Oct. 9, 2007

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By Adam Lucas

With four days remaining before the first real practice of the 2007-08 Carolina basketball season, there are two central truths about this year's intangibles.

First, there is just one scholarship senior, Quentin Thomas. The Oakland native, who admits he prefers to lead more by example than by taking a vocal position, will compete for minutes behind Tywon Lawson.

And second, the role behind Thomas of the vocal on-court leader--the role that too frequently went unfilled last season--has not yet been cemented.

"We're still searching for that guy," Deon Thompson says. "We have guys who work hard all the time. But we're looking for someone who can speak out and rally guys. With us, having that leadership guy is not as important as it is for some teams because we have Coach Williams. But we still need that on-court guy who everyone knows they can follow."

Dig a little deeper, however, and one name is continually mentioned as a likely candidate.

"Marcus Ginyard is a leader," Wayne Ellington says. "He always gives 100 percent effort."

"Marcus could be a big-time leader because he speaks up a lot," Mike Copeland says. "He wants everyone to be better. That's his big thing. I see him stepping up a lot more this year."

"Marcus has taken that load on his shoulders," Bobby Frasor echoes. "He has tried to step up in the weight room, talk a little more, and motivate people."

Ginyard's emergence into that role began late last season. But at that point, he was still a sophomore, with a pair of contributing seniors ahead of him. And he still had to reconcile his friendly, outgoing nature with the team's need for a leader to occasionally bark at players who were underperforming.

"It is difficult for me," Ginyard says. "I'm so friendly with everybody. I struggle sometimes having to be the person to tell someone to pick it up. It's a little bit of a clash with my personality, but I have to work through it."

The most recent effective leader in the Carolina pantheon was David Noel, who was the key to the surprising 2006 squad. But that was a different kind of leadership, because Noel was surrounded by an almost completely new team that automatically deferred to him. There was no question about that team's central figure. Tyler Hansbrough might have been the most decorated player, but Noel was the player who made everyone else fall silent when he spoke.

Hansbrough, of course, is a two-time All-America and still in that same role as the most touted Tar Heel. But he's more likely to lead by example--no one, the Tar Heels will tell you, works harder--than by voice.

It's always nice when leadership happens to come naturally to the player who also is the most talented. More often, however, that's not the case. And Ginyard gave some thought this summer to the characteristics that could make him successful in a new role.

"You have to act different to be a leader," he says. "You have to hold yourself accountable and then the team. A leadership position is out in the open a lot more. You'll be criticized more for things that happen with the team. It's a little bit different, but it's not something that I'm scared of."

That doesn't mean Ginyard is infallible. He made a public--and very frank--assessment late last year that, at that point in the season, the 2006 team could have beaten the 2007 team. He was probably right. But as he quickly realized, it was a comment he could have made first within the confines of the locker room.

That doesn't mean, however, that he's ready to allow the 2008 team to exhibit the same kind of inconsistency that plagued last year's squad.

"One of our team's toughest challenges is holding ourselves accountable for how good we can be right now," he says. "Not next year and not the year after that; right now. It's a tough challenge and I think this team is ready to do it. How well we do that will determine a lot about how far this team can go."

Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven will be released on October 1. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.