2007 UNC Baseball team is dominating

As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, March 31st:

It breaks our hearts that when we turn the television on CBS tonight Roy Williams won’t be there.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean Tar Heel fans won’t get a chance to see our beloved coach today.

There isn’t enough space in this column for me to enumerate all the reasons I love Roy Williams, but one of them is how supportive he is of the UNC baseball team. Lots of folks probably saw him on ESPN in Omaha during the College World Series last year. Fewer folks know that when UNC went to play a road series at Duke last April, Roy was picnicking with his wife on the first base line in Durham.

Far from a bandwagon fan, he’s been to at least four games so far this season, including Wednesday night’s 28-3 thumping of Davidson.

When he heads out to Boshamer Stadium, he sees quite a show. As vaunted as last year’s national runner up was, this year’s team is actually off to an even better start.

Folks thought we would have trouble recovering from the loss of star pitchers Andrew Miller and Daniel Bard to the pros, but so far we haven’t skipped a beat. Robert Woodard was the most consistent if least hyped pitcher of last year’s starting trio and moves further up the list for various UNC pitching records every time he takes the hill. Drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 47^th round last summer, he should move a lot further up in the draft order this time around.

The rotation is rounded out by freshman Alex White and last year’s midweek starter Luke Putkonen. White has pitched better than I ever remember Bard or Miller pitching as a freshman. He is already a star, and it’s hard to comprehend how good he’ll be pitching for the Tar Heels in two years (in baseball, once you go to college you have to stay three years before going to the pros.) Putkonen has adjusted well to the tougher hitters he faces in the weekend games, with an undefeated record so far on the season.

The real excitement this team is providing though is with their bats. Freshman Dustin Ackley immediately became my favorite player on the team in the second game of the season when he blooped a hit to short left center field and ran it out into a double. I liked his hustle then, now I like even more that he is batting an amazing near 500.

Maybe the best example to show how much punch this team has is that catcher Benji Johnson, a Chatham County native, hit two home runs on Wednesday night- off the bench!

Left fielder Reid Fronk always seems to find a way to get on base. In an exciting late February game against nationally ranked Coastal Carolina, he got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in extra innings to win it. Second baseman Garrett Gore is in the lineup for his stellar defense, but he is markedly improved with the bat and hit his first career home run earlier this week. Third baseman Chad Flack is struggling but will doubtless soon get back to the star form that launched UNC into the College World Series with a dramatic home run against Alabama last spring.

The outfield positions are an embarrassment of riches with a menu of choices including freshmen Drew Poulk and Tim Fedroff, who have each already shown an ability to hit for power, the speedy Mike Cavasinni who started in center field during most of last year’s championship run, and Seth Williams who provides both solid defense and a steady bat.

Orange County’s own Josh Horton is likely to be a first round draft pick this spring and continues to provide a hot bat at the shortstop position. After spending the summer with Team USA, catcher Tim Federowicz is now doing double duty as a strong relief pitcher while continuing to hit well and play solid defense.

Bottom line, this team is loaded, fun to watch, and primed to take care of last season’s unfinished business.

I can’t promise ‘ol Roy will be there this afternoon, but the Tar Heels are at home each of the next two days against in conference rival Wake Forest. Personally I think there’s no better spring experience in Chapel Hill than enjoying a game at the Bosh on a warm spring night, and the opportunity to do that presents itself each of the next four Tuesday nights at 6 PM.

It was a disappointing end to the basketball season but between the women’s basketball team’s trip to the final four in Cleveland this weekend and this outstanding baseball team there’s plenty of sun on the horizon for Tar Heel fans.

Tracey Williams-Johnson plays a key role for the Tar Heels

As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on Saturday, March 17th:

The UNC women's basketball team may be kicking off the NCAA tournament this weekend, but assistant coach Tracey Williams-Johnson has spent much of the last few weeks away from Chapel Hill.

Williams-Johnson is far from AWOL though. Rather as the team's recruiting coordinator, she is putting in the hard work necessary to ensure that future Carolina teams are just as good as this year's likely Final Four-bound program.

She spent last March 7, her birthday, in Atlanta recruiting at the Georgia high school basketball championships. March 9, she flew with head coach Sylvia Hatchell to watch the state finals in Arkansas, leaving at 5 and arriving back in North Carolina around 2:30 AM. There's no rest for the weary though, as Williams-Johnson was back up and at the Dean Dome early the next morning for our state championships.

Williams-Johnson has had a tremendous amount of success with recruiting during her eight years in the Carolina basketball program, helping to land such stars as Ivory Latta, Erlana Larkins and Camille Little.

