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Inside College Basketball
Posted: Tuesday November 27, 2001 12:56 PM
Run-down Tar
Heels
Two shocking losses sent a signal that it could be a long season for North
Carolina By
Seth Davis 
North Carolina coach Matt Doherty was about to drive home long after his team's
58-54 loss to Davidson on Nov. 20 when someone told him that Kris Lang, the
Tar Heels' 6'11" senior center, was shooting baskets by himself inside the
Dean Dome. Doherty climbed out of his car, found Lang and spent 90 minutes
casually rebounding for him in the empty arena. "We talked about the game,
we talked about the team, we talked about life," Doherty says. "It was
a neat moment to share with your
player."
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Barry Hairston rises for a layup in Hampton's opening-game win over North Carolina. Jeffrey A. Camarati/ AP |
These are lonely, soul-searching days at North Carolina, whose proud program is
bracing for what could be its worst season in four decades. After being
humiliated by 31 points in an exhibition game against the vagabond EA Sports
All-Stars on Nov. 4, the Tar Heels opened the season with home losses to
two cupcakes, Hampton and Davidson, the first time in the 92-year history of the
team that Carolina had lost its first two home games. It takes plenty of
missteps and misfortune for such a giant to stumble this far, but here are a few
of the reasons that the Heels are so
run-down:
Suspect recruiting by Doherty's predecessor, Bill Guthridge. New York City star
point guard Omar Cook wanted to come to Chapel Hill, but when Cook dithered over
signing his letter of intent in the fall of 1999, Guthridge lost patience and
gave the scholarship to 6'2" Adam Boone. Cook ended up turning pro after
one season at St. John's, but the Tar Heels might have been better off
having his scholarship free than they are with Boone, who through Sunday had
averaged 1.5 assists and had gone to the free throw line only 12 times in 34
games. Guthridge was more dogged in his pursuit of Neil Fingleton, a 7'5"
redshirt freshman Brit who played a total of four minutes in the season-opening
losses. The five players on the roster whom Guthridge had brought in had scored
29 points in those two
games.
The Jason Parker fiasco. An administrative snafu prompted the school to declare
Parker, a 6'8" forward from Charlotte, academically ineligible in August
2000. Two weeks later Parker was cleared to play for Kentucky, for which last
season he was the third-leading scorer and the second-leading rebounder. (He's
sitting out this season with a knee
injury.)
The defection of Joseph Forte. Losing underclassmen to the NBA is a fact of
life for elite programs, but several collegians, including Stanford's Casey
Jacobsen, Missouri's Kareem Rush, Illinois's Frank Williams and Duke's Jason
Williams, had at least as much interest from the pros after their sophomore
years as Forte did but still returned to their schools. Forte, a 6'4"
guard, was drafted 21st by the Celtics and is languishing at the end of Boston's
bench.
The fact is, North Carolina wasn't a very good team last year -- even with
Forte and 7-footer Brendan Haywood -- until it was bailed out by football
players Julius Peppers and Ronald Curry. The Tar Heels don't figure to get that
kind of boost this season because Peppers, a top-rated defensive end, most
likely will spend the spring preparing for the NFL draft, and Curry, North
Carolina's quarterback, will be tied up until at least late December because
Carolina is expected to go to a bowl
game.
To be sure, Doherty's job isn't in jeopardy, especially because he just signed
his second straight topflight recruiting class. He
concedes, however, that he will have to tone down his confrontational style
toward his players. "Do you rip your son if he studies as hard as he can
but still gets a C?" Doherty says. "Nobody's pointing fingers. We're
going through a tough time right now, but we'll get through it
together."
Issue date: December 3, 2001
For more Inside College Basketball see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, November 28. Click here to subscribe to SI.
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