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Don't be fooled by Carolina's sparkle

By GARY SHELTON
Published March 28, 2005

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The sky is Carolina blue again. What a shame the weather will not hold.

The comeback journey is nearly complete. What a shame the Tar Heels are at their stop.

They look so nice dancing around the floor, these basketball players from North Carolina. Three years ago, the palace was in flames, and here they are, regal once more. Once again, Tar Heel players are climbing ladders and cutting down nets, an activity that once seemed a birthright.

It ends here. All the feel-good nature of the story, all the sweet talk of a program reclaiming past glory, has run out of time. This year, do not talk of a Final Four. Talk of a Terrific Three plus the Tar Heels.

Yes, they are talented enough.

No, they are not team enough.

Oh, there are flashes when they can fool you, spurts when they seem to defy gravity. They are a team of highlight moments during such runs, and all you can see is Sean May's power and Raymond Felton's speed and Rashad McCants' smoothness, you can fall in love with the Tar Heels. At such moments, it is not hard to picture them winning a national championship.

Then there are the moments when you can see that Roy Williams' reconstruction job is not yet completed, moments when they seem to lack the intensity, the ferocity, you see out of programs such as that of Illinois or, for that matter, Wisconsin.

Both versions of the Tar Heels were on display Sunday afternoon when North Carolina held off an outmanned Wisconsin team 88-82. North Carolina was so dazzling offensively it resembled an NBA team; unfortunately, it was so detached on defense, it did the same. The Tar Heels were so nonchalant, they left Wisconsin - Wisconsin - looking like Phi Slamma Jamma.

Such is the problem with royalty. Sometimes, the princes just don't want to get their fingers dirty.

Let's be honest. For all of the celebration, the weekend was a struggle for Carolina despite the fact it didn't have to face the second, third or fourth seeds in its bracket. Carolina held off Villanova largely thanks to a dubious traveling call, and it beat Wisconsin despite huge stretches when the Tar Heels seemed to be staring out of a window. What does ACC stand for these days? Ah, Cruise Control?

The Tar Heels did not play particularly smart. It was obvious early the Badgers had no answer for May, who hit his first five shots on his way to a 29-point performance. At that point, Carolina should have dared Wisconsin to stop May. It should have pounded the ball in, again and again, until the Badgers defense collapsed on him like a rugby scrum.

They didn't. Instead, Carolina's players kept shooting from the 3-point arc, and they did so with as much haste as humanly possible. The Tar Heels hit only 2 of 10 3-pointers in the second half.

The Tar Heels did not look particularly deep. For the second straight game, things turned hairy whenever Felton was not running the attack. On Friday night, Villanova pulled back into the game after Felton fouled out. This time, it was after Williams subbed for Felton late in the first half, when the Badgers began a 16-0 run.

Most of all, however, Carolina did not look remotely interested in stopping anyone. The Heels hit 10 of their first 11 shots, and it was as if they turned into coastal Carolina. It had been 23 games since Wisconsin had broken the 80-point barrier, which it had done only twice all season. The Heels approach basketball as if it were track, and when is the last time you saw Carl Lewis play defense?

"I think we had three defensive stops in a row at the end," Williams said. "That might have been the only time in the game we ever stopped them."

Again, it would have been nice to have been convinced that these Tar Heels would be the team to finally get Williams his elusive championship. We are all suckers for a story this sweet. Williams came back to his alma mater before last season to hose off Matt Doherty's mess, and it would be great to see him raise the championship trophy.

For one thing, that would do away with this silly suggestion that Williams has fallen short so many times because he is somehow lacking something, that he has what is currently being referred to as Tony Dungy's Disease. (It's malarkey in Dungy's case, too). This is Williams' fifth Final Four. He didn't arrive at any through a shortcut.

That said, the Heels are not yet healed. They still recruit out of McDonald's - "Burger players," Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan calls them - and the players still have the air of someone stopping by on their way to the NBA. But Carolina's comeback is not yet complete. There are so many little parts of the game that seem to interest them so little.

Look, brand names are good for sports, and college basketball needs North Carolina the way it needs Kentucky and Duke and UCLA, the way college football needs Notre Dame and Oklahoma and Miami. After all, this is the program that gave us Michael Jordan and Phil Ford and James Worthy and the rest.

Once again, college basketball fans have Carolina on their mind. What a shame we will not see the Heels in the winner's circle.

[Last modified March 28, 2005, 01:36:12]