Nov. 20, 2004

By Adam Lucas

OAKLAND--It feels different out here. In the San Francisco Bay Area, college sports are mostly an afterthought. To get to the Arena in Oakland, everyone tells you, "Go to the Oakland Coliseum. That's where the Raiders play. It's over behind that."

College sports are over in the corner. They're not the 49ers, not the Giants, not the A's, not the Raiders. They are, in every sense of the word, amateur.

There was no band for either team at Friday night's game. No fight songs. No mascots.

It was a sterile, pro-type environment. Which made it perfectly appropriate that Carolina largely turned in a sterile, pro-type performance.

These are not rehashed quotes from the 2003-04 season:

Sean May: "We had a little bit of that selfishness out there."

Roy Williams: "We've talked a big game about the chemistry of our team and being together. We'll find out."

Jawad Williams: "I don't think we had anyone step up and take the burden on their shoulders, myself included."

They're actual postgame comments from Friday night, even though you have to read them twice to make sure you're not suffering from some unwelcome form of déjà vu.

Add it all up, toss in some scrappy Broncos, and you've got a 77-66 Santa Clara victory that wasn't as close as the score indicated, the biggest thud of a season opener for the Heels since, perhaps, the 1982-83 season opened not with a coronation of the 1982 national champs but with two straight losses to St. John's and Missouri.

Those two opponents, at least, were both ranked. Santa Clara wasn't, not after a 34-point loss to New Mexico last week.

The easy reaction, of course, is to say that Raymond Felton's presence when the Heels take the floor again Monday night against BYU will solve most of the problems. And he will cure some ails--the disjointed offense that allowed Santa Clara to hang around early rather than getting blown out when Carolina was building a 20-9 advantage, the lack of defensive pressure on the ball that allowed the Broncos to shoot 59.1 percent from the field in the second half.

But Felton can't fix everything. He can't fix some disappointing play in the post, both offensively and defensively. He can't fix a 38-34 rebounding disadvantage to a Santa Clara team that was caused not by lack of athleticism, but simple failure to get to loose balls.

While every player on the roster for UNC would probably say they had a disappointing night personally, it was hard not to admire how the Broncos played. Carolina's scouting report on Travis Niesen was simple: he likes to go to his right. He didn't trick them. In the first half, Niesen scored six baskets, all six of them coming when he went to his right. He finished with 26 points and was the best player on the floor for most of the evening.

If the Heels follow last year's pattern, they'll respond with a stellar effort in the opening round of the Maui Invitational. But that's just the thing--this wasn't supposed to be like last year. That was in the past, that had been buried, that was simply the product of some novice players getting adjusted to Roy Williams's system.

Tuesday, before the team left for the West Coast, Williams said he might learn more about his team in the first 15 days of the season than any other coach in the country. After Friday, he's probably hoping he learned absolutely nothing from the opener, that it was simply an aberration that needs to be dismissed.

"I'm pretty shocked," Jawad Williams said. "I knew it was going to be difficult without Ray...But the worst thing we can do is fall apart."

He's right, of course. Roy Williams told both his team and the media that he'd only lost two season openers at Kansas: one to Arizona State in the 1990-91 season and one to Ball State in the 2001-02 season. Both of those teams went to the Final Four.

He didn't cite those instances as predictions for this year's squad. He cited them simply as an example of how bad openers can be overcome. For months, players have talked openly about the goal of a Final Four.

Friday night, though, it felt a long way away. And it is.

Which feels like a good thing right about now.

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