A humble person though, she gives much of the credit to Hatchell, for whom she has a tremendous amount of respect. The pair have been friends since Hatchell's Frances Marion University teams faced off against the UNC-Pembroke teams Williams-Johnson played for in college.

I figured that considering the vital role Williams-Johnson has played during this period of great accomplishment in the UNC program, she might be top level head coaching material for some other program. Her response? “No interest at all. I love it here. There's no one I'd rather be working with than Coach Hatchell and the other wonderful people in this program.”

Williams-Johnson joked that it can actually be a lot harder to convince people to leave the program than to join it! Her newly hired assistant is former player Jessica Sell, who played a key role as a starter on last year's Final Four team. Sell's helping out with recruiting and is interested in becoming a coach some day herself further down the line. She says “there's no better person to learn from than coach Williams-Johnson.”

Sell said that in her own recruitment, one of the things that came across was how much like a family the UNC program was. Williams-Johnson agrees, saying that “the relationships we form here last a lifetime and that the love and respect we have for each other is a big part of our success.”

Williams-Johnson brought an interesting background to the Carolina program, working in administration for both the U.S. national team and for the short-lived women's professional American Basketball League. Although the ABL had a higher quality of play than the WNBA during its year of existence, the lack of institutional backing made it difficult to thrive.

From that background working in professional women's basketball, she thinks Ivory Latta will be good for the WNBA.

“She's a marketing dream. She has so much energy and never backs down and when young girls see that, it makes them want to be a part of this. Camille Little with her versatility and capability to be a threat both offensively and defensively inside and out will also be a tremendous asset to the WNBA.”

In those two positions she did a great job of promoting in general the game of women's basketball, but when the ABL folded she knew where she wanted to be. “Coach Hatchell and I competed against each other, worked as camp counselors at Campbell together, and worked together in the US national program. I knew she was the kind of person I wanted to work with.”

Williams-Johnson is one of the friendliest and kind-hearted people you could ever meet and folks around the ACC know it. For instance, when Miami came to play Carolina last month they had a snafu with their equipment. Their coaches knew that she was the person with the compassion and organization to bail them out with the problem, and she did.

With the duel roles of overseeing the recruitment of future teams while continuing to assist with the coaching of this one, Williams-Johnson doesn't have much time for much else but dotes on her parents in Sampson County as well as her husband.

Hatchell and the players get most of the attention for the team's performance, and they absolutely deserve it. Williams-Johnson says “our success and the relationships we have are all the recognition I deserve.”

Her modesty is appreciated, but coach Williams-Johnson deserves a lot of credit for the great success the team has had over the last few years. Her nature doubtless helps to show parents and potential student athletes what kind of a program they'll be joining at UNC and as her assistant Jessica Sell says, “she has a great passion and drive to win.”

The Carolina program has been doing a lot of that winning during coach Williams-Johnson's time in the program, and as they embark on another potential national championship run this weekend, they're real lucky to have her.

Support UNC women's basketball team

As printed in the Chapel Hill Herald on December 30th, 2006:

Two Saturdays ago I attended a men's basketball game against UNC-Asheville at the Dean Dome, took a half-hour break and then went to a women's game against South Carolina State at Carmichael Auditorium. Even though I attended about 95 percent of the men's home games while I was a student and about half of the women's games, this was the first time I had ever gone to both on the same day. So how did they stack up in close proximity? Frankly, I enjoyed the women's game a lot more.

That's probably a good thing since in my first year of post-studentdom I'm not likely to get into a lot of men's games without breaking the bank.

Like the men's team, our women's team this year is fast-paced, exciting and ranked in the top five in the country. Unlike at the Dean Dome, women's tickets are generally easy to get, inexpensive and universally close to the court.

Coach Sylvia Hatchell is truly underrated in the Carolina community. She has more than 700 wins in her coaching career and will likely end up with more than Dean Smith by the time she retires. She does it with the same understated humility that Roy Williams does, and it's a shame that Tar Heel enthusiasts don't love her as much as they love him.

Ivory Latta is the most electrifying basketball player in the country, male or female, college or pro. I have never seen an athlete who so visibly loves playing the game and does it with so much enthusiasm.

Last year she won several national awards. It seems less likely that she'll do it this year but that's just because she's such an unselfish player and isn't putting up the scoring totals that players usually need to get that kind of honor. Hopefully the voters will see she's the best player in the country regardless of the numbers.

This team does not start and end with Ivory Latta though. For instance, in their biggest game so far this year, against Tennessee, junior Erlana Larkins really stepped up with a star performance inside that led the team to victory. She is one of the most improved players on the team this year and will be key down low as the team enters ACC play.

