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A meaningful journey

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Staff

By Frank Heath
Sports Columnist

“North Carolina is going to win … the national championship!”
Those words – uttered approximately four times now from the lips of the inimitable Voice of the Tar Heels, Woody Durham – are the signal for millions of fans of the UNC Tar Heels that the stars are once again aligned properly and all is right in the world.

Carolina won the national championship in basketball again on Monday night, just one full cycle after its most recent title in 2005. Like the three other championship years that I have lived through (1982, 1993 and 2005), this title represents the culmination of a long and at times uneven journey for a veteran team. 
But it was an unendingly enjoyable journey nonetheless, for the fans and apparently for the players and coaches, who showed unbridled emotion at game’s end Monday and afterwards, as the significance of that moment sunk in.

You are elated for the seniors on the team, the guys with the most battle scars.
In ‘82, that was point guard Jimmy Black, who had transformed during his four years at UNC from a flashy but oft-wild freshman who only played mop-up minutes to a steady, heady floor leader who was almost a second coach on the floor by season’s end. 

But James Worthy – a junior in years who had shattered an ankle during his freshman season and who would move on to the pros in a few short months – seemed like a senior also. Michael Jordan sank the shot at the end, but Worthy ruled that game and that season as the Heels’ iron man in the post. It was also the first national championship for veteran head coach Dean Smith, and in the end the players all said that Coach Smith was the one they wanted it for the most.

In 1993, George Lynch stepped into the Worthy role; and while Lynch did not have the flash of Sir James, his leadership and iron will carried equal impact on the court when it came down to making big plays in key games that season and that NCAA tournament. That team also had a veteran point guard in junior Derek Phelps and a mercurial shooting guard, Donald Williams, whose three-point shooting garnered him the ‘93 Final Four MVP award. Williams made 5-of-7 three-point shots in both of Carolina’s Final Four games that year. Junior 7-footer Eric Montross, who had also been through many wars, was another player who really honed his focus as that season progressed. 

In 2005, Carolina had a similar dynamic, with no-nonsense point guard Raymond Felton and power forward Sean May, both juniors who would head to the pros after the season, dominating the Tar Heels’ offense.

But again, it was seniors Jawad Williams and Jackie Manuel, and sub Melvin Scott, for whom you tended to be the most happy when the nets came down. That trio had endured Carolina’s infamous 8-20 season as freshmen – a time when a national championship certainly seemed well more than three years distant. It was also a great moment for Coach Williams, who had guided several teams at Kansas to the Final Four but never quite earned a championship.

Now, four years later, the Tar Heels have struck again – surely a sign that Williams is picking up steam as a recruiting force and as a teacher and game tactician. And while fans are delighted that Carolina has added to its title collection (“Gimme Five!” read the headline on Tuesday’s N&O sports section), they are the most content because Tyler Hansbrough, who had captured nearly every individual award imaginable during his four years at UNC, was able to exit the stage with the ultimate team award tucked securely under his sturdy arm. 

Hansbrough was the reason this team was still together at all – the fact that he chose to stay at Carolina for his senior year was a statement that had to galvanize his teammates in the conviction that winning a title really was that important. Teammate Wayne Ellington, a junior for whom individual recognition had been light up until the very end of this season, won Final Four MVP honors this Monday night. Ironically, Ellington made 5-of-7 three-pointers in the semifinal game against Villanova – the exact stat that propelled Donald Williams to that award at the end of the 1993 season.

North Carolina is the National Champion, again. It has a nice ring, doesn’t it?

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