ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 12, 1997 TAG: 9701140015
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
It figured to be a historical season in North Carolina basketball.
It's just that history wasn't expected to be made so soon.
Dean Smith is chasing Adolph Rupp's record for coaching victories, and he still may somehow get there this season.
Then, considering the tarred Heels of the past eight days, maybe not.
However, Smith's 36th UNC team accomplished something no other Carolina club has managed. With Saturday night's 75-63 loss to Virginia at University Hall, the Heels fell to 0-3 in the ACC.
When is the last time that happened?
Never, in the ACC's 44 seasons.
Never, even since the Chapel Hill school began league play in the Southern Conference in 1921-22.
Carolina (9-4) was torched at Wake Forest by 24 a week earlier, then blew a 22-point lead at the Dean Dome to Maryland at midweek. Maybe it didn't get any worse for the Heels against UVa, but it didn't get any better, either.
The Heels couldn't shoot, and as was obvious in the loss at Wake a Saturday ago, they're much too slow-footed to play the kind of defense for which Smith teams are known.
Entering the game, UNC ranked ninth - that's last - in the ACC in scoring defense, allowing 70.3 points per game, or six more than the eighth-place Cavaliers. The Heels also were at the bottom in field-goal percentage defense (.417).
When is the last time that happened? Probably never, too. And this was the 13th-ranked team in the country, which now owns a share of the ACC basement.
The following hasn't been said - at least in ACC memory - of the Tar Heels, either. They lack talent. The NBA early defections have left Carolina really blue.
Forward Antawn Jamison may be the ACC's leading scorer and No. 2 rebounder, and he can be spectacular. He also is inconsistent.
That meant that in a 20-point first half against a UVa team desperate for a win - the Cavaliers head to unbeaten Wake Forest and 10th-ranked Duke this week - the Heels' go-to guy was 7-foot-3 senior Serge Zwikker, who until this year was a 5.1-point average scorer in his career.
Rookie Ed Cota may one day be outstanding at the point, but when was the last time Carolina's guards were so unproductive and contributed so little?
The Cavaliers (11-4) keep surviving, which in this season of balance in college hoops, is a desired trait.
They have reached the halfway point of their regular season with success via two usual ingredients of Jeff Jones-coached teams - defense and resiliency.
UVa has waded through the turmoil caused by the unhappiness of the team's most talented offensive force, Courtney Alexander, who needs to stay on the floor. Players who have contributed one game sometimes don't remove their warmups for the next one.
The Cavaliers have done a lot of growing up in a week. ``We have to know how we have to play to be considered good,'' Jones said.
Jones has used four different starting lineups, and has no discernible player rotation. Is he substituting, or playing poker, hoping to draw a hot hand somewhere?
The Cavs' shot selection has improved over recent seasons, however. Point guard Harold Deane is playing with more control, and the Cavaliers still get little except body work from the post.
UVa's four defeats have come to teams with only a combined five losses, and the victory over UNC is the kind Jones' club needs if it is to have any shot at an at-large NCAA Tournament bid.
If anything favors UVa, it's the schedule. After the games at Wake and Duke, the Cavaliers play seven of their final 12 regular-season games at home, and another in Richmond against Virginia Tech.
Virginia hasn't won 11 so early in a season since Ralph Sampson's senior year, 1982-83. Carolina hasn't lost so many in the ACC so soon.
There are a lot of hoops to be played, however. The NCAA Tournament bids go out eight weeks from today. As Jones and Smith likely told their teams after the game Saturday night, it's not how you start, but how you finish.
LENGTH: Medium: 78 linesby CNB