Roy won't allow 8-20 to reoccur

Black Friday hit Chapel Hill like a powerful hurricane, leaving a ravaged basketball program in its wake.

After the carnage, only seven players remain from the national championship team. Those seven played a combined 1200 minutes last season — or six total games.

Next season has “8-20” written all over it. Sean May, Raymond Felton and Marvin Williams are all gone. So is Rashad McCants. Jackie Manuel, Melvin Scott and Jawad Williams are graduating.

But UNC will have the one Williams back who really matters.

Coach Roy Williams will be the one factor that will prevent a repeat of the debacle three years ago.

That year’s team might have been undermanned, but they were also uninspired. Opponents would go on an early run, and instead of countering, the Tar Heels would fall back into their chuck-and-duck offense and stumble to a 30-point loss.

But that won’t happen under Williams. He’s too good a coach and too demanding of himself and his players.

Still, this will be the biggest challenge of his career, and one of the biggest any major college coach has faced. The 2005 Tar Heels experienced the most drastic loss in talent since Arizona in 2000.

Even the Wildcats — who lost four starters to the NBA after a run to the championship game — returned their starting point guard and had other future stars waiting in the background.

But Williams has the unprecedented task of having to replace his top seven scorers and 74 of the 75 points UNC scored in the national championship against Illinois.

Maybe next year, David Noel will emerge as a more explosive version of Manuel with better passing ability.

Maybe Reyshawn Terry will make a leap this offseason similar to the one he made from freshman year to this year.

Maybe Quentin Thomas will relax with the knowledge that he will be the team’s floor leader instead of resembling a rabbit on speed.

Maybe the incoming freshmen will all meet or exceed their potential.

But those are a lot of maybes. Williams will have to do an even better job than he did this year.

He spent this past year coaching the team with his foot squarely up the team’s butt in an effort to coax perfection out of the tremendous talent he had.

Next year, Williams will have to coach with his hands calmly on his team’s shoulders, preaching patience and being more of a teacher.

But there is one thing that will make next year a little less difficult for Williams, and it’s the one thing he kept bringing up at the Friday press conference where his three most vital players all announced their plans to go pro. No matter how little next year’s team resembles this year’s, he’ll still be able to say he is coaching the defending national champions.

And that’s the one thing fans should keep in mind when they gripe about May breaking his promise and leaving early or Marvin Williams making the jump after one year.

Next season will have its share of frustration and inconsistency. But anyone who’d trade another year of May or Marvin Williams for being crammed onto Franklin Street on April 4 or for wearing their “2005 National Champions” T-shirt is probably only suited to be the general manager of the L.A. Clippers.

In 2005, Roy Williams finally won his championship. In 2006, we’ll see just how good a coach he is.

Contact Daniel Blank at danblank@email.unc.edu.