Hit up TarheelDaily....Check it out this article about three things that I would like to see instituted back into the UNC Basketball program. I appear weekly as a guest columnist along with my appearances on WXYC FM 89.3 Chapel Hill for Sunday Night SportsRap, Sundays 9-10PM, and for SoulGrooves on Wednesdays 6-8AM. Scroll on down to the article, and email me if you want to discuss my opinions.....BD

Three Ways to Bring that Beat Back

The start of the new era for Carolina basketball on Friday is concurrent with the talk of this week's NABC Coaches Summit in Chicago on Wednesday. The 'emergency' meeting was mandatory for all head coaches to attend to address the problems this past summer. The fact is that the problems aren't new, and one meeting is not going to change the world. I don't think a lot went down, but I have to admit that it was a good PR move for the NABC and the NCAA.

The reason why I find the meeting interesting is that two of the most senior members on the board, Coach Smith and Coach Williams are located on the UNC campus. Until three years ago, North Carolina had a unique system that was consistently the prototype model for how to run a program. The philosophy of the "Carolina Way" will be seen in some ways with the new administration, but there are three things that I that I would like to see from the old system that was the "Carolina Way". They may be perceived as minor, but these three institutions have faded away like old Samurai Codes over the last three years. I would love to see these values come back into play to show other programs that this is "how to do it".....

Point to the man who passed it to you- Yeah that's right....and I don't want to hear that a changed generation of players is too selfish to do this, or there are other things to worry about. It was alive until four years ago, and somehow it seemed to slip through the cracks. One of the smoothest things in college basketball was Coach Smith's philosophy of pointing to the man who passed it to you. If you think I'm off on this one, the next time that you catch a game on 'Classic' check it out. It doesn't matter if it's Vince, Coach Lebo, Kenny 'The Jet', Serge, or 'Big Game' James, each Carolina player that makes a basket is pointing to the man who gave him the dish. Very cool....so cool and so contagious to the Carolina basketball world that even the UNC Foreign Exchange students from distant continents would do it on the far court at Woolen Gym....so cool that it was instituted and enforced for the campers at Carolina Basketball School....Incredible institution for team cohesiveness and team play....Bring it back....

Participation in USA Basketball- Why we haven't been utilizing our invitations to play just blows me away, but USA Basketball is a tool to develop players' skills and more importantly players' lives over the summer. Unfortunately, it's been a long time since we've put someone through the World University Games, Junior World Championships, or FIBA's Young Men's Championship, and now it's time.....UNC basketball used to provide a major influx of talent to the teams that would represent the USA on traveling teams all over the world. From the Goodwill Games, to the Pan Games, to exhibition tours, North Carolina had guys that were major parts of these teams.

There are arguments for why USA Basketball has lost its attractiveness for players to compete, and the arguments are valid. Yes, the Senior team with their participation in the Olympics has taken over the major attraction, which is to play in the Olympics. This may have resulted in a lack of prestige for UNC and other amateur players. Yes, the attractions of travel for today's player may not be as enticing with the places players have gone to through AAU travel. However, the benefits of the game time experience against top-flight competition from a rapidly improving global basketball world are just too good to turn away.There's a major need for USA Basketball to have the best players, which North Carolina could help, big time.

Here's a example for you..Tragically, we (USA) got our @$$ kicked down in Puerto Rico during the Pan-Am games this summer with Tom Izzo coaching our so-called best collegians on the floor. The problem with this team is that they had no backcourt depth whatsoever....it was so bad that Andre Barrett, who wasn't even invited for the trials was called two days before the team left for Puerto Rico to give the team a true point guard.....The result of the situation was that Barrett and Ben Gordon, an All-American two-guard from UCONN, both had to run the show with very little back-up help...Check it out....the fourth place finish wasn't good...

Meanwhile, Carolina had four guys who could have made this team. Sean May was not able to do it because of his foot. Jawad Williams should have received an invite. However, our main backcourt guys, Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants could have made a huge difference on that team. Instead both were at the Adidas and Nike camps respectively, as favors for Sonny Vaccaro and George Raveling, twirling whistles while refereeing games and playing pick-up on off hours..Talk about ridiculous.You pass up playing top-shelf competition in the Pan-Am Games with All-Americans, Emeka Okafor, Ben Gordon, and Arthur Johnson, along with the chance to receive coaching from Tom Izzo to hook up the camp circuit.C'mon man...

Fortunately, Coach Williams is one of the top assistants on the Senior team with Coach Larry Brown. Coach Williams has played a major influential role with USA Basketball by coaching these teams over the past decade. Hopefully, he'll be funneling North Carolina guys through these teams to develop their games. If he does, maybe we'll start seeing invites for guys like Jawad Williams and 'scrappers' like David Noel as paybacks for placing superstars on teams. The potential improvement and the potential reputations of the USA Basketball players evolve into pretty big benefits. A guy who was able to take advantage of them over the past two summers was Nick Collison at KU.

With the mass exodus of players over the last two years, Collison, who stayed in school, was named as a collegian on the Senior team as a PR move for USA Basketball. In 2002, he gained one of two slots on the Senior team along with Jay Williams for the World Championships. This past summer he was the lone collegian and was able to work out against Elton Brand, Jermaine O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Kenyon Martin in Puerto Rico every day. Not a bad situation for you to prepare for your rookie year with the SuperSonics. It was also great for his senior year to work out for the World Championships. While working out against Jermaine O'Neal and Antonio Davis every day, Collison enabled himself to be seen all throughout the summer by NBA scouts, and he was able to work his game out with the best. Anyone who said he didn't improve his draft status because of the experience doesn't look at reality well. This situation could occur for Raymond Felton next year for the Olympic Team in Athens. However, he did stiff USA Basketball by declining the invite..I just hope that Coach Williams institutes a presence of UNC players again in USA Basketball. The provision of an elite player may be paid back in the form of an invite to a lesser known UNC talent in the future -- like Jawad Williams and David Noel, This would help develop a young talent immensely...There's not a big summer tournament until 2005 for collegians to play a major role, but North Carolina needs to get back in the red, white, and blue...

Suits behind the bench- I've been harping on this over the last three years. Supposedly, the speed bumps didn't think it was important. Yet, I didn't think any thing looked more tighter than having the JV team in suits behind the bench throughout the season. The presence of the JV team in suits gave that feeling of 'We got your back', but over the past three seasons that's changed big-time. Please have the JV team and hangers-on leave the booty @$$ Fubu and RoccaWear at the McDonald's on W. Franklin.Bring back the professionalism, North Carolina produces guys who are ready for Wachovia, educational systems, coaching ranks, Coca-Cola sponsorships, and television ads, not guys who are ready to order double-cheeses.Leave the bandannas and throwbacks at home during game time.I also don't want to hear that today's student-athlete won't conform to rocking the suits for games. They rocked suits when people were rocking 7 inch afros and daishikis on campus, and they did it only three years ago too..Somehow this tradition slipped through the cracks as well.Getting the team in suits for the team poster this year was clean, get the people behind the bench to do the same. Bring that beat back..

One thing that's great about Midnight Madness is that Dickie V doesn't show up anymore...

Cotton,

BD

Bret Dougherty is a UNC-Chapel Hill alum and current graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill. Bret is a co-host of WXYC SportsRap (9 PM Sundays on FM 89.3 & www.wxyc.org). He also has a SoulGroove music show on Wednesday mornings from 6-8 AM on WXYC. His area of study is "The Revitalization of Public Spaces".

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