July 3, 2004

By Adam Lucas, Tar Heel Monthly

For over a year, Rashad McCants was one of the best-kept secrets on the University of North Carolina campus.

Not his basketball talents, of course. Those were never in question, not when he was averaging 17 points per game as a freshman. Not when he was a preseason Wooden Award candidate.

But still there were rumors about McCants. People whispered about them as though they were discussing yeti sightings or, even more rare, a secret stash of ACC Tournament tickets.

"I saw Rashad smile one time on Franklin Street," you might hear, or perhaps, "Rashad said hello to me by name between classes."

These rumors did not fit with the general perception of the Asheville native, who was supposed to be a grumpy, isolated Tar Heel. That his friends--and McCants himself--quietly snickered at those perceptions did nothing to slow them down.

The snickering is over. And the perceptions, well, they have a funny way of changing.

McCants said it himself last summer: "I have trust issues." That trust was never present with the former coaching staff for a variety of reasons, which led to a sullen outlook on life in Chapel Hill. Once Roy Williams was hired, McCants tested him, sometimes pushed when a pull was required. And after a sit-down with the head coach after a disappointing performance at Kentucky, the player suddenly realized something: he could trust this coach.

"It was one of the first times I felt my coach cared about me no matter how many points I scored," McCants says.

The results were outstanding. McCants scored at least 20 points in seven of Carolina's last eight games against ranked opponents. He was the leading vote-getter on the All-ACC team. And he found his trust reciprocated, as Williams continuously relied on McCants in late-game situations, resulting in huge shots against Connecticut, NC State, and Maryland, plus scoring chances that didn't work out at Duke and against Texas in the Heels' final game of the season.

More subtly, McCants began interacting more productively with his teammates and other members of the program. He smiled for the media, most of whom had long perceived him as a malcontent. Only a very few had realized that when prompted with thought-provoking questions, he was capable of delivering more insightful answers than any of the more-celebrated "cerebral" players in college basketball. Now he was rolling his eyes less, smiling more, and opinions were changing.

The change wasn't unintentional.

"The press is important," he says. "They make the way people judge you and how they look at you. I knew that last year, but I didn't want to believe it. I didn't think it was that serious."

He'll never be described as happy-go-lucky, but after a freshman year he describes as a "struggle," he's at least happy. He'll attend a pair of camps with teammates Sean May and Raymond Felton--time that may be beneficial to the Felton/McCants relationship, since May cited those same camps as being crucial to gaining a better appreciation for McCants's personality last summer.

Between now and then, you might spot him entering the Smith Center late at night, following his usual late-night workout routine of 15 minutes of dribbling with a tennis ball, shooting pull-up jumpers off the dribble, and working on his midrange game. If you spot him, give him a smile.

Odds are, he'll smile back.

Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly, click here.