University of North Carolina Athletics
Jacobs: Calm Before The Storm
June 21, 2011 | Men's Basketball
June 21, 2011
by Barry Jacobs, TarHeelBlue.com
CHAPEL HILL - For all of what he called the "big-time dreams and goals" realistically on the near horizon, it's the "calmer" and "more pleasant" atmosphere as the 2011-12 basketball season approaches that Roy Williams paused to savor like a cool drink on a hot summer afternoon.
All five starters return from a 29-8 North Carolina team that fell a step short of the Final Four. No one went pro with eligibility remaining, the result in part of a brief, private, spring meeting of the minds between Tyler Zeller, John Henson and Harrison Barnes. "We basically just told each other what we thought," Zeller said. "From there, it made all of our decisions easier."
Williams, who comically described sweating out Barnes' late decision, noted he did not expect anyone to leave or be dismissed from the current squad, as happened last year. Nor must he worry about herding an inexperienced group through the travails of high expectations and the rigors of a tough nonconference schedule and the usual, bracing ACC gantlet.
In fact, with several of the best players in the country, plus a talented freshman class and the experienced depth necessary to pursue his preferred attacking style, Williams was frank in anticipating an uncommonly successful season.
"What I'm thinking now, I've had five or six teams that I thought had a chance if they get lucky, and things go well, that they have a chance to win the national championship, and that's the same kind of thing I think of this team," Williams said. Of course, he hastened to add, "You never know what's going to happen."
Still, you can get a pretty good idea.
Last season was the fifth in his first eight years at Chapel Hill that Williams took UNC at least to the Elite Eight, better than any other ACC program during that span. Two of those efforts, in 2005 and 2009, yielded national championships.
The Tar Heels finished atop the league during the 2011 regular season, were seventh in the polls, and won 17 of 20 games after a mid-January loss at Georgia Tech that left them was "a chip on our shoulder," point guard Kendall Marshall said.
Now they are clearly better - battle-tested, more comfortable and confident in their roles, stronger in their leadership and sense of purpose. There's a strong possibility Carolina will be the preseason No. 1 pick in the polls.
Asked to identify a weakness on the upcoming unit, defensive ace Dexter Strickland appeared momentarily dismayed. "Honestly, I don't even know how to answer that question," he said. "I think we're so good, and our potential is so high, it's hard for us to have a weakness."
Williams knows that may not be enough. He is quick to tick off the teams with which he was associated at UNC and Kansas he thought were superior, such as the 1984 Tar Heels, that fell short due to injury (playmaker Kenny Smith broke his wrist at midseason) or some other unanticipated twist. He noted too that none of the top seeds reached the Final Four last year.
"I think that's what the North Carolina fans should think about, is that we have a chance to be really, really good, but that doesn't mean that we're going to win at the end," Williams said. "If I'm advising the Carolina people, I would say, `Look forward to it, enjoy every day, enjoy every game, and hope some good things will happen at the end of the year and enjoy it even more.'"
Looking forward isn't entirely the focus of the returning players, however. Like many a team before them, they're still smarting from the loss that ended their previous season, in this case against Kentucky in the NCAAs.
"We could have had a chance to win it all if we won that game," said Zeller, sporting a light beard. "But it played out the way it did. Hopefully we can do a better job next year."
Zeller and Justin Watts, the team's only seniors, were along for the ride in '09 when a veteran unit won the NCAA title, and in `10 when the elevator plunged in unforeseen fashion. Both times, expectations were high.
Zeller said the lows of 2010 should lend perspective to any pressures or distractions that arise this season. "It's one of those things that we learned a lot from," he said. "Unfortunately we had to go through it, as bad as it was. But I think as long as we continue to build on what we did last year and don't ever go back to it, we'll be all right."
Marshall, a sophomore who emerged as an elite playmaker in 2011, has only heard of those tough times. For him the sting of the UK defeat, and the sense a precious opportunity got away, is a motivational touchstone.
"I really think we sold ourselves short last year," Marshall said. "We're just trying to take those feelings from last year at the end of the season and bring it to this season and be more successful."
Marshall would also like to have an irrefutable rejoinder to the ribbing and supposedly preferential calls accorded former Tar Heels such as Raymond Felton, David Noel, Jackie Manuel and Jawad Williams. The members of the 2005 NCAA championship squad came back this summer to work out and engaged in pickup action against the undergrads.
"They're always banging on us about how we don't have a national championship yet," Marshall said. "So we're fighting, we're trying to be hungry because we want to point up to the banners too."
