Doherty Feels the Blues at Carolina

Jason Williams grew up a North Carolina fan.

“When I was little, yeah,” Williams said.

Just one more regret for Tar Heel fans to stomach as they watch a disastrous season continue tonight against Williams and No. 1 Duke in a game some believe the Tar Heels could lose by 40.

Already, Maryland and Connecticut have beaten Carolina by more than 30 points, and Kentucky and Wake Forest have beaten the Tar Heels by 20 or more. Carolina is 6-11 and has lost to Hampton, Davidson and College of Charleston.

Everyone’s talking about the strange things that happen in rivalry games and the famous 1995 game when a woeful Duke team took a Final Four-bound Carolina team to double-overtime in a 102-100 loss.

But you might want to keep this statistic handy: Duke’s largest margin of victory over the Tar Heels in the history of the series is 35 points, in 1964.

For North Carolina, the famous streaks of 39 winning seasons, 31 consecutive 20-win seasons and 27 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances are all but over.

That leaves two questions: How did this happen? And how long will it last?

Coach Matt Doherty, the national coach of the year last season, has made mistakes in his two years, but won’t face real heat unless North Carolina fails to improve considerably next season with the arrival of one of the nation’s top two recruiting classes. (Duke, predictably, has the other.)

Whether a group that includes three of the nation’s top 10 high school players can transform a team recently reduced to rejoicing over beating Clemson remains to be seen--especially considering this team’s two best players, Jason Capel and Kris Lang, are seniors.

“Will North Carolina immediately return to the stature they’re accustomed to?” Bob Gibbons, a national recruiting expert and editor and publisher of All Star Sports Publications, asked rhetorically. “I think not.”

Assessing responsibility for the Carolina collapse has become a local pastime.

Even Doherty succumbs.

“Sure, your mind wanders when you’re driving down the road on a recruiting trip, or on a plane,” he said. “You think of things that were done in the past that may have impacted the future. You just try to learn from things.”

The blame is hardly all Doherty’s. Somewhat surprisingly, in a decidedly unscientific poll on Goheels.com, Doherty was polling only 15% of more than 17,000 votes.

Incredibly, 4% went to Kansas Coach Roy Williams, the former assistant whose only crime was turning down the Carolina job.

Ten percent, in seeming sacrilege, voted for Dean Smith. Athletic Director Dick Baddour drew 12% for his handling of the coaching search that ended with Doherty.

And 58% of the votes went to Bill Guthridge, the longtime Smith assistant who is blamed for some of the recruiting shortcomings but took two teams to the Final Four in three seasons before retiring.

A look at some of the reasons for the collapse:

* The departure of Joseph Forte: A first-team All-American on North Carolina’s 26-7 team last season, Forte jumped to the NBA after his sophomore year. Plenty of teams survive such blows, but some wonder whether Forte would have stayed if Doherty and Forte had formed a closer bond or if Doherty had held over a member of Guthridge’s staff, such as Phil Ford.

* Ronald Curry and the football problem: How North Carolina ever got in the position of losing two basketball players who want to prepare for the NFL draft is preposterous, but it happened. Julius Peppers, a likely top-three pick, was always a football player first. But Curry was a national prep player of the year in basketball and football, and Guthridge’s staff proved wrong in believing he would be most committed to basketball. He never became a star on the hardwood, and when he decided his future is in the NFL, Doherty’s Tar Heels were caught short at point guard--finally turning to Adam Boone, at least for now.

* Jason Williams chooses Duke: In other fallout from Curry’s recruitment, Williams--a class behind Curry--decided against following him to Carolina, eliminating the Tar Heels fairly early.

“I talked to them, but just decided not to go there,” said Williams, cagey about it now.

Gibbons, the recruiting expert, recalls the scenario that unfolded under Guthridge.

“Like Dean Smith’s program always did, they were always very honest that they never wanted to over-recruit or mislead players. They said, ‘We have Ronald Curry and we expect him to be our point guard. If you come here, you’ll be primarily a two guard.’ That turned Jason off, because he envisioned himself at point guard--but whether North Carolina could have beaten out Duke, we’ll never know.”

* Jason Parker’s transcript: Parker, an extremely talented 6-foot-9 inside player, signed with North Carolina but wasn’t admitted because of academic shortcomings. Kentucky found an error on his high school record and he landed with the Wildcats. Parker started as a freshman last season, but is sidelined this season because of a knee injury.

* Failure to recruit a big man: Seven-footer Brendan Haywood became a first-round draft pick after his senior season last year, but Doherty struck out on a number of prospects and didn’t pursue Emeka Okafor, who was interested. Okafor landed at Connecticut--and helped beat the Tar Heels this month.

Front-line players Lang and Capel are seniors this season, and 7-5 reserve Neil Fingleton has transferred, leaving Doherty scrambling. The commitments for next season are from Damion Grant, a raw 7-footer from Jamaica playing at a New Hampshire prep school, and Byron Sanders, a Mississippi player whose other top choice was South Alabama.

Amid all the discussions of who should have or could have been recruited--Omar Cook and Eddie Griffin are other players some believe North Carolina could have signed--there are the players who will arrive next season.

Gibbons calls Tar Heel recruit Raymond Felton from South Carolina the top high school point guard in the nation. Forward Sean May, the son of former Indiana star Scott May, figures to be Mr. Basketball in Indiana this year. Shooting guard Rashad McCants, attending prep school in New Hampshire, also ranks among Gibbons’ top 10 players.

Knight Moves

Now that Texas Tech is in the top 25, we know you’ve all been wondering:

Who’s Bob Knight’s target this time?

In the tradition he upheld with Steve Alford, Calbert Cheaney and Alan Henderson, Knight singles out a particular player, usually talented, and stays after him.

The Dallas Morning News says it’s Andre Emmett, a freshman reserve guard last season who has blossomed this season.

Emmett’s average has gone from 7.7 points to 18.3, and he’s shooting 52.4% after shooting less than 40% last season.

Emmett scored 30 points against Southern Methodist, 32 against Oklahoma State and 26 against Oklahoma.

A few comments from Knight, culled by the Morning News:

“His effort slips on occasion, but ‘slips’ is not a word that covers the drop in his effort. Tumble is more like it. He cascades....

“Emmett scores 27 points, and I can take you through the film and show you how he gave up 27 points on defense....”

View From the Bench

The Florida-Kentucky game Tuesday wasn’t the clash of high-flying teams predicted, but a meeting of struggling Southeastern Conference rivals.

Kentucky Coach Tubby Smith benched three starters--Keith Bogans, Gerald Fitch and Jules Camara.

Florida Coach Billy Donovan kept Brett Nelson on the bench for tipoff for the second game in a row for an unspecified breach of team rules.

Bogans, sub-par for much of the season, scored 20 points, including a big three-point shot at the end.

The result: a 70-68 victory for Kentucky--and Florida’s third loss in a row.