Carolina blues

Just what the heck has happened at UNC?

It's time to ponder the same questions Tar Heel faithful want to ask the roundball gods: How could a proud hoops power fall so badly, so swiftly? If head coach Matt Doherty isn't to blame, then is he the right guy to lead the revival?

Most of the reaction to North Carolina's dramatic fall from grace has focused on the dearth of talent -- from the early NBA departure of all-everything Joseph Forte to a couple recruiting classes that arguably sunk below Carolina standards. And rightly so. But no one saw the bottom dropping out of the program with a 8-19 regular season, and that's what brings the focus back to Doherty.

This is like Notre Dame football getting slapped silly on Saturdays. Or the New York Yankees finishing near the cellar. No, this is worse -- and more out of character.

How bad is it? Well, you won't find Carolina in your office NCAA brackets for the first time in 27 years. We're talking the worst team in school history. You ask a UNC sports publicist how it compares with other bad seasons and he says bluntly: "No, there are none like this.''

Privately, some in the basketball fraternity question whether Doherty's brash, confrontational act hasn't come back to bite him. It's OK to chew on players and be tough, but the young coach is still learning when to back off.

The laid-back, professorial days of Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge are history. Here comes Doherty, a year of head-coaching experience under his belt at Notre Dame, kicking trash cans in practice, breaking chairs at halftime, stomping his feet and, occasionally pumping his fist during games.

When Doherty was an assistant at Kansas, then LSU coach Dale Brown already thought he was too competitive for his own good, accusing Doherty of sneaking behind his back to recruit the enigmatic Lester Earl from his program.

"What's happening at Carolina is serious because no one wants to believe it is happening,'' said a college basketball insider. "Doherty has scared off the players, acting like a maniac with all his ranting.''

As with most underachieving teams, chemistry is also said to be awful, even with four-year starters Kris Lang and Jason Capel still around. Depending on whom you listen to, things began unraveling when Doherty got ugly with Forte late last season.

One version has the coach spewing a load of profanity on his star player -- not once, but on multiple occasions. Another has Doherty firing a basketball at him during a practice.

"Nah, he didn't hit me with a basketball,'' said Forte, a first-round pick of the Boston Celtics. "He was just very, very intense. Looking back on it, it was good because no coach in the NBA could ever be more intimidating or tougher than a 6-7 coach who screams.''

Clearly, Doherty isn't afraid to be his own man.

When he took the job in July 2000, he brought with him to Chapel Hill three new assistants without North Carolina ties. Gone were Phil Ford, Dave Hanners and Pat Sullivan -- all former Tar Heels, all appointed by Smith.

Those close to the program trace the current turmoil to Roy Williams, another UNC alum and Doherty's old boss at Kansas. They say it was set up for Williams to succeed Guthridge, the stopgap coach after Smith's retirement before the 1997 season. Williams apparently had assured Smith he wanted the job, only to later turn on his mentor and the UNC family by staying at Kansas.

After several other well-known candidates dropped out of the running two years ago, Carolina found another of its own in Doherty, who guided Notre Dame to a 22-15 record in his first season as a head coach.

All the shuffling of coaches -- three in four years -- didn't help recruiting. Guthridge guided UNC to two Final Fours in three years, but recruiting analysts say some top players shied away because of his age and the fact he was seen as a temporary replacement.

Others argue the lack of players is over-stated. Every school in the country wanted Lang and Capel. Jawad Williams from Cleveland was first-team McDonald's All-American. Jackie Manuel was a top player in Florida and Adam Boone in Minnesota. Melvin Scott was a USA Today Super 25 selection. Brian Morrison was a top 50 player.

No matter, Doherty had Carolina ranked No. 1 in the country midway through last season before closing poorly and then getting upset by Penn State in the second round of the NCAA tourney. Forte and his almost 21 points a game were gone when this season started. So, too, were seniors Brendan Haywood and Max Owens, plus football players Ronald Curry and Julius Peppers.

All told, 62 percent of Carolina's offense from last season was lost.

"These guys had an assembly line of big-timers for 30-35 years, and all of a sudden there's a break in the pipeline,'' said an NBA general manager. "If you made a prediction a few years ago that they'd drop like this, nobody would have taken you seriously.''

Nobody saw it coming.

Before the season, Duke and Maryland were cast as being head-and-shoulders above the rest of the ACC, but Carolina was thought to be an upper division club. Sports Illustrated had the Tar Heels ranked 30th in the preseason, a solid NCAA tourney team.

So what went wrong? How to explain the double-digit losses?

"I think this season is a blip on the radar screen,'' said Ford, analyst on the radio broadcast and an athletic department vice president. "Everybody understands that we were young and inexperienced this year. Matt is a young coach with a young staff. Everybody knows it is going to take time to get through the transition, and hopefully this year makes us a better basketball team next season.''

Next year, Doherty welcomes one of the top recruiting classes in the country, but Carolina Nation won't be patient unless the basketball program shows signs of reclaiming its lofty perch. There's already talk of possible replacements, with the leading candidate again being from within the family -- Jeff Lebo, who is learning his craft on the bench at Tennessee Tech.

 

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