The evidence is there in the North Carolina press guide, in that section that introduces its players. First come the seniors. Each has two pages filled with his pictures and exploits. Next come the juniors and sophomores. Each has his story told in a page. Then, and only then, come the true freshmen, five true freshmen whose biographies are compressed onto a single page.
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More evidence is available in the tasks assigned to those freshmen, tasks that get assigned no matter the rep some hotshot might possess. It is left to them to collect loose balls at practice, and to tote the equipment bags on every road trip. They also must wait their turn during practice breaks, when they get their water only after the upperclassmen have quenched their thirsts, and on team flights it is they who must sit in the rear of the plane.
It has been this way as long as Dean Smith has coached at Carolina, through all of his 29 illustrious seasons there, and as this mound of evidence grew into a mountain, not uncertain images emerged and were hung as truths. Smith is extremely loyal to his seniors. Smith winces when the spotlight falls on a freshman. Smith prefers depending on upperclassmen. Smith is uncomfortable relying on freshmen. Smith plays his seniors even if they are not the best talents on his team. Smith is reluctant to start freshmen even if they prove deserving of that role.
That is the image that hovers over Dean Smith, but when it is presented to him, he pops up from a couch, turns, and stands facing the string of team pictures that adorns his office wall. He studies it for a moment, his eyes focusing on faces now gone, and then he begins reciting those names he remembers starting as first-year Tar Heels.
J.R. Reid. Jeff Lebo. Kenny Smith until he was hurt. Michael Jordan. James Worthy. Mike O`Koren. Walter Davis. Phil Ford. ”I think,” Dean Smith says at the end of his litany, ”that we`ve gotten a bad rap. I don`t think anyone, talking Top 10 teams here, has started more freshmen than us.”
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He still is tinkering with his lineup early in this basketball season, yet already there is no doubt new names soon will be added to Dean Smith`s litany. For his eighth-ranked Tar Heels, who visit Purdue on Saturday, are suffused with talented freshmen, are blessed with a freshman class that some call the best ever accumulated.
It is, in fact, a freshman team, a team comprised of players who last year were all ranked among the top 53 prep players in the nation. At center there is Eric Montross, the 7-footer out of Indianapolis, and to his sides are 6-foot-10-inch power forward Clifford Rozier and 6-8 small forward Pat Sullivan. Derrick Phelps, at 6-3, guides them from the point, and aside him is 6-5 Brian Reese, a sweet shooter with a 42-inch vertical leap.
They are serving their time now, still learning Smith`s system and the Carolina way, yet their mere presence has revivified a program that just a season ago unexpectedly fell on hard times. Those Tar Heels, they were an inexplicable bunch, a bunch that opened 4-4 and then slogged through a season surrounded by questions and negatives.
They fell out of the Top 20, a place where Carolina teams had resided for a millenium, and finished with 13 losses, the most for a Carolina team since 1952. Smith, their legendary leader, suddenly could no longer coach, and that average team he was guiding, why, that proved he could no longer recruit either.
”It`s not a blueprint Carolina team,” that was one whisper its players heard as they wandered across campus.
”This team`s not keeping up with Duke. Duke`s the premier ACC team now,” was another.
”I didn`t hear that,” claims Smith, and then he chuckles. ”That`s one nice thing about this office, the secretaries protect me. But going 4-4 tears your confidence down, and the players didn`t listen to me, they listened to their classmates. I`m joking a little bit. But they hear what`s wrong, they think something is wrong.”
”It was my first year being leader, and I admit I went into it assuming we`d win 25 games,” adds senior Rick Fox. ”I still remember the first couple games, running up and down the court and not concentrating. I didn`t realize I wasn`t a role player anymore, that I was one of the leaders. I didn`t come to grips with that until we were 4-4, and people were calling and asking what was wrong.
”We`re not supposed to be 4-4 early in the season. We`re supposed to lose our fourth game in February. But here we had our fourth loss (by Dec. 9), and we were still facing the ACC season.
”It was disheartening to think the season wasn`t going the way we felt it would go, and we were all uprooted a little bit. I think we lost confidence. It was like the whole season was over, and we were fighting an uphill battle I don`t think we were prepared to fight.”
Those Tar Heels eventually would find fight enough to make the tourney and there upset No. 1 Oklahoma, and then-even before this new season started- they began drawing on the hard lessons they had learned. Fox, now fully aware of his leadership role, took care to watch those frosh so newly arrived, and to be available to them when that need arose.
He thought of his own freshman year, which he had entered with a surfeit of confidence, and remembered how he had lost all confidence just a month into the season. He couldn`t grasp Smith`s system, that had been his problem, and so now he watched, watched closely to be sure these current frosh weren`t overwhelmed by the same thing.
”It`s a slow process. You have to build habits, and to get habits you need repetition,” Smith says of it. ”The young kids are trying so hard for playing time, yet they have so much to learn.”
”It`s so complicated,” says Fox, ”you can`t come in and grab it.”
Fox remembers a team meeting when Smith first discussed defensive calls, and sneaking a peek at the frosh in the middle of the lecture. ”What is he talking about?” their faces said.
”Did I look like that?” he thought.
”I`m sure I did,” he says.
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”Why can`t I get my shot off?” That is another question Fox has heard from some freshmen.
”Why doesn`t this move work? It worked in high school.” That is one more that has come his way.
”A lot of it is just encouragement. It`s not easy for them,” Fox finally says. ”Coach Smith tries to make it easy, but with such a great freshman class, people are putting pressure on them.
”We`ve had team meetings to talk about that, and make sure we`re on the right track. The freshmen have to realize that it`s not a senior show, not a freshmen show, that we`re all in this together. The seniors have to realize they don`t have to try and come back from last year. The freshmen have to realize they don`t have to do it all just because of the attention they`re getting.
”It`s going to take some time, but I think they can help us. They have to help us for us to be a great team.”