The Heels don't want to play tonight. I'm pounding The Blue Demons!!!!
By BARRY SVRLUGA, Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL -- No one quite knows what to expect tonight.
Yes, North Carolina will host DePaul in a men's basketball game, but it's the NIT, not the NCAA. Will the Smith Center be even half-full? Do the players even care?
"Some guys are feeling they didn't want to settle for the NIT," guard Melvin Scott said Monday. "The maturer guys are telling the young guys that it's something we have to do. ... We brought it upon ourselves."
The 21,750-seat Smith Center, which never has hosted an NIT game, will feel different tonight. There are no thoughts of a sellout, particularly because the game will be televised nationally by ESPN.
The atmosphere also may differ in another respect from the regular season, when the best seats are dominated by those who donate the most money to the athletics department. People who normally only dream of the front row should be able to get great seats.
Tickets, which went on sale Monday and are available again at 8 a.m. today, are general admission on three sides of the court -- across from the benches and on both baselines. The doors will open at 7 p.m., two hours before tip-off.
Clint Gwaltney, UNC's director of ticket operations, said about 6,000 tickets had been sold as of 4 p.m. Monday.
"It should be a good chance for people who don't get to go or don't get good seats to sit up front," Gwaltney said. "It'll be first come, first serve."
Some of the fans who stood in a short line Monday afternoon said they were there because of that opportunity.
"It'll be a big difference from when you got people giving a quarter of a million dollars sitting there," said Jeff Hedgepeth of Creedmoor, who bought tickets for himself, two buddies and his 2-year-old daughter Ashleigh. "I'm looking to sit in some of the better seats I've ever had."
UNC coach Matt Doherty likened the situation to January 2000, when snow belted the Triangle and the Tar Heels hosted Maryland. Students were allowed to sit in the good seats, and Carolina came up with a huge win in a great atmosphere.
That, however, was an ACC game involving a UNC team that eventually reached the Final Four. This is an NIT game.
"It'll be a little different atmosphere," Doherty said. "But our fans have been great all my three years. I think the way we finished off the season, they really energized us. I hope they can come and energize us [tonight]."
At the moment, the Heels seem to need whatever energy they can get. The team reluctantly gathered at Doherty's house on Sunday night to watch the NCAA selection show even though UNC had very little chance of getting a bid.
"A lot of guys didn't feel like we should've watched it like that," forward David Noel said.
On Monday, the Tar Heels practiced and went over DePaul for the first time. Some of them needed convincing that the NIT was worth it.
"Some guys talk about it like we're playing for 66th place," Noel said. "But once you get out on the court, you play to win."
DePaul is dealing with the same issues. First-year coach Dave Leitao inherited a team that won nine games last year and got them to 16-12 with wins over Louisville and Cincinnati. Leitao won both an NIT and an NCAA championship as an assistant at Connecticut, so he knows what it's like to try to prepare a team for the lesser of the two tournaments.
"What I've tried to impress upon our guys is it's a mind-set," Leitao said. "The team that is most aggressive, is happy to be there and is playing for a particular reason is going to have a distinct advantage.
"I've been on a team that won the NIT championship, and I've been on a team that was ousted in the first round of the NIT because of its mind-set."
If the Tar Heels win, they will play either Monday or Tuesday against the winner of Wednesday's game between Eastern Washington and Wyoming. That second-round game would be at the Smith Center.
Beyond that, the Heels' likeliest opponent is Tennessee, coached by UNC alumnus and former Doherty teammate Buzz Peterson. The Volunteers will face Georgetown tonight.
But to get that far, the Heels will have to decide that the NIT matters.
"It's been a roller-coaster season," Scott said. "A lot of guys are emotionally drained. But the postseason can help us mature."
THE STORY LINES
Carolina (17-15) hasn't appeared in the NIT since the NCAA Tournament expanded to include teams that didn't win their conference titles. The Tar Heels won the NIT in 1971 and last appeared in it in 1974, when they lost in the first round. DePaul is a much different team under new coach Dave Leitao than it was under Pat Kennedy, who was fired after last season. The Blue Demons (16-12) play tough half-court defense.
MATCHUP TO WATCH
DePaul's big gun -- big, to the tune of 6-9, 260 pounds -- is center Sam Hoskin. He can bang underneath and has even stepped out to attempt more than one 3-pointer per game. That should make UNC center Sean May, in his second game back after returning from a broken bone in his foot, even more important. If May can play extended minutes, and he blends with his teammates well enough, he could neutralize Hoskin.
