Cavaliers hope to continue winning ways against UNC
By ANDREW JOYNER
Daily Progress staff writer
Just the opponent, not the situation, changes for the No. 15 Virginia men’s
basketball team tonight.
Like their game against Clemson on Sunday, the Cavaliers host another struggling
ACC team — this time North Carolina — in a game the Cavaliers have to win.
Of course, as seemingly everyone associated with the Cavaliers said after their
85-71 win over Clemson on Sunday, the opponent is North Carolina. And the fact
that North Carolina is currently 6-15, 2-9 ACC and has lost 10 of its last 11
games does not change things according to Virginia coach Pete Gillen.
“They’re going to give us all we want. They’re still Carolina. They still
have McDonald’s All-Americans on the court. They still have good players,”
Gillen said. “We’re not good enough to look past any team on our
schedule.”
Nor can the Cavaliers look past anybody at the moment. The win over Clemson
ended a four-game losing streak for the Cavaliers and, just as was the case for
the Clemson game, any scenario that has UVa reaching the NCAA tournament has to
include a win in this game as well.
It at least seems that the Virginia players are well aware of that and it gives
them any extra focus, if needed, against its traditional but slumping rival.
“They’re desperate, too. Everyone is playing for something at this time of
year. They’re playing for something just as we are,” said junior guard Roger
Mason Jr. “You can’t underestimate anyone and we certainly can not afford to
underestimate anyone right now.”
Added senior forward Chris Williams: “It’s still Carolina. They’re going
to come out and be fired up. They are a desperate team right now but we also
have to be desperate.”
A win over North Carolina tonight would give Virginia, which beat UNC 71-67 in
the Smith Center on Jan. 12, a sweep of the Tar Heels for the second time in
three years (Virginia swept UNC in the 1999-2000 season). It would be, however,
just the Cavaliers’ seventh season sweep of the Tar Heels ever and four of
those occurred from 1911 to 1920. Thus, it would be just the third sweep, and
second since 1981, with both schools as members of the ACC.
History and rivalry aside, however, Virginia’s current state and sitaution
only allows them to be concerned with one thing according to Mason: winning.
While Mason and most of the Cavaliers did not opt to offer an opinion on their
NCAA tournament status at the moment, they know it gets much harder with any
loss now.
“I don’t know regarding our NCAA chances but I do know that we’ve dug
ourselves a hole with those four losses and the only way to get out of that is
to start winning and that’s what we have to do,” Mason said. “As cliché
as it is, we do have to take one game at a time now and not look ahead. …
It’s very important for us to win this game against North Carolina, beat Wake
Forest [on Sunday] and then take the next move after that.”
Watson honored. Virginia junior center Travis Watson was named the ACC player
of the week Monday. Watson scored 49 points and grabbed 22 rebounds in the
Cavaliers’ two games last week. He was 14-24 (.583) from the field, including
1-1 from three-point range, and 20-23 (.870) from the free throw line. Watson
also had six assists, five steals and one block.
He had a double-double in points and rebounds in each game. In the Cavaliers’
85-68 loss at North Carolina State, Watson scored a career-high 29 points and
had 12 rebounds. He was 7-12 from the field and 15-17 from the free throw line.
He also had three assists and three steals in 35 minutes. In Virginia’s 85-71
victory over Clemson, Watson scored 20 points and had 10 rebounds. He was 7-12
from the field, including 1-1 from three-point range, and 5-6 from the free
throw line.
Watson has 13 double-doubles on the season and 34 for his career.
Capel a suffering senior
For freshmen such as forward Jawad Williams, the conviction that North Carolina's storied basketball program will return to glory - perhaps as soon as next season - helps make the present bearable.
For the Tar Heels' seniors, this is it. Their final year at Carolina almost certainly will be remembered as the worst season in school history. And that's not easy for a player such as forward Jason Capel, a four-year starter, to take.
"This isn't what you envision when you come to Carolina," said second-year coach Matt Doherty, who played on UNC teams that won 117 games and captured one NCAA title.
Jeff Capel III, an assistant coach at Virginia Commonwealth, talks to his brother nearly every day. "It's been very tough for him," Jeff Capel said, "dealing with a lot of the things that have happened, and not just this year."
When Jason Capel committed to Carolina, Dean Smith was the coach. "He knew Coach Smith wouldn't be there all four years - he told him that - but he thought he'd be there his first two years," Jeff Capel said.
