University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Going With the Flow
February 21, 2006 | Baseball
Feb. 21, 2006
This year's expanded Carolina baseball game day program includes more information than ever. There's a new program for each weekend and weekday series, and each edition includes a new column on the Diamond Heels plus up-to-date stats for both teams. The following story ran in the Seton Hall series program--check out the latest edition today at the Bosh against Coastal Carolina for a new column.
By Adam Lucas
When preseason practice began a month ago for Mike Fox's 2006 Tar Heels, every player found a picture of Rosenblatt Stadium--annual site of the College World Series--in his locker.
With the season opener today against Seton Hall, those pictures are gone.
"We wanted them to have that to motivate them in the preseason, but as the season begins we want them to focus on the process," Fox said. "We want them to know you can't get to Omaha in February, March, or April. Let's just make this a process and try to improve and get better each day."
Yes, these are the new-age, relaxed Diamond Heels. Players and coaches alike say a new attitude began during the fall, when the team took one day a week off from practice and spent a couple hours doing team-building rather than monotonous offseason baseball drills. It could be as structured as a team ropes course or as relaxed as a team costume contest on Halloween.
Dressing up as Ali G isn't going to earn a College World Series slot, of course. But the hope is that a more relaxed clubhouse translates to the field, where the Tar Heels occasionally looked tight both on defense and at the plate in 2005. Carolina ended last season by losing 5 of 6 games--four of the five were by 3 runs or less.
"Coach Fox seems like he's having a lot more fun this year," said sophomore shortstop Josh Horton, who is a world renowned expert on fun (he recently stole the microphone as the team prepared some of this year's video board spots and did a credible impression of play-by-play man Jones Angell). "Because of that, everybody else is having a lot more fun, and practice has been a lot more productive."
Omaha is still four months away. But the production--and, as Fox is fond of saying, the process--begins Friday afternoon for a team ranked in the top-10 of every national poll.
"You have to be equipped to handle the ebb and flow of a season," Fox said. "This year, I think we are."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and provides color analysis on Tar Heel baseball radio broadcasts. He can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is also 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.
