
{"id":22697,"date":"2012-01-05T08:49:08","date_gmt":"2012-01-05T13:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=22697"},"modified":"2012-01-05T08:49:08","modified_gmt":"2012-01-05T13:49:08","slug":"rice-phelps-reese-return-with-own-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/01\/05\/rice-phelps-reese-return-with-own-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Rice, Phelps, Reese return with own team"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_20318\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20318\" style=\"width: 100px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"landreth-mug\" width=\"100\" height=\"134\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1-84x113.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1-74x100.jpg 74w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20318\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eddy Landreth<\/figcaption><\/figure><strong>By Eddy Landreth<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 102-65 victory against Monmouth on Sunday felt more like a family reunion than just another holiday blowout. All five of the Tar Heels\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 NCAA championship teams had representatives in the house.<\/p>\n<p>The coaches on the bench for Monmouth represented two Final Fours and a national title. King Rice is the head coach for the Hawks, his first college head-coaching job. He spent the last few years as an assistant at Vanderbilt.<\/p>\n<p>Rice\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s assistants, Derrick Phelps and Brian Reese, played with Rice at the 1991 Final Four when they were freshmen, but they were part of the starting lineup at the 1993 Final Four, in which Carolina defeated coach Roy Williams and his Kansas Jayhawks in the semifinals. UNC went on to beat Michigan and the Fab Five in the title game for the national championship.<\/p>\n<p>Rice showed he had a far greater understanding of Carolina history than just the years he spent there and what has happened since.<\/p>\n<p>He had 5-foot-8 Jesse Steele jump center at the opening tap against Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s John Henson, who has a reach of 7-4. That was a nod to the 1957 team, when UNC coach Frank McGuire had 5-foot-10 Tommy Kearns jump ball against 7-1 Wilt Chamberlain of Kansas.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I asked the guys in the locker room, and they said no,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rice said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Then when we went out there and I saw Lennie Rosenbluth, I said \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing it.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 It just didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work the way it worked in \u00e2\u20ac\u212257.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Rosenbluth was the leading scorer and the star of the 1957 Carolina team that went 32-0 and won the school\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and the ACC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first NCAA title.<\/p>\n<p>That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where the similarities ended, however. Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s athletes were far superior to what Rice has at the moment.<\/p>\n<p>Henson continued to play the best all-around basketball of his career. He ran the court, blocked shots and sank the baseline jumper that has become such a weapon for him. Henson led the Tar Heels with 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting. He also had eight rebounds and three blocks.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That is amazing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rice said of Henson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s jump shot. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153John Henson just keeps getting better. But every time I see him \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only once or twice a year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he always comes over and says hello. He always has a big smile. He makes you feel special, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the main dude. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the star.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s improved dramatically on the floor. He makes jumpers now. His free throw has smoothed out. It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t look crazy anymore. He is one of the best shot-blockers ever. I know [Sam Perkins] blocked a whole bunch, and we had guys here who blocked them. But this kid is amazing at it. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m happy he is a Carolina guy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Rice said it was a totally different experience returning as an opponent. But the crowd treated him as one of the Carolina family, which, of course, he is.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The ovation at the beginning was unbelievable,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rice said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect that. It was very nice of the fans. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a true Carolina guy. What better feeling could you get when the fans give you a standing ovation?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Now UNC will move into the next phase of the season, when Boston College visits the Smith Center on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. for the first conference game.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a long stretch here of these nonconference games,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Williams said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Now we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting ready to start our conference regular season, and our play is going to have to go up a level.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Eddy Landreth<\/strong><br \/>\nCarolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 102-65 victory against Monmouth on Sunday felt more like a family reunion than just another holiday blowout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":20318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[431],"class_list":["post-22697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22697"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22700,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22697\/revisions\/22700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}