Instead, Smith retired unexpectedly on the eve of the 1997-98 season, and his longtime assistant, Bill Guthridge, took over. Capel played his first two seasons for Guthridge and helped UNC reach the Final Four in 2000. Then Guthridge retired, too, and Capel had to adjust to Doherty's system.
The Tar Heels ascended to the No. 1 spot in the polls during the 2000-01 regular season, but 2001-02 has been a disaster. Heading into its game at 15th-ranked Virginia (5-5, 15-6) tonight, UNC (2-9, 6-15) is tied for last in the ACC with Clemson.
"It's hard," Jason Capel said last month. "This isn't something we wanted to happen. None of us did."
With its Sunday night loss to Maryland, Carolina set a school record for ACC losses in a season. Another defeat would set another UNC mark - this one for losses in a season.
"You just never would imagine Carolina going through what they're going through this year," said Jeff Capel, who endured similar adversity when Duke went 13-18 his sophomore season there.
"I think what hurts even worse for him is, it's his last year. He's leaving Carolina on this note, and it's a school and a program he loves."
The son of Jeff Capel Jr., formerly at Old Dominion and now coach of the National Basketball Development League's Fayetteville (N.C.) Patriots, Jason Capel spent two years at Indian River High in Chesapeake. Then he transferred to St. John's at Prospect Hall in Frederick, Md., where he became a McDonald's All-American. Now, as a 6-8, 237-pound college senior, he leads UNC in eight statistical categories, including scoring (14.9 ppg) and rebounding (8.9).
Still, his brother said, "Honestly, I don't think he has enjoyed this year." Nagging injuries have hampered Capel, and he suffered a concussion in practice Jan. 15 that caused him to miss three games. More devastating was the recent death of his grandmother.
"He's going through a little tougher time than just losing basketball games," Doherty said.
The losses, though, have taken a toll, too. Capel played only 18 minutes Sunday night before fouling out with five points and two rebounds. Witnesses said he cursed audibly after being called for his fifth foul.
"At times he's held up very well," Doherty said Friday. "At times he's struggled."
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: University of Virginia center Travis Watson is the latest ACC player of the week. Watson, a 6-8, 255-pound junior, totaled 49 points and 22 rebounds in two games last week. He made 14 of 24 shots from the floor - including his lone 3-point attempt - and 20 of 23 from the free-throw line. He also had six assists, five steals and one blocked shot. A graduate of Oak Hill Academy, Watson leads the ACC in rebounding (10.5 per game). He had a career-high 29 points in a loss at N.C. State, along with 12 rebounds. He had 20 and 10 in U.Va.'s win over Clemson on Sunday night, his ACC-best 13th double-double of the season.
Normally, the Virginia men's basketball matchup against North Carolina would be one students would camp out for days to see. The media would spend a week's work of newspaper space writing columns and previews. This year, however, things are different.
Coming off Sunday's victory over Clemson, the No. 15 Virginia men's basketball team faces a pivotal home contest against the struggling Tar Heels tonight.
North Carolina typically fields a team ranked in the Top 5, but this season, Carolina is full of freshmen struggling to find their identity and their game. Even so, don't tell Virginia coach Pete Gillen that the Tar Heels don't have a chance.
"North Carolina is still North Carolina," Gillen said after the Cavaliers' win against Clemson. "They have talented players and we will need to play tough if we want to end up with a win."
The Tar Heels will feature two seniors that can be an intimidating force in the front court. Six-foot-eight forward Jason Capel leads Carolina in both points and rebounds with 14.9 and 8.9, respectively.
Kris Lang bangs down low along with Capel, when he is not out with an injured knee or back, and he is a terrific low post scoring threat, averaging 13.9 points and 6.6 rebounds.
Beyond those two players, however, lies nothing but question marks for the young 'Heels. The team's starting lineup has changed repeatedly throughout the ACC season.
It is likely that the Tar Heels' three freshmen will see significant minutes tonight. Jawad Williams, Jackie Manuel and Melvin Scott all have shown sparks of brilliance for North Carolina. Unfortunately, those sparks have been few and far between. The Tar Heels will need stellar performances from the freshmen if they hope to compete with Virginia.
Brian Morrison, Adam Boone and Will Johnson round out North Carolina's rotation, providing some scoring off of the bench for Carolina. Morrison is the Tar Heels' leading three-point shooter, while Boone and Johnson can knock down threes if they are open.
Virginia junior guard Roger Mason Jr. and his teammates recognize the strong tradition of North Carolina basketball and understand they cannot take this team for granted.
