Oct. 10, 2007

By Adam Lucas

Quentin Thomas is a nice guy.

Want evidence?

The point guard was answering questions last week--in an interview for which he showed up wearing a shirt and tie, thereby torpedoing the usual preseason interview dress code of practice jersey and shorts--when he was asked about Late Night with Roy Williams.

This is a topic that causes his teammates significant mirth. They know the discussion will inevitably turn to dancing and then to the worst dancers on the team--which will give them the opportunity to needle Tyler Hansbrough. Seven other Tar Heels asked about the teammate with the least rhythm singled out the junior big man. Ribbing the All-America is as much a team pastime as a game of PlayStation football in the players' lounge.

But here's what Thomas says:

"Well, I don't know. Everybody says it's Tyler. But really, I'm not sure."

Not sure? He's been lobbed the biggest softball question of all time and he's not sure?

That's exactly what has made Thomas so popular among his teammates over the last three years. If he's ever criticized any of them on the record, that tape was long ago erased.

That's an even more impressive quality because Thomas's Carolina career hasn't exactly been adversity-free. He redefined being thrown into the fire when he was forced to start the first game of his college career...on the road...in front of his hometown crowd...in an upset loss to Santa Clara...in a game in which he occasionally looked besieged.

It was not a storybook college debut. And after taking some time this summer to watch game tapes of his earlier Tar Heel seasons, he has a new perspective on the experience.

"My freshman year was so overwhelming for me," he says. "I was in a new place, with new teammates, and everything was new to me. I was basically just running around."

His sophomore season was marked by a remarkable turnaround from a turnover-prone first half to a solid second half, but his junior campaign was stunted by finger and foot injuries. He was touched by injuries just a few weeks before Late Night when persistently troublesome knee pain led to arthroscopic surgery; his preseason conditioning work has been limited and although he dipped back into limited action in pickup games on Tuesday, he expects his practice time to be restricted during the first 5-7 days of practice.

But injury recovery hasn't resulted in a step away from the basketball court.

"Just watching pickup, you learn so much from your teammates," Thomas says. "I've picked up positive and negatives that I can apply to my game. I don't just watch the guards. I even like to watch Deon and Tyler to see how they like to work in the post and how they like to get the ball."

Thomas boasted the team's third-highest assist/turnover ratio last year (2.2) and believes it can get even better this year. There's never been any question about his court vision or passing ability. He hasn't been a scoring point guard during his first three years, but he has had a knack for occasionally igniting the Tar Heel offense when he enters the game.

The key for making consistent contributions, as always, is confidence. That's a topic that was addressed when Thomas sat down with Roy Williams for the traditional end-of-season meeting last spring.

"Coach wanted me to work on being more vocal and more assertive on the court," Thomas says. "He wants me to constantly attack and be the aggressor. And this year, I have to work on my vocal leadership. At Carolina the point guard is the quarterback of the team and the extension of the coach on the floor. Everyone keys off your tempo. If you're playing well, then everyone else is playing well."

Then, as if to display some of that assertiveness, the Oakland product lets slip something that's unusual: praise for himself. The discussion turns back to Late Night, and this time the topic is slightly different.

"The best dancer on the team?" he says with a smile that suggests he's only halfway kidding. "It might be me."

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.