10. North Carolina
For the Tar Heels to reach a 25th straight NCAA tournament they'll have to turn to a less traditional source: freshmen
Posted: Wednesday November 18, 1998 01:43 PM
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Cota will have to assume more of the Tar Heels' scoring responsibility. John Biever |
On the
corner of Tar Heels coach Bill Guthridge's desk sits a clay
jar upon which is painted the word
EXCUSES. For the last two decades, whenever a player came to see
Guthridge armed with some alibi about why he'd been late
for practice or missed a class, Guthridge would offer him a
chance to write up his story and tuck it inside the jar.
Shame prevented
anybody from doing so, and the
EXCUSES jar remains empty to this day. "With our team's lack
of experience, I might be tempted to fill up the jar this
season," says the 61-year-old Guthridge, warming to
the irony. "I hope our fans are patient, but I don't
expect them to be. Win and they're
behind you, so I don't believe I'll be as good a coach as I
was last
year."
After tying a school record with 34 victories and reaching
the Final Four in his first season as head coach, Guthridge
has seen 73% of the Heels' scoring vanish, thanks to
graduations and the early exits of Antawn Jamison and Vince
Carter to the NBA.
Only two starters return, and nobody who's back scored more
than 8.1 points a game in '97-98. The Tar Heels do have
junior point guard Ed Cota, who led the ACC in assists for
the second straight year, but he attempted fewer than six
shots a game and
describes his shooting as "a lost art." While senior
forward Ademola Okulaja, who shot just 41.4% from the field
a year ago, will have to assume more offensive
responsibility, the team will rely heavily on its freshman
class, contrary to what was once Carolina
tradition. Small forward Jason Capel could become the first
freshman to lead the Tar Heels in scoring, and Capel's
summer AAU teammate Ronald Curry should see ample playing
time in early December, after he finishes quarterbacking
the football team. With
a squad that is shorter on seasoning but deeper than a year
ago, Guthridge plans to simplify the offense and spring
Carolina's traditional trapping pressure defense, which has
been notably absent in Chapel Hill over the last two
seasons.
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| STARTING LINEUP |
| POS. | HT. | CLASS | KEY STAT |
| SF Jason Capel | 6'8" | Fr. | 20.1 ppg** |
| PF Ademola Okulaja* | 6'9" | Sr. | 5.6 rpg |
| C Brendan Haywood | 7'0" | So. | 2.9 ppg |
| SG Ronald Curry | 6'2" | Fr. | 21.9 ppg** |
| PG Ed Cota* | 6'1" | Jr. | 7.4 apg |
'97-98 record: 34-4
Final rank (coaches' poll): No. 3
Returning starter
**ppg as high school senior
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None of the current Tar Heels
were even alive in 1974, the last time the school failed to
reach the NCAA tournament, and Carolina hasn't finished out
of the top three in the ACC standings since '64. On the
first day of October practice Guthridge urged his young
troops not to worry about
extending these sacred streaks. He could also have reminded
them of a similar scenario three autumns ago, when Jerry
Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace left early for the NBA. That
team turned to unproven freshmen like Carter, Jamison and
Okulaja, who grew
up
quickly and kept the runs alive. The following year the Tar
Heels
started 0-3 in the ACC before rallying to win 16 straight
games and reach the Final Four. "Nobody wants to be on
the team that breaks the streaks," Cota admitted
recently while
glancing at the banners in the Smith Center rafters. "But
we've
proven that when we're doubted, we can be even more dangerous as
underdogs."
—Tim Crothers
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