NEXT GAMES
Winner: Plays Eastern Washington-Wyoming winner, TBA
By BARRY SVRLUGA, Staff Writer
CHAPEL HILL -- No one quite knows what to expect tonight.
Yes, North Carolina will host DePaul in a men's basketball game, but it's the NIT, not the NCAA. Will the Smith Center be even half-full? Do the players even care?
"Some guys are feeling they didn't want to settle for the NIT," guard Melvin Scott said Monday. "The maturer guys are telling the young guys that it's something we have to do. ... We brought it upon ourselves."
The 21,750-seat Smith Center, which never has hosted an NIT game, will feel different tonight. There are no thoughts of a sellout, particularly because the game will be televised nationally by ESPN.
The atmosphere also may differ in another respect from the regular season, when the best seats are dominated by those who donate the most money to the athletics department. People who normally only dream of the front row should be able to get great seats.
Tickets, which went on sale Monday and are available again at 8 a.m. today, are general admission on three sides of the court -- across from the benches and on both baselines. The doors will open at 7 p.m., two hours before tip-off.
Clint Gwaltney, UNC's director of ticket operations, said about 6,000 tickets had been sold as of 4 p.m. Monday.
"It should be a good chance for people who don't get to go or don't get good seats to sit up front," Gwaltney said. "It'll be first come, first serve."
Some of the fans who stood in a short line Monday afternoon said they were there because of that opportunity.
"It'll be a big difference from when you got people giving a quarter of a million dollars sitting there," said Jeff Hedgepeth of Creedmoor, who bought tickets for himself, two buddies and his 2-year-old daughter Ashleigh. "I'm looking to sit in some of the better seats I've ever had."
UNC coach Matt Doherty likened the situation to January 2000, when snow belted the Triangle and the Tar Heels hosted Maryland. Students were allowed to sit in the good seats, and Carolina came up with a huge win in a great atmosphere.
That, however, was an ACC game involving a UNC team that eventually reached the Final Four. This is an NIT game.
"It'll be a little different atmosphere," Doherty said. "But our fans have been great all my three years. I think the way we finished off the season, they really energized us. I hope they can come and energize us [tonight]."
At the moment, the Heels seem to need whatever energy they can get. The team reluctantly gathered at Doherty's house on Sunday night to watch the NCAA selection show even though UNC had very little chance of getting a bid.
"A lot of guys didn't feel like we should've watched it like that," forward David Noel said.
On Monday, the Tar Heels practiced and went over DePaul for the first time. Some of them needed convincing that the NIT was worth it.
"Some guys talk about it like we're playing for 66th place," Noel said. "But once you get out on the court, you play to win."
DePaul is dealing with the same issues. First-year coach Dave Leitao inherited a team that won nine games last year and got them to 16-12 with wins over Louisville and Cincinnati. Leitao won both an NIT and an NCAA championship as an assistant at Connecticut, so he knows what it's like to try to prepare a team for the lesser of the two tournaments.
"What I've tried to impress upon our guys is it's a mind-set," Leitao said. "The team that is most aggressive, is happy to be there and is playing for a particular reason is going to have a distinct advantage.
"I've been on a team that won the NIT championship, and I've been on a team that was ousted in the first round of the NIT because of its mind-set."
If the Tar Heels win, they will play either Monday or Tuesday against the winner of Wednesday's game between Eastern Washington and Wyoming. That second-round game would be at the Smith Center.
Beyond that, the Heels' likeliest opponent is Tennessee, coached by UNC alumnus and former Doherty teammate Buzz Peterson. The Volunteers will face Georgetown tonight.
But to get that far, the Heels will have to decide that the NIT matters.
"It's been a roller-coaster season," Scott said. "A lot of guys are emotionally drained. But the postseason can help us mature."
THE STORY LINES
Carolina (17-15) hasn't appeared in the NIT since the NCAA Tournament expanded to include teams that didn't win their conference titles. The Tar Heels won the NIT in 1971 and last appeared in it in 1974, when they lost in the first round. DePaul is a much different team under new coach Dave Leitao than it was under Pat Kennedy, who was fired after last season. The Blue Demons (16-12) play tough half-court defense.
MATCHUP TO WATCH
DePaul's big gun -- big, to the tune of 6-9, 260 pounds -- is center Sam Hoskin. He can bang underneath and has even stepped out to attempt more than one 3-pointer per game. That should make UNC center Sean May, in his second game back after returning from a broken bone in his foot, even more important. If May can play extended minutes, and he blends with his teammates well enough, he could neutralize Hoskin.
NEXT GAMES
Winner: Plays Eastern Washington-Wyoming winner, TBA
