Hairston, McDonald to miss opener

With season openers comes excitement, hope for the future, a chance at a title run.

But for the North Carolina basketball team, the season opener against Oakland is considerably dulled with a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the Smith Center.

The Tar Heels’ top 3-point threats, P.J. Hairston and Leslie McDonald, will both sit on the sideline, wearing suits and ties rather than jerseys and tennis shoes Friday night.

Though coach Roy Williams hoped to announce Hairston and McDonald’s final fate before the season, team spokesman Steve Kirschner said Thursday that the compliance issue with the NCAA is “ongoing.”

“It is frustrating but it’s also a long process and we’re trying to do what we can do,” Williams said. “The NCAA is trying to do what they can do. But it’s what it is. I’m sure they would like to settle all of their cases in five minutes, too. We’ve just got to try to continue to work with them and working with our student athletes and doing the best job we can do and just seeing what happens.”

At the ACC’s Operation Basketball on Oct. 16, Williams maintained that there would be a decision before the opener.

“I said it will be announced before the season starts and it will,” Williams said then.

But less than a month later, a decision hasn’t been made, and Williams’ role has been reduced to “waiting for somebody to tell me what’s going on.”

Though the circumstances are drastically different, uncertainty isn’t anything new to UNC leading into the season opener. This time last year, the starting lineup wasn’t set and the team’s identity was unclear after four starters departed for the NBA and graduation.

“Last year just not knowing what the team was going to look like, especially after losing all of those guys that went pro,” junior forward James Michael McAdoo said. “As opposed to this year where we’re really comfortable and confident with who we have.

“But knowing that we won’t have P.J. and Leslie out there is definitely something that’s going to change our team and the way we look.”

With the absence of Hairston and McDonald, the team will shift its lineup to adjust for the loss of the two wing players.

“Right now, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise and all that kind of stuff, Nate (Britt), Marcus (Paige), J.P. (Tokoto), James Michael (McAdoo) and depends on who brings me the best piece of dessert tonight,” Williams said of his starting lineup.

A summer of controversy surrounding two of his players — Hairston’s traffic transgressions and McDonald’s involvement with a designer mouthguard company — made for the most difficult offseason and preseason Williams said he’s experienced.

But with the regular season finally upon him, Williams is prepared to make the necessary adjustments while two of his top players are relegated to street clothes at game time.

“It has been a very erratic planning and preseason time, it really has,” he said. “Because things aren’t as smooth and as settled as we would like for them to be. But it’s what it is.”

sports@dailytarheel.com