THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, November 15, 1994 TAG: 9411150476
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK VEHORN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines
The last three years have been a heart-throbbing, head-swimming, roller-coaster ride for North Carolina's Donald Williams.
After being down, up, and down, he is hopeful of being headed up again in his final season at Chapel Hill.
Williams, who chose North Carolina over N.C. State, briefly considered transferring while languishing on the bench most of his freshman season.
A year later, Williams was on top of the college basketball world, the most valuable player in the Tar Heels' drive to the NCAA championship.
Then, last year on a team that never jelled its talent, Williams went from one injury to another and then to downright humiliation.
North Carolina, picked in preseason to repeat as national champion, fell flat on its face after finishing the regular season ranked No. 1 in the polls.
Carolina labored to get by tiny Liberty in the opening round before losing to unheralded Boston College.
``Losing in the second round like that, well, it was like a slap in the face,'' Williams recalls.
What hurt the most was the way North Carolina went down. Boston College wasn't better, it just played harder.
That is a lesson Williams and the Tar Heels' other survivors - er, returnees - bring with them into this season.
Once again they are picked to win the ACC and most of their fans will settle for nothing less than a couple of victories over Duke and another national championship.
Williams says the painful lesson from the stinging loss to Boston College may help them do just that.
``I think losing that game in the playoffs woke us up,'' Williams said. ``If we go out and play harder than most teams, we win. This team is going to be more determined, more focused.''
A little more togetherness might help, too.
While last season was not a disaster - just the playoffs - it seemed the Tar Heels constantly were trying to find the right chemistry.
Four starters returned from the champioship team, but coach Dean Smith recruited three freshmen who thought they should be playing ahead of the veterans.
Center Rasheed Wallace, forward Jerry Stackhouse, and guard Jeff McInnis were not normal freshmen, and at the end Wallace and Stackhouse emerged as the go-to guys.
``Last year everyone wanted to play, and all of them couldn't,'' said Williams. ``It wasn't a good situation for the coaches or the players.''
But both Williams and Dante Calabria, a junior guard, say media reports of dissention on the team were greatly exaggerated, if not imagined.
``The media said we didn't like this, didn't like that, and didn't like each other. It just wasn't true,'' Calabria contended.
``Everyone got along fine.''
He later amended that by saying everyone got along fine away from the court, where competition for playing time was intense.
Calabria admitted, too, ``there were times we could walk through everything and times when it looked like we couldn't beat a high school team.''
But that wasn't caused by internal problems, he said.
``The big thing was injuries. Donald hurt his ankle, and then his shoulder. Brian Reese was hurt early. We didn't really have time to jell.''
Defining roles should be less of a problem this season for coach Dean Smith, who says he doesn't like using more than seven or eight players.
Senior Pat Sullivan and sophomore Ed Geth, a former Granby High School athlete, return after red-shirting last season to provide frontcourt depth.
Sullivan will get playing time with Wallace and Stackhouse while Geth competes with the Heels' tallest player, 7-foot-2 Serge Zwikker, for backup time.
The Tar Heels are thinnest in the backcourt, where Williams, Calabria, and McInnis are the only experienced returnees.
Like Williams, Calabria says he was haunted during the summer by the shocking loss to Boston College.
``It still upsets me to think about it,'' he said. ``We had a lot of talent and it was disappointing to lose like that.
``I look forward to getting a few games under my belt so I can get over it and go on. This is like a new life for me.''
And, up or down, a final ride for Williams. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by PAUL AIKEN
Last year, the generally team- and system-oriented Dean Smith gave
large roles to freshman, including guard Jeff McInnis.
by CNB