College Basketball

Run-down Tar Heels
Two shocking losses sent a signal that it could be a long season for North Carolina

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."

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 (chart, right). 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."

Surprising Ball State
Cards Shuffle Two Aces

When it comes to rules, Ball State coach Tim Buckley is a stickler. Last season Buckley, 38, suspended a player for one game because he missed a tutoring session. This season, as the Cardinals prepared to leave their Muncie, Ind., campus on Nov. 16 to fly to Hawaii for the Maui Invitational, Buckley ordered the bus to depart for the airport on schedule even though senior Brian Burns wasn't on board. (Burns made the flight after getting a pal to drive him to the airport.) Three days later, two freshmen showed up a minute late for an eight o'clock breakfast and got a tongue-lashing. "It's not just about breakfast and practices," Buckley says. "I'm trying to teach these guys life lessons. These things are part of winning."