"An ACC game is tough no matter who it is against," Mason said. "If we don't bring our game and take it easy on these guys, they could put it to us. We need to play our best."
Either way, this will be a much different team of Tar Heels than Virginia fans are used to seeing. As of now, the only way North Carolina can make a postseason tournament is to complete the improbable task of winning the ACC tournament in Charlotte in two weeks. Still, expect the 'Heels to be fired up in an attempt to knock off a team that beat them at home in early January.
"It's going to be a tough game, but it is a must win," senior Chris Williams said. "We understand that we have to play hard and we can't let up no matter who we are playing."
The Tar Heels may look weak, but it certainly would not hurt Virginia's chances at a postseason NCAA tournament berth if they can post a solid victory over North Carolina tonight. Slump or no slump, UNC is always a team to watch.
Nobody needs to tell Joseph Forte that he made a bad decision.
This time last year, Forte was the most important player on the most important team in college basketball. The North Carolina Tar Heels won 18 games in a row, mostly thanks to Forte, who led them in scoring in all but three of those wins. They beat UCLA, Virginia, Maryland (twice) and even then-No. 2 Duke.
It became clich‚ to compare Forte to Michael Jordan. It was a foregone conclusion to pick him as an All-American.
I heard reporters - waiting in big crowds to interview him - say that the only thing that could stop Joseph Forte was himself. Boy, were they right.
Today, Forte, who decided to leave college two years before graduation to play professional basketball, sits on the bench for the NBA's Boston Celtics. Actually, he's glued to it. In a little more than half the season, Forte has played 24 minutes, which is a little less than half a game. He's taken six shots all season and missed every single one of them.
What was unthinkable this time last year is reality now. Joseph Forte is a nobody.
A forgotten man and a forgotten team
You'll recognize a similar story if you've been following the ACC this season. The Tar Heels are the talk of college basketball. Barring a miracle, they aren't going to make a trip to the NCAA tournament, the first time they've missed it in 28 years. If the Tar Heels lose to Virginia tonight, they'll reach 16 losses, the most in school history.
It's all thanks to Joseph Forte and his decision to go pro.
Carolina needed Forte this year. Right now, the team is a rag-tag collection of role players. There are tall guys like Kris Lang, shooters like Brian Morrison and slashers like Jason Capel. But there's nobody to handle and distribute the ball or to score points, like Forte did so well last season. He could have made a world of difference.
Just the same, Forte needed North Carolina. In college, he was a shooting guard. In the NBA, Celtics coach Jim O'Brien has openly declared Forte a lost cause unless he switches to the point.
But he doesn't know how to play point guard. The Celtics, in good position to make the playoffs, don't have the time or patience to teach him.
With the Tar Heels, Forte would have learned how to play the point and boosted his chances at having a good professional career at the new position.
Ten players have left North Carolina early for the NBA. Some of them - including Michael Jordan and Vince Carter - went on to be as important in the pros as they were in college. They made good decisions.
Joseph Forte didn't.
A Pro Against Many Cons
So why did he do it?
At times, Forte has gone more than two months without touching the court. But, as Forte admitted to a Boston Herald reporter, "I've never gotten paid anything like this either. So it's a double-edged sword."
Sounds like a stake through the heart to me. By going pro - even after Dean Smith told him he would have to switch positions - Forte lost the thrill of making the big shot, the excitement of having all eyes focused on him and the media attention that comes with being one of the top three players in the country.
He gains $4.75 million over four years. But there's no acclaim and no respect. Plus, there's that label he's got to shake: failure.
In a few months, over a hundred high school and college basketball players, (including two that play for Virginia), will have to make the same decision that Forte made last year. From the NBA, they'll see money and the challenge of competing against the world's best.
What they probably won't see is what they could make if they played another year in college: a difference.
Cavs' Williams Adjusts on the Run
By Jim Reedy
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, February 12, 2002; Page D05
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Feb. 11 -- Virginia forward Chris Williams knows he needs to play aggressively on the basketball court. His coaches have mentioned it. His teammates occasionally give him a quick reminder. And for most of the ACC season, the media have asked about it.
Williams, a senior tri-captain whose scoring average has dropped to a career-low 14 points per game, said he realizes the 15th-ranked Cavaliers (15-6, 5-5) need him to take pressure off guard Roger Mason Jr. and center Travis Watson, who today was named the ACC's player of the week. However, Williams is not an assertive person by nature, and even in his fourth year as a starter he still has nights when he all but disappears from the offense.
