University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: New Role Awaits Noel
May 8, 2005 | Men's Basketball
May 8, 2005
By Adam Lucas
During his North Carolina basketball career, David Noel has played a variety of roles. He's been the walk-on guy. Been the guy playing out of position. Been the defensive guy.
As a senior, though, he'll be something else: he'll be the guy.
Even during the course of his junior season, the Durham native knew the 2004-05 team would lose Jawad Williams, Melvin Scott, and Jackie Manuel. As Raymond Felton's closest friend on the team, he knew Felton was a likely goner, and that Rashad McCants would probably go with him. But until the last weeks of the season, it looked like Sean May would return for his senior season to be the face of the team, perhaps even joined by Marvin Williams.
But when that duo joined Felton and McCants at a Smith Center podium on April 22 to announce their intentions to enter the NBA Draft, a handful of titles were immediately passed to Noel: best returning rebounder. Best returning scorer. Even, gulp, best returning assist man. And most important, best returning leader.
"That part of it is fun," Noel says. "Growing up, you dream of coming here and playing ball and winning a national championship, and in those dreams, you always picture yourself as being the man on the team. When that dream comes to life, though, it's kind of scary. But I'm ready to step my game up and do what we have to do to win."
What he's going to have to do is a little bit of everything. By the end of his sophomore season, Noel had wearied from two years of pounding in the post, a place he was sent out of necessity and where his big body was valuable defensively. The arrival of Marvin Williams freed him to spend more time on the wing, where his quickness allowed him to form half of a formidable defensive tag-team with Jackie Manuel; find another player in the ACC who has spent time guarding both Eric Williams and J.J. Redick during their career.
But now Noel is likely to go back into the paint, where the amount of time he spends battling bigger opponents may depend at least partly on the offseason improvement of Byron Sanders. With Sanders, Carolina could have a three-man post rotation--the setup cited by Roy Williams as being key to this year's team--featuring Noel, Sanders, and Tyler Hansbrough. Without Sanders, it will largely be Noel and Hansbrough shouldering the load inside.
"Hey, that's fine with me," Noel says. "At the time I was playing in there I was always thinking about getting out of the post, but right now it's whatever the team needs me to do."
The team won't just need him in the post. His contributions will still be essential on the wing, so he'll spend a significant amount of his summer working on ball-handling and his outside shot.
It's during the summer that he'll have to create some chemistry on a team that will feature a quartet of freshmen who must speed their college acclimation process. Noel's familiarity with Hansbrough is largely limited to newspaper clippings; his only exposure to Bobby Frasor came during last year's Tournament of Champions at the Smith Center. Until they arrive on campus, however, the task is to work with the handful of returning Tar Heels, which is why Noel will spend several weeks in Oakland working out with Quentin Thomas and a personal trainer.
"I've got to become a leader," Noel says. "We've had all those other guys to pull us out in pressure situations, and I've learned a lot from those guys. Spending three years with them has taught me so much about the game. Last year, I was able to do a lot of learning."
The learning is over. Now, he's the teacher.
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.
