The Creature Was Too Much For The Giant

Particularly Jordan and Braddock. Jordan missed all three of his shots in the first half and threw the ball away twice. But he had started slowly against Kentucky, too, before making all six of his second-half field-goal attempts to finish with 21 points. Following Worthy's advice to keep shooting, Jordan made five of seven after the intermission Saturday and finished with 16 points, one fewer than Worthy.

Braddock, a junior, played superbly after Black fouled out with 7:23 to go. Braddock hit both ends of a one-and-one to give the Tar Heels that 61-58 lead with 33 seconds left, and then made the clinching free throws. His teammates weren't surprised by his accuracy at the line. Braddock once made 257 consecutive foul shots in practice and has had the same free-throw ritual—every North Carolina player must establish his own ritual and never deviate from it—since the fourth grade: five bounces, look at the front rim, take a deep breath, shoot.

Good things always seems to happen to loyal Tar Heel foot soldiers like Braddock, a heavily recruited youngster out of Chattanooga who has been overshadowed by Black. Braddock considered transferring after his freshman year but stayed after long deliberation. "I realized I'd have to wait my turn like everybody else," he says. "With Coach Smith you're not going to walk in and start as a freshman—unless you're somebody like Michael Jordan, of course."

Of course. Jordan is that rare player who's able to fit into Smith's system and still come on with his playground moves when they're most effective. "The best thing about Michael is that he pays attention," says Smith. "You tell him something and he does it. He's a freshman with a lot of pressure on him, yet I'd say he's taken no more than two bad shots the entire year. Defensively, of the five starters he's fifth, but that's mainly because the four others are so good."

A native of Wilmington, N.C., Jordan is widely thought of as one of those homegrown talents linked umbilically to the UNC campus. Not so. "I grew up hating North Carolina because I rooted for David Thompson and [North Carolina] State," he says. "I didn't like this place until I came here for basketball camp my junior year in high school." Despite his antipathy toward UNC, one of Jordan's heroes is former Tar Heel Walter Davis, with whom he is often, and accurately, compared, though Jordan will probably develop into a better rebounder—he's pulling down 5.3 a game—and defensive player.

Sophomore Matt Doherty is never compared with Davis or other North Carolina swingmen of the past because he lacks their scoring ability. But Doherty is as valuable to the team as anyone. He's an intelligent player who's second to Perkins in field-goal percentage, second to Black in assists, first in free-throw percentage and fourth in scoring. The 6'8" Doherty is destined to be known as the classic overachiever, who, in his own words, "is just here to keep everybody else happy."

The Heels' Worthy-Perkins creature emerged last season and was most prominent when it played 80 minutes in the NCAA semifinal game against Virginia, sandwiching Sampson into an 11-point, nine-rebound nightmare. The result was a 78-65 North Carolina victory that sent the Tar Heels to the title game, which they lost 63-50 to Indiana. Last Thursday, Virginia's assistant coach, Craig Littlepage, made constant and almost unconscious references to "Worthy and Perkins, Perkins and Worthy" as he went over his scouting report sheets.

Indeed, Worthy and Sam Perkins have become such an impressive tandem inside that it's almost impossible to think of one without the other. The most effective shot in college basketball, besides a Sampson slam, may well be Worthy's short turnaround jumper. Virginia, for the most part, took the shot away from him, but he made a turnaround over Miller with 3:47 left that gave North Carolina its first lead since the eight-minute mark of the first half. If Sampson stumbles later in the season, Worthy, a 6'9" junior, could be Player of the Year.

Perkins, a sophomore who also goes six-nine, is a 61.4% shooter with good range on his jump shot, adroit timing as a shot blocker and the composure of a senior. Example: He drew his third foul with 3:32 to go in the first half but didn't commit his fourth until just 4:01 remained in the game. Worthy did move over to cover Sampson much of the second half, but the second of Perkins' two blocks, which gave him 28 for the season, was a rejection of a Sampson shot. "I guess I'd say I'm a smaller version of what he is," says Perkins.

At the moment, though, no one comes close to dominating a game the way Sampson does. He banged in consecutive 18-foot jumpers when Virginia was sluggish early in the game. He had Worthy staring at his sneaker treads when he stuffed an alley-oop pass from Jones early in the second half. He may be the only human being in America capable of 1) faking a 10-foot fadeaway jumper and then dunking without traveling as he did when he gave the Cavs their last lead at 58-57 with 2:08 to play, and 2) blocking a Perkins shot while standing flat-footed, as he did in the first half. All that and he sews many of his own shirts because he has trouble buying them off the rack.