Schedule benefits rebuilding

The North Carolina men's basketball team, the same team that has started three freshmen all season, kicked off conference play last Saturday against its cross-Triangle rival.

In what is one of the strongest basketball conferences in America, the baby-faced Tar Heels find themselves in for an arduous road.

Gulp!

As the then-ranked No. 25 Tar Heels readied to take the floor against then-ranked No. 13 North Carolina State, this thought plagued my mind - and Saturday's start did nothing to calm my concerns.

As N.C. State senior Cameron Bennerman rushed down the court to slam home a dunk to put the Wolfpack up 9-0, I feared a Tar Heel collapse.

Maybe my pessimism stemmed from the fact that I grew up rooting for the Boston Red Sox, a team that, until recently, perennially disappointed its fans.

Maybe it stemmed from the fact that I had no other nearby Tar Heel fans to tell me that everything was going to be all right.

But whatever the cause, I could not help but assume that this game would be the first of many where veteran ACC squads would pick apart the fragile, up-and-coming UNC team.

I expected Coach Roy Williams to call a timeout for substitutions.

I expected Coach Williams to call a timeout to give his team words of encouragement.

And I certainly expected Coach Williams to call a timeout to change the team's strategy.

But Williams did the unexpected - he did nothing.

Roy let his boys play because they needed to learn to recover from these deficits - deficits they surely will encounter at other points during the ACC season.

They recovered. They learned. They are better for it.

Williams' coaching decision - or lack thereof - might be a turning point for the Tar Heels.

N.C. State might not be the best team in the ACC, but Saturday's victory does a great deal toward helping the team grow.

Unlike nonconference play, ACC play requires greater team unity and stronger team performances.

The team's nonconference schedule featured a range of opponents, where they faced teams as good as Illinois, and teams as bad as Cleveland State.

But the team's conference schedule is far more demanding. With two to three games each week against legitimate threats, the schedule leaves UNC little room to prepare for teams that easily could upset them.

Fortunately, the Tar Heels have been blessed with a schedule that suits a rebuilding team. The team's next three ACC games are against some of the worst teams in the conference (Miami, Virginia and Florida State).

UNC has another month until it has to play the league's upper-echelon teams when it faces Boston College on Jan. 25 and Maryland on Feb. 2, and a date with Arizona in between.

A month of play against the mediocre ACC teams might give UNC the confidence it needs to upset some of the nation's elite.

The Tar Heels' toughest games are at the season's end, when they travel across the state to play at Wake Forest, N.C. State and Duke for the regular season finale.

Though the Tar Heels continued to surprise college basketball fans with their 82-69 victory against the Wolfpack, the next two months will test this team like it's never been tested before.

UNC must use these next few weeks to gain momentum, momentum the team will need if it hopes to rattle the ACC elite.

 

Contact Sam Shepard at swshepar@email.unc.edu.