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 Tuesdays 6-8AM. Scroll on down to the article, and email me if you want to discuss my opinions.....BD

'A Travesty.....'

February 5, 2004

Carolina fans are still dissecting the carcass that was dragged from the court at Littlejohn Coliseum after last Saturday's loss at Clemson, when Oliver Purnell's Tigers shot over 55 percent for the game and 11-13 from 3-point land. However, a sharp scalpel is not needed to cut deep into that body......what's killing the Heels is the missing piece in the quartet that was to arrive with the class of 2006.

With the Duke game coming up on Thursday night in Chapel Hill, that missing piece will most likely be riding the bench for half the game....on the dark side.

The travesty of the tonight's game is to see a player who could have really helped UNC and the program's development, and that player is Shavlik Randolph.....If you are a fan of looking back, you can argue that Jason Fraser, who -- after his last two games of 2 points and 3 rebounds in 19 minutes of time against West Virginia and a 5 point, 8 rebound performance against St. Joe's -- is developing fairly at best at Villanova, was the missing piece for this team.

Yet, the choking recruiting loss of Randolph still plagues a UNC team that would be totally different if this local North Carolina public school kid were wearing a light blue jersey.

Yes, Randolph has not developed into the Dirk Nowitzki prototype that insiders once envisioned out of the 6'10" High School All-American out of Raleigh Broughton High. His strong reputation as a three-point shooter has dwindled to a vapor state with a surprisingly dismal 0-5 performance from the arc, and he underwent an extensive rehabilitation program to work through the past off-season with a torn labral in his left hip and a bone spur in his left foot. Because of this, many wonder about his development as a solid player.

However, he is averaging 8.2 PPG and 5.2 RPG, and most importantly, he can swing between the power forward and center slots with his behemoth counterpart Shelden Williams. When you consider that Carolina has only 79 blocks for the season, this has to make Tar Heel fans point the finger at the past administration even more......Randolph has blocked almost half that amount (35) on his own, in spite of his sporadic playing time.

Another of Randolph's assets is that when he does pair up with Williams, it diverts some of the collapsing D that usually smothers Williams in the low post. When Randolph has been able to alleviate that pressure, Williams performs at a high level -- like the Duke/Georgetown game, where Williams exploded with a 26 points and 4 rebounds in only 25 minutes of time... or Duke/Texas, which showcased Williams punching in a 14 point, 9 rebound performance at Madison Square Garden.

That type of relief certainly would have eased the double-team pressure that has plagued Sean May's development at UNC as a low-post player throughout the year. Without any help down low, May, who is a natural power forward, has been forced to play out of position at Carolina. Because of that he is currently going through a long slump that could been prevented if there were someone to share some of the pounding he endures down low each game.

In Duke's last three games against Georgia Tech, Florida State, and Georgetown, Randolph's playing time ranged from 26 minutes to 25 minutes to 18 minutes respectively. That's a long way from the time expectations predicted by the way over-hyped rumor mill, which murmured at one point that Randolph was going straight to the NBA.

Given his early accolades and abilities, it is easy to say that Randolph has not lived up to expectations. An argument is that he has developed into a humble role player who is way over his head in a system that doesn't mesh with his skills. Critics point to his choice of bulking up over twenty pounds this past summer as the reason for why he is the odd man out as a low-post player in a system designed for guys who can play multiple roles.

However, his supporters argue that he is developing from a versatile player into a strict post-up player reminiscent of former Duke player Erik Meek, or into a post-up player who can also go outside like another former Duke player, Mark Alarie. They also maintain that a presence such as Randolph's is desperately needed at Duke not only because of his shot-making capabilities and height, but also because of his ability to fit into a system as a role player-- just the type of player this year's Heels team desperately needs.

Randolph may never be the player that Duke expected him to be, and that may wind up pleasing a lot of Carolina fans. Yet, whether that buzzer sounds for a Carolina/Duke game over the next two and a half seasons at the Smith Center, Cameron Indoor, Greensboro Coliseum, or MCI Center, there still is a large contingent of Tar Heel fans who will always have that quick flash of a question in their mind that asks......What could have been?......

Speaking of travesty......

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 Tuesday mornings from 6-8 AM on WXYC. You may check in at his information page at www.unc.edu/~bretd..

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