University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Ginyard Remains Key Contributor
April 1, 2009 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
April 1, 2009
By Adam Lucas
In the aftermath of Carolina's South regional title win over Oklahoma, UCLA athletic director and NCAA men's basketball committee member Dan Guerrero presented the championship trophy to the entire team on a podium at midcourt of the FedExForum.
That was basically the last time anyone other than Marcus Ginyard touched the piece of hardware.
After climbing the ladder to snip his piece of commemorative net, his Tar Heel teammates handed Ginyard the trophy. On the court during the rest of the celebration, there was Ginyard with the trophy. In the locker room while his teammates did postgame interviews, there was Ginyard with the trophy. On the way to the bus, there was Ginyard with the trophy. Eventually, he'll relinquish it to the Carolina Basketball Museum, but on Sunday evening, it very pointedly belonged to Ginyard.
A classmate who can relate to sitting out because of an injury while his team celebrates knew it was important to include Ginyard in the celebration.
"Last year when we won the ACC championship, I remember taking a picture with the trophy," said Bobby Frasor, who sat out last year's postseason because of a knee injury. "To be in those shoes, it's not the best feeling in the world, and there's nothing anyone can do or say to make it feel better. But we want him to feel like a big part of this team, because he is a big part of this team and this class."
"It felt great," Ginyard said. "Everybody was throwing out the whole, `Is it bittersweet?' thing to me. But I couldn't figure out what was bitter about Sunday. I felt awesome. I was proud of the team and the way they played."
In fact, they played perhaps the most Ginyard-like defense of the season, with five players rotating and moving together. Back in the fall, the original plan was for the senior from Virginia to be the centerpiece of that type of defense. But a foot injury forced a redshirt and a difficult recovery process.
Frasor's rehab followed a more linear timeline--the injury was followed by surgery, long hours of rehab, and gradual improvement. Ginyard's timeline has been more inconsistent. First he was coming back in early December, then it was pushed back a couple weeks, then he tried to play in a game, then the pain was too much, then he thought he might be able to make it, then he decided on the redshirt. That shifted his role from the game court to the practice court, where he forces Wayne Ellington and Danny Green to face an All-ACC Defensive Team member every day in practice.
But even after making the decision to come back for a fifth year, the progress has still been uneven.
"He's given us a talented individual on the Blue team," said Roy Williams. "And yet he didn't practice one day last week because he just hurt. He's still not 100 percent. But he's helped us a great deal having a higher quality athlete guarding Wayne or Danny."
"Lately, I've had a lot more good days than bad days," Ginyard said. "So I'm happy about that. But the good days are also when it gets tough, because I feel good physically but I can't get out there on the court during games."
He'll be out there plenty next season, of course, when Carolina could experience some major roster turnover and will bring in a herd of talented freshmen (four of those signees will be on display tonight in the McDonald's All-America game at 8 p.m. on ESPN). Like David Noel in 2006, it'll be Ginyard's job to train the newcomers and assist Williams in holding a team together that is certain to experience more inconsistency than the steamroller of the past two years.
Right now, though, that seems a long way away.
"I have thought about next year a little bit," Ginyard said. "But there's no way I want to look past what we're doing right now."
After all, there's still the chance to take care of one more very important trophy.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
