University of North Carolina Athletics
Bahamas Notebook (Saturday Edition)
September 3, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Sept. 3, 2005
By Adam Lucas
The atmosphere at Saturday's exhibition game was unlike any in recent memory for a Carolina basketball game. The fun began about 10 minutes before tipoff when one of the goals collapsed following a dunk by a Shockers player. The unit was immediately repaired without incident, and it gave game officials a chance to reset a basket that had been measured at 9 feet, 11 inches (Carolina players had eyed it suspiciously during warm-ups, thinking it was under the regulation 10 feet) just moments before it collapsed...At one point in the second half, Reyshawn Terry had three straight dunks...The Shockers tried to play some zone in the second half but were largely gassed after halftime...The benefits of an 11 a.m. tipoff: the Carolina traveling party had some unscheduled time Saturday afternoon. "Honestly, this trip is more important off the court than it is on the court," Quentin Thomas said. "This gives us a full weekend to get to know each other and build some chemistry."
The start of the second half was delayed for several minutes while officials, scorer's table personnel, and the Shocker coach discussed the foul situation. One Shockers player played the entire first half wearing shorts with a number-14 on them and a jersey with no number. He picked up three fouls in the first 20 minutes. The Shockers then tried to insert a (much shorter) player wearing a number-14 jersey at the outset of the second half, claiming he was the one with three fouls. The situation was ultimately resolved. At its conclusion, Roy Williams looked wryly at the scorer's table and said, "So, do any of them have three fouls now?"...
The Shockers were coached by the Bahamian version of Lefty Driesell, a large man who wore an untucked Shockers jersey with royal blue windpants on the bench. How laid back is the Bahamas atmosphere? At one point in the second half his cell phone, which was clipped to his belt, started ringing, and he took the call and held a brief conversation...Carolina played only its base man-to-man defense. The four practices held in Chapel Hill before departing for the islands didn't provide an opportunity to install anything more complex. "It's been all fundamentals," David Noel said. "We just wanted the freshmen to be able to go through a practice, even though Coach told them it was only about one-tenth of the practices we'll have in October. They just had to go through a few things and get a little bit about the secondary break so they know how we run it."...
Michael Copeland, the Winston-Salem Reynolds product, was just cleared Thursday, meaning he'd been through only two practices. Although Copeland isn't yet as well-conditioned as he'll need to be, his energy was impressive and he finished with five rebounds, six points, a block and three turnovers in 18 minutes. "He messed up a couple of times but by the time we start in October he'll be on track with everyone else," Noel said...Damion Grant played 14 minutes, going 0-for-5 from the field and 3-for-6 from the free throw line to finish with 3 points and 7 rebounds...
One of the game officials was named Freddie Brown. Exhaustive research proved that it was not the Fred Brown of 1982 Georgetown fame...A clear sign these were international officials and not NCAA officials: five 3-second violations and one palming call were made...Quentin Thomas was pleased with his 8 assist, two turnover performance. "I felt a lot more comfortable out there," he said. "I feel I have to be a coach on the floor and we have a lot of good people to push me."...Carolina outrebounded the Shockers 63-35, including 11 boards from Noel and 10 from Danny Green...Green was limited in the second half after taking an accidental knee in the thigh...When the Shockers arrived at the gym, Carolina was running through a couple offensive sets. An observer asked Joe Holladay if the Heels were used to running their offense in front of the opposition. "Not since last year at the Final Four," he said. Carolina was the only team to run through offensive and defensive sets at last year's open practices in St. Louis. Holladay said those sets weren't that secret--"We had one real good one," he said. "Throw it to May."...At minimum, partial postgame coverage of Sunday's game will be posted at the game's conclusion. Other coverage may have to wait until the return to Chapel Hill Sunday night.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He 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.
