Why Carolina? Current, former Tar Heels say UNC just feels right
|
|
| Forward John Henson says he'd wanted to wear Carolina blue since he was 8 years old. (Getty Images) |
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Eric Montross knows exactly why he chose to play college basketball at North Carolina instead of rival Duke.
It's just not something he can put into words.
"Sometimes you just have a pit-[in]-the-stomach-type feeling," said the 7-foot center, who led the Tar Heels to the 1993 national championship and is now a radio analyst at his alma mater.
"Something is either right or it's not. That's how I felt here. Most kids have a good idea of what they want and which is a better fit."
| More on Duke vs. Carolina |
| Related links |
| More college hoops coverage |
Preview: What Montross describes seems to suggest is that some players are just Carolina guys while others are naturally predisposed to Duke. It's a conclusion most arrive at early.
Current Tar Heel John Henson knew he wanted to wear Carolina blue since he was 8 years old. Point guard Kendall Marshall came to a similar realization the first time he visited Chapel Hill and walked around campus.
Then there's the curious case of Harrison Barnes.
Because of his studious nature and understated demeanor, it was generally assumed the 6-foot-8 forward was destined for Duke from the moment he began to emerge as one of the nation's top prep players.
It seemed such a foregone conclusion he would eventually play for coach Mike Krzyzewski and the Blue Devils that some of those who are now his teammates even gave up on him coming to UNC.
"Harrison is definitely a Duke guy," Marshall said recently. "I don't think anybody really thought he was going to come to Carolina. I spent all of high school thinking the coaches were wasting their time on him."
It's a good thing Roy Williams didn't feel the same way.
The Tar Heels coach pursing Barnes relentlessly, feeling he would fit perfectly into his team's up-tempo style. Williams closed the deal -- pulling off what one pundit described as the most impressive come-from-behind recruiting coup in recent memory -- by taking advantage of the one thing at his disposal Krzyzewski couldn't possibly match -- an alumnus named Michael Jordan.
Barnes met the Tar Heel legend during his official visit to Chapel Hill, which was skillfully timed to coincide with the celebration weekend for UNC's basketball centennial. In addition to Jordan, former greats from every era of the school's rich basketball history were on hand to help celebrate the program's past -- and as it turned out, its future too.
"The official visit really changed things," Barnes said. "I was able to look in the rafters, then look on the court and identify each player. It was probably the best visit maybe anybody's ever been to.
"The current players were there and they were in awe too. It felt like it wasn't just my official visit -- it was like everyone was enjoying themselves."
Barnes is hardly the first player to be lured to UNC by ghosts of Tar Heels past. It's something of a tradition that's been handed down from generation to generation.
"When I first got there, I really didn't understand what it meant to play at Carolina," former Tar Heel and current Atlanta Hawk Marvin Williams said. "Obviously I knew about the tradition and all that. But as a 17-year-old kid, I didn't know what that meant.
"Then I'm there in the gym playing one day and Vince Carter walks in the door or Jerry Stackhouse walks in, Antawn Jamison walks in. These guys are big-time NBA players and they come back to work out in Chapel Hill.
"Now when those young guys are there and see me do the same thing, hopefully they'll start to understand too. It's really a special place."
It didn't take a face-to-face meeting for Marshall to know he wanted to follow in the footsteps of national championship winning point guards Ty Lawson and Raymond Felton. He knew it the minute he saw Chapel Hill -- even though the Virginia native had come to North Carolina to visit to Duke.
"I was scheduled to make an official visit there," the star sophomore said. "But I kind of cancelled it and committed to Carolina."
Unlike Marshall, former Tar Heel Jerry Stackhouse did go through with his official visit to Duke. In his case, it took only one conversation with Krzyzewski to realize it wasn't the place for him.
"Carolina and Duke were both my list and I was real close with Grant Hill, so I spent a lot of time up at Duke just hanging out," Stackhouse said. "But while I was there for an unofficial visit, Coach K pulled me into the office and told me I needed to make a decision right then or he was going to sign Joey Beard. I was ornery enough at that time to say, 'Well, just recruit Joey Beard.' "
He did.
Beard ended up playing just 16 games for the Blue Devils before transferring to Boston University. Stackhouse led the Tar Heels to the Final Four in 1996 before becoming a first-round NBA Draft choice. He is currently Marvin Williams' teammate with the Hawks.
Of course, Stackhouse might still have chosen UNC over Duke even without Coach K's unsuccessful ultimatum. There were, after all, higher powers at work. As a native of rural Kinston, N.C., Stackhouse grew up in a family of devoted Tar Heel fans.
That point was driven home on a day when Steve Fisher of Michigan and UNC's Dean Smith were scheduled to make recruiting visits within hours of one another.
"Steve Fisher came to the house in the morning and Coach Smith came in later that afternoon," Stackhouse recalled. "When Coach Fisher came in, my mom put out doughnuts and coffee for him. Coach Smith was coming in at two.
"At about 12:30, I started smelling pork chops, fried chicken, cabbage and all this going on in the kitchen. So she made the decision for me. She was a big Dean Smith fan."
Sometimes, though, not even family ties are tight enough to win a recruiting battle between the Tar Heels and Blue Devils.
Take Henson and his kid sister Amber, who somehow ended up at Duke, playing basketball for her brother's biggest rival.
"I tried," John said when asked if he did anything to help recruit his sibling to UNC. "But at the end of the day, she had to make the right decision for her. Duke was over there and I think she liked there most."
As was the case with her brother, with Montross and with so many over the years in college basketball's most famous rivalry, Amber Henson's choice came down to one simple factor.
Where was she more comfortable?
"When you look at the schools and the coaches, it's great to be in a position to choose between places like Carolina and Duke," Montross said. "Because of that, it really just comes down to a gut feeling. The atmosphere that was created by all the entities in Chapel Hill -- the academics, the coaches, the other players, everything -- just made it feel like home to me."
