Carolina and Kentucky face injury blues

By Mike Douchant
Special to CBS SportsLine
March 20, 1997

Five of the last eight NCAA consensus first-team All-Americas for North Carolina left school early as undergraduates and became top five picks in the NBA draft--James Worthy (1st selection overall in 1982), Michael Jordan (3rd in 1984), J.R. Reid (5th in 1989), Jerry Stackhouse (3rd in 1995) and Rasheed Wallace (4th in 1995). It's difficult to comprehend how much earlier Dean Smith would have become the all-time winningest major-college coach or padded his NCAA Tournament-record triumph total if these luminaries exercised all of their college eligibility with the Tar Heels.

Smith's standout playoff performance notwithstanding, no school's NCAA championship aspirations have been short-circuited more by an assortment of injuries than the M.A.S.H. unit at Carolina. In light of forward Vince Carter pulling a groin muscle in the second round against Colorado this year, it appears as if the Tar Heels are still snakebitten.

Two years ago, Wallace was slowed by a sore ankle when they lost to Arkansas in the national semifinals. Previously, there was the following cases of Tar Heel tourney trauma:

Naturally, there have been a few teams possessing the resourcefulness to cope without a key player and go on to capture a national championship. Stanford '42 overcame the title game absence of flu-ridden Jim Pollard, who scored 43.4 percent of Stanford's points in its first two tourney contests. Kentucky '51 (sans Walt Hirsch) and San Francisco '56 (K.C. Jones) won NCAA titles although key players were ineligible for the tournament. Louisville '80 excelled with a freshman center Rodney McCray, who replaced his brother, Scooter, in the middle after Scooter suffered a season-ending knee injury. Kansas, riding the coattails of national player of the year Danny Manning, withstood the loss of regulars Marvin Branch (academic problems) and Archie Marshall (knee injury) to capture the 1988 NCAA title.

Most championship-caliber teams, however, can't afford the loss of such vital components. It's inconceivable to think North Carolina State would have won the 1974 crown if David Thompson didn't recover from a nasty fall to the floor after attempting to block a shot by Pitt in the East Regional final.

Thompson, cartwheeling over the shoulders of a teammate, landed with a sickening thud on the back of his head and did not move for four minutes. He regained consciousness, was taken to a hospital and, after getting 15 stitches to mend a head wound, was permitted to return to the arena and watch the end of the game. The mild concussion didn't keep him from being ready for the Final Four, where Thompson was named Most Outstanding Player.

A previous N.C. State squad and other potential titlists weren't so fortunate. In 1951, the Wolfpack, returning the nucleus of a national third-place team, had a 29-4 record after winning the Southern Conference Tournament. But without three standouts (Sam Ranzino, Paul Horvath and Vic Bubas) ineligible for the NCAA playoffs because they were in their fourth year of varsity competition, N.C. State was eliminated in the second round by Illinois (84-70).

In 1962, Ohio State All-America center Jerry Lucas wrenched his left knee in the national semifinals against Wake Forest, limiting his effectiveness against Cincinnati counterpart Paul Hogue in the Bearcats' 71-59 triumph in the final. Four years later, Duke guard Bob Verga (mononucleosis) and Kentucky starter Larry Conley (flu) came out of sick bay at the Final Four but weren't 100 percent as Texas Western captured the crown.

Tourney memories are also bittersweet for the following list of potential title teams to deal with a partial deck in their bid for an NCAA championship:

Will North Carolina and Kentucky (Derek Anderson recovering from major knee surgery and Allen Edwards, fractured ankle) join the snakebitten list again this year?