"Sometimes you just get into the game and you see Roger hitting his shots, you see Travis killing guys and you want to just keep giving them the ball," Williams said as the Cavaliers prepared for Tuesday's game against North Carolina. "But teams are going to key in on them and you've got to be able to step up and knock down shots."
Williams has had several games this season worthy of his pedigree as a former ACC rookie of the year and two-time all-conference selection. He has scored at least 15 points in 11 of Virginia's 21 games, including a pair of 18-point performances in the past eight days against No. 22 Missouri and Clemson.
In between those two games, however, Williams submitted a two-point effort in an 85-68 loss at North Carolina State on Wednesday. It was the fourth time this season Williams had scored in single digits and it was the second-lowest point total of his career.
Williams was similarly unproductive in the first half of Virginia's 85-71 win over Clemson on Sunday. He made his first shot, a fast-break three-pointer 2 minutes 30 seconds into the game, but he missed two attempts on the next possession and did not shoot again the rest of half.
In the second half, Williams shot 4 of 6 and 6 of 8 from the free throw line for 15 of his 18 points.
"Some of my shots in the second half were forced shots," Williams said. "You really do have to force some shots to make some big plays."
After the game, Virginia Coach Pete Gillen talked with Williams, reminding him to maintain that kind of offensive aggressiveness.
"I said, 'Hey, you're a nice guy, you're kind of laid back. You can't play that way. [In some games] you think you're playing hard, but you can play harder,' " Gillen said.
Gillen said he addressed the same reminder to all of his players, but it seems particularly important for Williams, who is one of only three veterans in Virginia's eight-man rotation.
"I believe with all my heart that if Chris Williams doesn't play well for us, we're not going to do too much," Mason said.
Williams likely will be needed again Tuesday night against North Carolina, which is tied with Clemson for last place in the conference. The Tar Heels (6-15, 2-9) already have tied the program record for losses in a season, but they nearly upset the Cavaliers on Jan. 12 in Chapel Hill, losing 71-67.
"It's still Carolina; they've still got McDonald's all-Americans," Gillen said. "We certainly respect them. We're not good enough to look past anybody."
UVA men host North Carolina tonight, seeking an ACC run
The second of those stretches, a 15-0 run in the second half, was enough to ensure that the Cavaliers ended their four-game losing streak. But if Virginia is to truly turn its season around and challenge the upper echelons of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Cavaliers are going to have to fully realize their ability soon enough.
Junior center Travis Watson, of Brookneal, was named ACC Player of the Week for the first time after scoring 49 points and grabbing 22 rebounds in two games last week. Most importantly, he made 20 of 23 free throws. He set his career high with 29 points in the Cavaliers' loss to N.C. State Wednesday, and he had 20 points and 10 rebounds against Clemson Sunday.
Tonight, in the second game of the five-game sequence that will go a long way towards determining the success of Virginia's season, the Cavaliers host down-and-out North Carolina (6-15, 2-9), which is tied for last in the ACC. Virginia beat the Tar Heels 71-67 in the teams' first meeting in Chapel Hill, the last time senior guard Adam Hall played significant minutes.
Virginia squeaked by North Carolina in a year where everyone else is drilling the Tar Heels. But if there is a need to prove themselves through margin of victory, the Cavaliers (15-6, 5-5) don't feel it.
"They're still North Carolina," Virginia coach Pete Gillen said. "It's still Virginia versus North Carolina, border states."
Williams said the team's pressure, at times, was better than it had been all season, likening it to the disabling defense that led to home upsets of Maryland, Duke and North Carolina (back when that meant something) last year. Gillen said the Cavaliers need to get back to their roots, which is the pressing, running style he has employed since his days at Xavier. It allows the Cavaliers to overcome weaknesses in ballhandling and shooting.
Virginia's halfcourt defense has been better than expected this year, but that might not be enough. The Cavaliers have held ACC opponents to 45.6 percent shooting, much better than the 49.8 percent conference foes shot last year. But Virginia is causing 13.5 turnovers per game, down from nearly 15 per game last season. Its defense is generating very little offense.
Gillen altered his starting lineup, putting in more defense in exchanging Jason Clark and Jermaine Harper for J.C. Mathis and Keith Jenifer. The result was 20 points in the first six minutes, before Gillen made his first substitution, putting in Mathis and Jenifer. The Cavaliers scored 24 points the rest of the half.
In the second half, for most of the run that put the Cavaliers ahead, the lineup on the floor was Jenifer, Watson, Elton Brown, Roger Mason Jr. and Chris Williams.
