University of North Carolina Athletics
Tar Heels Shuffle Starters
December 13, 2008 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 13, 2008
By Lauren Brownlow
No one can ever be quite sure who - or what kind of lineup - will be starting for the Tar Heels on a given day. Nine different players have started at least one game; of those, each has at least two starts in ten games.
Point guard Cetera DeGraffenreid failed to pick up her seventh start of the season because she was late. Jessica Breland had a stomach virus and was replaced by Laura Broomfield, who notched her second start of the season. The only odd player not to have started is Heather Claytor who started 35 of 36 games last season and zero this year. But Hatchell has enjoyed the shuffling starters, a luxury most other teams in the country don't have.
"It's good that we can," Hatchell said. "I feel very confident with the ones that started. We started off strong. They do a good job. So some of those younger ones, we started two freshmen and they just need some time and experience. These guys (Italee Lucas and Rashanda McCants) were like that at one time, too."
This is certainly a group of players that know if they do not play to Hatchell's expectations, they will soon be sitting beside her on the bench. Iman McFarland has become a mainstay in the starting lineup for the sixth straight game. McCants and Lucas have started all but the Kennesaw State game in which Hatchell used a defensive top five to make a point. The point was well-received and the two have started every game since.
McCants collided with a teammate during a fastbreak drill before the Ohio State game and broke her nose. Her mask is reminiscent of the one that Tyler Hansbrough wore when his nose was broken and she looks just as miserable wearing it. But unlike Hansbrough, she apparently has been able to get used to it enough to play well, almost better. She had 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting, added eight rebounds, three assists and two steals in 17 minutes. It was her first turnover-free game of the year when she played more than 15 minutes.
But she was quick to point out that this team is not rebounding near as well as it will need to in order to accomplish its goals. Carolina out-rebounded the Chanticleers 57-40 but allowed the Chanticleers to pull down 21 offensive rebounds. Even though the Tar Heels play again Monday, Hatchell will not hesitate to put her team through a mini-version of one of her infamous rebounding practices.
"We're not boxing out well enough. Tomorrow, we'll do a grading sheet from this game and watch some clips and we'll get ready for our Monday night game, but we will be doing some rebounding drills," Hatchell said. "That's a part of our game that's got to get better, and it can. It can get better. So that's something that we're going to be focusing on."
The last time Hatchell had a full-on rebounding practice was after Carolina squeaked out a win against Xavier. After getting out-rebounded 59-34, Hatchell promised her team it would be doing quite a bit of board work and Rashanda McCants said the team needed to be punished. Carolina bounced back by hanging on the boards with Oklahoma on the road and losing that battle by only two rebounds. The Tar Heels out-rebounded their next four opponents by 9.3 per game.
"We don't really dread anything that (the coaching staff) decides for us to do because we know that it's for our best interests, especially for our goals coming into the season. We've got to get better," McCants said.
Lauren Brownlow is the managing editor of Tar Heel Monthly.
