Fear not, heels fans, it can get no worse

Sporting News, The, Dec 17, 2001 by Mike DeCourcy

The price center Kris Lang is willing to pay to preserve North Carolina's stature was evident as he lay in the visitor's locker room at Rupp Arena, his paler-than-normal face propped on a folding chair with only his warmup top as a pillow. Sick as he was, he had played 27 minutes and led the Tar Heels with 18 points. All that he sacrificed still could not prevent a 20-point loss to Kentucky.

Tar Heels freshman Melvin Scott says Lang "was throwing up at halftime, but he came back out in the second half and still gave us everything he had."

The players and coaches talked afterward about their pride in refusing to surrender. They recited slogans about working hard and sticking together as they faced the future.

Sophomore guard Brian Morrison was asked how it felt, with a 1-4 record, to be scrambling to save the season. "I don't feel like that at all" he said.

"We've played five games. We've got like 25 more, you know?"

For three decades, it seemed as though North Carolina's name and colors were the only requirements to compete for ACC titles and Final Four berths. When Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace bolted after starring as sophomores in 1995, Antawn Jamison arrived the next season as one of the nation's best freshmen. When the Heels lacked a dynamic scorer on a big, sluggish team in 1999-2000, rookie Joseph Forte showed up at the Maui Invitational and performed like the finest player on the island.

Bill Guthridge, who spent three years as successor to coaching legend Dean Smith, recruited as though he expected magic from the uniform. Forte is the only athlete signed solely by Guthridge to become a serviceable ACC player. Recruiting opportunities with such players as Eddie Griffin, Andre Barrett, Omar Cook and Jason Parker were declined, mishandled or mismanaged.

What matters now, though, is how North Carolina recovers. The recent experience of Notre Dame football proves even the most privileged and prestigious program can experience a prolonged retreat. This is what's at issue for the Tar Heels.

The three true freshmen, who all ranked among the top 35 prospects in their class, have not rescued a team that is starving for first-rate talent. Scott, a converted shooting guard, has done an adequate job filling a huge vacancy at the point. Jackie Manuel has been off-balance and inaccurate as the shooting guard. Forward Jawad Williams has been unable to win a starting job.

Entering Sunday's game with Binghamton, the offense is averaging 18.2 turnovers a game. The toothless defense is forcing 14 from opponents. The Heels started the week last in the ACC in rebounding margin (plus-1.3 rpg) and field-goal percentage (39 percent).

Senior power forward Jason Capel is averaging a double-double and playing nearly 35 minutes a game, but he's shooting 32 percent from the field and 13 percent from 3-point range. Morrison commits a turnover for every five minutes he's on the court. Manuel missed 22 of his first 30 shots and is below 44 percent in all three shooting categories. Williams has demonstrated an aversion to contact that might work better in, say, figure skating, so long as it isn't pairs competition. After grabbing seven rebounds in the Heels' opener, he had only five more in the four games since.

"We do have some talent, and we'll continue to stick together," coach Matt Doherty says. "We'll continue to get better.

"They're not trying to make mistakes. I think you have to be positive with them, encourage them, and live with some of the mistakes, live through the growing pains."

There are no easy solutions for a team expected to meet extraordinary standards with ordinary talent. But there are ways North Carolina can improve:

Lean heavily on Lang. Although he's the one genuine Heels threat shooting better than 40 percent, he has only two more shot attempts than Capel. That's not enough. He is one of the college game's best big men. Defenses recognize Lang is the team's one legitimate option and focus considerable attention his way, but the Heels should work harder to get him the ball. When he catches it and draws double-teams, they must play off him by cutting or relocating to open areas.

Play more patiently. Manuel's abysmal shooting is largely the result of firing in too big a hurry and from too great a distance. "I think I might be probably rushing it a little bit, instead of taking my time," he says. Though Morrison claims not to have panicked, he functions as if he's trying to erase an entire deficit--and the imbalance in the Heels' win-loss record in one possession.

Play more assertively. Williams and Manuel, whose boundless athleticism figured to transform the Heels' personality, nearly have been paralyzed by their lack of confident aggression. They aren't strong enough to bang with high-major players--clearly, neither prepared hard enough for Division I's physical demands--and their speed isn't a benefit if they're standing still. That is obvious in Williams' rebounding. "Sometimes," he says, "I do have a tendency to just box out my man and hold him instead of chasing the ball down."