March 17, 2006

By Adam Lucas

DAYTON--Even that maddening guy who always wins your office pool but pays barely any attention to his picks knows one simple truth about NCAA Tournament basketball: guard play is important.

You hear it on TV. You read articles about it. Never mind if it's actually true (some might argue that guard play is more important in the first two rounds, but big men often have a more important impact in later rounds), it's become an accepted part of our sports landscape.

So if at any point you get the urge to take Murray State for granted, consider this quote from Racer point guard Keith Jenifer regarding what area of Friday night's matchup he thinks favors Murray State: "Their guards are young and kind of small. That's where we have an edge."

Murray State coach Mick Cronin raved about Jenifer, who has put up minimal scoring numbers--he's averaging just 5.0 points per game and shooting 35.8 percent from the field this season--since transferring from Virginia but has been essential in other aspects of the game.

"Keith Jenifer is by far the best defensive guard in our conference," Cronin said. "He's a guy who can take another great guard out of the game."

The Racers present a thorny defensive problem, as opponents shot just 39.7% against them this year. They're best known for full-court pressure defense, but they've been very multiple this season and have used everything from full-court traps to quarter-court zones. Carolina is likely to see a variety of looks Friday night as Murray State pages through the playbook to find something that works.

Notes: As Roy Williams predicted, Thursday's 40-minute open practice was primarily a "dog-and-pony show." The Tar Heels went through about ten minutes of stretching, did one of the fast break drills they always use to open practice, went through some quick individual work, and then finished with a casual shootaround and a few crowd-pleasing dunks. Not surprisingly, Reyshawn Terry and David Noel were the stars of the dunking portion of the evening. Give the good humor award to Wes Miller, who followed up a series of thunderous dunks from his teammates by jetting towards the basket, taking off, putting his left hand behind his head in a pose, and then...softly laying the ball into the hoop...

Assistant coach Joe Holladay has the scouting report duties on Murray State. His task was made easier by the video work done by C.B. McGrath and Eric Hoots, who record almost every game on television during the regular season. Even though the Racers don't make regular national television appearances, the Tar Heels already had seven Murray State games on tape as soon as the pairings were announced last Sunday evening...It's not just Jenifer who allows the Racers to turn up the defensive pressure. Murray State rotates four players in the backcourt, meaning they almost always have a fresh player harassing the opposing guards...Everywhere you see the Tar Heels, they're wearing those familiar white earphones. That's because every player received a brand new iPod as their gift from the conference for playing in the ACC Tournament...

Friday will be a long day for the Tar Heels, with almost 12 hours between the scheduled breakfast at 10:30 and tipoff at 9:40. Not everyone plans to watch basketball--David Noel said he won't watch any games--but Roy Williams has what sounds like the basketball fan's perfect itinerary on tap. "I'll enjoy the games a little bit," he said. "I'll watch a little bit of the game, take a 10-minute nap, watch a little bit of another game, take another 10-minute nap. If I watch five games, that's five 10-minute naps." Don't completely believe that story. The head coach will be quite a bit busier than it sounds...His team, meanwhile, may benefit from a word soon to enter Tar Heel travel lore--the Holidome. That's what the team hotel calls its entertainment area, which features several video games (some of which work), a ping-pong table (no Texas-style ping-pong as of yet), and an indoor pool. Many of the hotel's rooms ring the pool, and it was comical Thursday night to watch guests come out of their rooms, realize there were Tar Heels in the water, and then go scampering to put on their swimsuits and join their heroes in the pool. As if the Holidome isn't enough, there's additional good karma at this hotel--it's where Roy Williams stayed on his most recent NCAA Tournament trip to Dayton in 2001. Williams and the Kansas Jayhawks won both their games in Dayton in that appearance...Murray State has played a quality schedule the past two seasons, including games against Cincinnati and Tennessee this season. But Mick Cronin had a simple evaluation of his team's opening-round foe: "Carolina is by far the best team we've played the last two years."

Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.