship season in 2002.
If that's too much ancient history for you, what about this: Wake Forest has losses at Florida State and Georgia Tech. Duke has road losses at Maryland and Wake. Why isn't anyone talking about their inability to win on the road? Because the reality is that winning on the road is difficult, and if you can win two-thirds of your games on the road you're doing very well. Carolina's win at UConn was only the third road win for any ACC team against an AP top-20 opponent this year, joining Maryland's win over Duke and Wake Forest's win over Cincinnati.
As I'm sure you are aware, in the game at Duke on Wednesday 2/9/05, there was a major mishap with the time-keeping that went unnoticed (or unfixed) by the officials. Actually, there were three. The first one is the one that left the bad taste though because it was so incredibly obvious. With 1:32 remaining in the second half, a traveling call was made on a Duke player, Sean Dockery, near the Duke bench. The whistle was blown (heard clearly on TV) at 1:32. However, the clock continued to tick away until it was stopped 6 seconds later at 1:26. Another instance happened when Rashad made a layup for the Tar Heels with 54.1 seconds remaining, however, once again the clock mysteriously continued to run down to 51.9 seconds. With 8.2 seconds already vanished the Tar Heels got the ball back with 18.2 seconds left on the clock. They weren't able to execute their set play and ultimately lost the ball out of bounds on the baseline near the Carolina bench. When the ball touches down out of bounds there is somewhere in between 1.1 and 0.8 seconds left, yet the clock is run down to 0.0 and the game was over. The ball would've been Duke's anyways, so this instance probably isn't an issue, however if you add the 8.2 seconds on that were lost, that approximate 1 second becomes very important. I noticed this with the naked eye at first and after going back and examining it with Tivo, I was utterly speechless.
So my question is this: Who all is involved in the score/time keeping? What does each person do? Is there any Carolina personnel responsible? This seems like something that should be closely monitored by the both the referees and each team.
Jon Rutan, Carbondale, IL
We got a ton of email about clock problems at Cameron, especially the situation at 1:32. But it probably didn't impact Carolina's last possession--the Tar Heels were going to initiate their last play at the 8-10 second mark no matter what, so you can't assume that time would have been there at the end. It probably would have been melted away before Raymond Felton began the final play. One contributing factor is the location of the main scoreboard in Cameron. It's high above center court, so most of the people at floor level glance at it only occasionally. That's probably how what seemed to be such an egregious error on television went unnoticed at the game.
Timers are assigned by the school, so it's a different person at every ACC arena. Our understanding is that the timekeeper is actually a backup when it comes to stopping the clock. Game referees wear a beltpack that, in theory, is linked to the clock. When they blow the whistle, it starts the clock so it's always in sync. If you arrive at games early enough you can often see them testing the system.
The end-of-game scenario at Duke was hectic. At first, it did appear that the officials were considering reviewing the monitor's game footage to determine if time was left. On the tape, you can see both Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski pausing and looking in the direction of the officials at the end of the game. But by that time, with security personnel roping the court off with yellow twine and the floor quickly becoming a mass of writers, players, coaches, and various other people, the review wasn't made. It's extremely unlikely that that changed the outcome of the game, because it appeared Duke was going to have possession of the ball anyway.
I am getting married in a few months, and when my wife to be and I were discussing colors for our wedding and we couldn't figure out what we wanted. We decided to go with each of our favorite colors. So I decided that I wear Tar Heel blue everyday so I may as well wear it in my wedding as well. My question to the crack staff at the mailbag is what shade of blue is Tar Heel blue?
Chad Guttormson, Bismarck, ND
Now this is the kind of dedication we like to see. We can only imagine how excited your bride-to-be is that you'll be turning it blue at your wedding. Your desire to get the details of the wardrobe correct is admirable--the official Pantone color for Carolina blue is PMS 278. We would humbly suggest that you might want to check with your fiancée and be willing to go a shade or two either way depending on her wishes. If she doesn't have input, you'll be hearing about it for the rest of your life, and you want her to be understanding on those February nights when you have to devote your full attention to watching the Heels on television.
If the season were to end today, there would be 3 teams tied for first, 4 teams tied for 4th, 3 teams tied for 8th and one team in last place. My first question is how often have there been ties for 1st place in the league? One of the years I was at UNC, we were a part of a 4 way tie... and I do know it has happened more than just once.
Adam Kendall, Perth, Western Australia
Here's one of those crazy stats that only our readers could lead us to uncover. There have been nine ties for first in the history of the ACC. Any guesses as to how many of those occasions have involved Carolina?
All nine. The ties are as follows:
1956 (State and Carolina at 11-3)
1959 (State and Carolina at 12-2)
1960 (Wake and Carolina at 12-2)
1979 (Duke and Carolina at 9-3)
1982 (Virginia and Carolina at 12-2)
1983 (Virginia and Carolina at 12-2)
1985 (Georgia Tech, State and Carolina at 9-5)
1995 (Wake, Maryland, Virginia and Carolina at 12-4)
2001 (Duke and Carolina at 13-3)
I seem to remember that Coach Holladay has a son that was/is serving in Iraq. Is he still there and what outfit is he with? Thanks Adam, keep up the great work.
Chris Huneycutt, Burlington, NC
Good news, Chris. Capt. Mathew Holladay is out of harm's way, as his service in the Army ended on Aug. 15, 2004. The bad news is that he's still farther away than his dad would like him to be, as he's doing some consulting in Italy.
Adam Lucas will answer your questions about the Carolina men's basketball program this season in an exclusive column published each Tuesday on TarHeelBlue.com. Lucas, editor of previous Mailbags--please make sure to include your first and last names and hometown.
