Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 10, 1995 TAG: 9505100048
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's a good thing Dean Smith has been running a junior varsity program for years. This season, the coach may need those extra Heels and bodies.
Two years removed from the exit of what had been billed as one of the greatest basketball recruiting classes of all time, the Tar Heels' roster is a very short story. And some thought the UNC team that reached this year's Final Four lacked depth.
Smith's storied program has lost Bob McAdoo, James Worthy, J.R. Reid and even Michael Jordan to early NBA entry, but never have the Tar Heels lost so much so fast as when Rasheed Wallace and Jerry Stackhouse decided to turn pro after only two college seasons.
It wasn't much more than a month ago that ACC hoopheads were only asking how Virginia was going to score inside next season. As someone once said, timing is everything. The ink on Oak Hill Academy center Melvin Whitaker's grant-in-aid with Virginia still was drying when Wallace announced he was leaving a big hole in the Heels' middle.
Whitaker said he was headed for UVa anyway, but the opportunity to be a prominent name on a certain Dean's list has changed minds before. As it turns out, Whitaker joined a better team, once Stackhouse followed on Wallace's lottery-bound heels. There already are printed predictions elsewhere that UNC will finish in the ACC's bottom three next season.
That seems too drastic. Perhaps UNC is looking at the middle of the pack, but in Chapel Hill, that's middling. Carolina hasn't finished worse than third in the ACC in the past 31 seasons. The Tar Heels have had a losing ACC record only twice, 1953-54 - the league's first season - and a decade later.
Smith's program also has a streak of 25 years of 20 or more victories, and some of those - 1971, '79 and '85 for example - came after the Heels had lost significant personnel. Those are regarded as among Smith's best coaching jobs. It may take another of those to extend the Heels' record streak of 21 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.
Of course, the departure of Stackhouse and Wallace likely means UNC should sign at least one of the two 6-foot-11 schoolboys it is recruiting, Kevin Garnett of Chicago and Randell Jackson of Massachusetts. There is no indication Smith will try to fill the void with junior college signees.
Without help, Carolina will be ponderous and average at the two big spots. There is no go-to guy, although Jeff McInnis may be the nation's premier point guard. Will Dante Calabria have to average 20 points? Can he? The quality minutes returning just about end there on a team that has lost five of its top seven players.
If the Heels won't be what they have been, it appears they've picked a good year for it, particularly in the ACC, which might have the top three picks in the June 28 NBA draft in Maryland's Joe Smith, Stackhouse and Wallace. Nine of the top 12 in this year's All-ACC voting won't be back.
Unless Wake Forest big man Tim Duncan unexpectedly decides to declare for the NBA before the weekend deadline, he will be the only first-team player back. The Deacons are the likely preseason pick to win the ACC, but they lost scorer Randolph Childress. Maryland has four starters back, but not Smith.
Junior Burrough, among lesser others, will be missed by Virginia, which should be picked to finish no worse than third. Duke and Mike Krzyzewski, trying to rebound, lost big men Cherokee Parks and Erik Meek. Florida State needs scoring without Bob Sura. Georgia Tech lost Travis Best and James Forrest. Clemson and North Carolina State have nowhere to go but up, anyway.
What's happened at Carolina in the past week isn't atypical in college basketball. The depth and star power of the game have declined because of players leaving early for the NBA. Who can blame them with the dollar signs available? Michigan's Fab Five was down to a role-playing duo by graduation.
From this year's Final Four, none of the top two stars from each of the teams will be back next season - and only half of those eight players were seniors.
If nothing else, one thing certainly should be easier for the Dean of coaches in the next year:
Recruiting.
by CNB