Maybe Rumplestiltskin could weave straw into gold, but Ol’ Rumpy couldn’t bottle it and he couldn’t sell it, and thus no coach could ever buy it.
To put it another way, Bill Self hasn’t mined a whole lot of paydirt out of Roy Williams’ diggings and Williams hasn’t found a whole lot of nuggets in the sluice box at Matt Doherty’s old claim.
To put it still another way, in taking over at North Carolina, Williams inherited basically the same team he left Self.
Here we are two dozen games into the 2003-2004 men’s college basketball season and we know that Kansas University and North Carolina are similar in many respects. For starters, both have nearly identical records. Kansas is 17-7 while North Carolina is 16-8.
Let me digress for a moment and say I’m not going to get into a comparison of leagues. Everybody says the Atlantic Coast Conference is the best in the country. Fine. They can say what they want. But the Big 12 Conference isn’t the Upper Scrub division of the Mid-Wasteland League. You still have to show up and play.
Both the Jayhawks and the Tar Heels have had a tough time lately winning in unfriendly arenas — a deficiency attributable in large part to a lack of depth. We’ve been hearing all winter about Carolina’s thin bench, yet Kansas’ reserves don’t scare anybody to death, either.
How do Kansas and North Carolina compare numbers-wise? You might be surprised.
For example, North Carolina’s five starters are accounting for 83.2 percent of the scoring and 67.3 percent of the rebounding. Meanwhile, Kansas’ five starters account for 81 percent of the scoring and 68 percent of the board total.
Continuing, North Carolina shoots better from the field — 46.8 percent to KU’s 44.8 percent, but the Jayhawks are a better free-throw shooting team — 70.3 percent to 67.5 percent. UNC has a slight edge in rebounding — 40.4 boards per game to KU’s 39.1.
Both Self and Williams use a sixth and seventh man considerably. After that, each coach looks down an escarpment.
To this point, Jackie Manuel and David Noel, UNC’s top subs, contribute a combined 12.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. At the same time, Kansas’ Jeff Graves and Michael Lee check in with an aggregate 10.2 points and 7.4 boards. Edge: North Carolina. Granted, the Tar Heels’ advantage isn’t huge, but an edge is an edge.
Manuel, a 6-foot-5 junior, and Graves, a 6-foot-9 senior, fit the category of Sixth Man and the two have at least one thing in common — foul trouble. Manuel leads the Tar Heels in fouls and Graves is the Jayhawks’ leader. Coincidentally, each has been whistled 74 times, so UNC and KU have at least one dead heat.
Noel, the Tar Heels’ seventh man, does one thing very well. The 6-foot-6 sophomore rebounds. His 5.1 boards-per-game average is the third highest on the team.
Lee, the Jayhawks’ seventh man, has — on paper anyway — supplied the same numbers he did last year when as the sixth or seventh man he averaged 4.9 points and 2.3 rebounds. So far this season, the 6-3 junior’s stats are virtually the same at 4.9 ppg. and 2.7 rpg.
Lee’s figures are deceptive, though, because Lee shot 49.3 percent from the field last year, including a team-best 50 percent from three-point range, and his shooting percentages this season are a dismal .306 from the field and .271 from beyond the arc.
In Lee’s defense, he missed nine games earlier this season because of a right collarbone injury, and he’s a right-handed shooter.
Well, there you have it. Kansas and North Carolina are similar enough at this stage of the season to state without fear of argument that Roy Williams is essentially coaching the same team now that he would have coached if he had stayed for a 16th season at Kansas.
I don’t know about you, but I’d love to see Kansas and North Carolina face each other on a neutral court in the NCAA Tournament. Odds are that won’t happen, but don’t be surprised if the NCAA basketball committee awards the Jayhawks and Tar Heels the same numbered seed in different regionals.