When the Cavaliers run, they are at ease, without the burden of halfcourt execution that looks useless when Mason and Watson are not open. That has become more and more common as the ACC has learned the Cavaliers can become a two-man team at critical junctures.
There are few more critical junctures than this stretch.
ACC Notebook
• There's a burr under Duke's saddle on its long ride through the ACC season.
The coaches and players found a new enemy last week - the media - after The News and Observer of Raleigh ran a story last Wednesday about recent outbursts and confrontations in the conference that forced Commissioner John Swofford to suspend a player for one game and reprimand a coach and an assistant.
The headline on the story was "Conducting Unbecoming" and an accompanying picture was of Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke in one of his more combative moments, a sideline rant during a win last month over Georgia Tech.
Krzyzewski was not one of the coaches reprimanded by the ACC, which prompted one Duke official to call The News and Observer to complain. The argument: how could a newspaper in Raleigh run a picture of Krzyzewski in a story about bad conduct that included the suspension of an N.C. State player (Julius Hodge)?
One day later, after a win over Florida State at home, Krzyzewski sliced the media with words laced with sarcasm. Krzyzewski began by saying he had placed Jason Williams in a position where Williams couldn't attack and he had scored only seven points. He was mad at himself for making the mistake.
"I hope I did that in a gentlemanly way," Krzyzewski said, "and that it was conduct becoming a gentleman. You know, I've been a gentleman most of my life, and I hope that I'm always considered that.
"I hope, too, that when the story of the game comes that they'll put Duke pictures with this Duke story. That'll be nice. And I would welcome any of you to do humanitarian things like we do.
"Like I would challenge the local papers to get involved with the Emily Krzyzewski Family Center, the V Foundation, the Children's Hospital, and the Cancer Comprehensive Center because I know you're really looking out for the interests of everybody. We'd like to join arms with you to do that; that would be terrific."
No word yet whether Krzyzewski is sending a contingent to Afghanistan to look for Osama Bin Laden or to Africa to wipe out the Ebola virus.
Defeat at Virginia would give
UNC its most ever in a season
Already saddled with its most ACC losses in a season, UNC is on the brink of suffering its most losses ever in one season.
The Tar Heels' next loss will be their 16th, which would be a school record. All they must do to avoid that ignominy is to win the rest of their games and the NCAA championship.
The odds might be better that Congress can get Enron executives to testify against each other.
UNC will have had only one day's rest since its 92-77 thumping at the hands of Maryland, but Jason Capel would rather play now than wait until later in the week.
"It's good; there's no time to dwell on this loss," Capel said Sunday. "We'll practice and get on the plane and be ready to play. We can beat Virginia, and we know that. We should have beaten them here. We just let it slip away."
UNC is 6-15 overall and 2-9 in the ACC. Included among the setbacks is a 71-67 lost to Virginia last month in the Smith Center. Virginia is 15-6 and 5-5 and hasn't lost to UNC at home since 1999.
UNC managed only two ties against Maryland and never led during its fifth consecutive defeat at home. Coach Matt Doherty said he was encouraged by the spunk his team displayed in the final 10 minutes when it cut into Maryland's 22-point lead.
Doherty believes that the strong finish will give the Tar Heels something on which to build.
"We have to (build on the Maryland finish)," Doherty said. "We have to hang our hat on something. That's a start. You have to have that. And then you can win.
"If you don't have that, you're not going to win. We showed some heart, we showed some spark, and we put up a fight."
Virginia broke a four-game losing streak Sunday, using the most proven medicine since aspirin: Clemson. Even UNC has beaten Clemson. The Cavs' losing streak included three ACC games and forced Coach Pete Gillen to alter his coaching style.
"I'm not going to give any pre-game talks anymore," Gillen said. "I'm just going to say, 'Just do it? Right? Go shake those dudes.' Some sort of street talk like, 'Kill those sons of guns.'
"I write War and Peace on the blackboard. Do this and do that, and obviously it doesn't make a damn. They don't listen to me. I'm going to give a pre-game talk after the game because every game it seems we get off to a bad start."
Doherty joined Capel in welcoming the short time between games.
"We've got to move on; let's move on," Doherty said. "Let's play a basketball game. (Virginia's) a talented team, but they're trying to find themselves a little bit. It's going to take a great effort to go to Virginia and beat Virginia. We went up there with a very talented team and got smoked last year.
"If we can give this kind of effort (the finish against Maryland) and maybe box out a little better and shoot a little better from the foul line and the 3-point line, we'll hopefully have a chance."