Along with Latta and Larkins, Camille Little is the team's third finalist for the Naismith Player of the Year award. She is an aggressive player with a multifaceted game who can score, rebound, and steal with the best of them.

The rest of the starting lineup for the Heels includes sophomore Rashanda McCants, much improved from her freshman year, and LaToya Pringle, a force inside who leads the team in blocks.

The team also has a strong bench. Heather Claytor is the team's best pure outside shooter, freshman Jessica Breland appears to be a future star both offensively and defensively, and Alex Miller compensates for her small size by playing so hard that I'm always worried she's going to get hurt.

Just like in men's basketball, there's an ACC coach whom I absolutely despise and want to see the Tar Heels destroy.

It is not, however, Duke coach Gail Goestenkors. After all, Duke has not beaten UNC in its last five attempts. And that's not going to change this year either. It's hard for me to harbor too much animosity toward an inferior program.

It's Maryland coach Brenda Frese who has earned my wrath, so much that I am going to go to the UNC game at Maryland next month just to yell at her.

The most exasperating sporting event I went to in 2006 was UNC's home game against Maryland. That woman's complaining to the refs makes Mike Krzyzewski look docile. She absolutely should have been double t'd and ejected based on her behavior during that game. But she was effective, I'll grant her that.

Even though Maryland fouled UNC players pretty much every play of the second half, the calls went in the Terps' favor. Right to the last play of the game when Ivory Latta was assaulted on a shot to tie the game and the whistle didn't blow. Frese reminds me of Ann Coulter.

OK, I'm working myself into a frenzy and need to calm down. Bottom line, more people need to attend women's basketball games. There is a home game this afternoon at 2 p.m. against Tennessee Tech. You should go. This outstanding team deserves your support.

Other key upcoming home games include Jan. 15 against Connecticut and Feb. 8 against Duke. It would also be great to fill up Cameron with Tar Heel fans for the Duke away game on Feb. 25.

I fully anticipate that on April 2 and 3, the UNC men's and women's teams will both bring home national championships. I hope they'll do it with the equal support of the Chapel Hill community.

Come out to Kenan to support Heels

As published in the Chapel Hill Herald on September 2nd, 2006:

One of the things I've found most surprising during my four years in Chapel Hill is the empty seats in Kenan Stadium. It may be because I went to high school across the street from a 100,000-plus capacity stadium in Ann Arbor, Mich., that has not seen an empty seat in more than 30 years. Still, there is big-time football going on in town six or seven Saturdays every year, and it would be nice to see more support for the team from the community.

The season kicks off today against Rutgers at 3:30, and so does the opportunity for local residents to start attending games in greater numbers.

The good news is that there are already a couple games this year that the stadium has filled up for. Virginia Tech and North Carolina State tickets are sold out, at least in part because of large numbers of opposition fans buying up seats.

The other two ACC home games are against Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. The game against the Demon Deacons seems like it should get a pretty good crowd from in-state fans, and the matchup with the Yellow Jackets produces a memorable outcome every year.

It seems then that the games most likely to have trouble getting people in seats will be the nonconference ones against Rutgers today, Furman in two weeks, and South Florida next month.

A Herald-Sun report indicated that UNC has had the hardest schedule of any program in the country aggregated over the past five years.

Part of that is by design -- when the Athletic Department scheduled games against teams like Texas, Notre Dame and Wisconsin, an uphill battle had to be anticipated.

It has also been partially because of happenstance, though. Many of the teams the Tar Heels have scheduled ended up being far better than anticipated. Who could have known that Louisville, which destroyed us the past two years, would develop into one of the country's strongest programs? Or that when a trip was scheduled to Utah two years ago they would turn out to be a top-five team?

This year's slate continues that trend. When Rutgers, South Florida and Furman were scheduled, it had to look like three easy wins for the Heels. Now it looks like three games that should provide closely matched action.

Rutgers has been one of the worst programs in a BCS conference over the past decade. But Coach Greg Schiano seems to finally have them on the right track. Taking advantage of the exodus of some of the Big East's strongest teams to the ACC last year, the Scarlet Knights put together a surprising season punctuated with a bowl trip. They are expected to have a similarly strong team this year and should be pretty evenly matched with UNC today.

Furman is not even a Division I-A team, but after getting thrashed by the Paladins at Kenan in 1999, the Tar Heels know they will have to take this game seriously.

Furman continues to be a I-AA powerhouse. They lost in the national semifinals last year to eventual champion Appalachian State, who will hopefully embarrass N.C. State today. This is another game that should provide some pretty strong competition for UNC.

South Florida flirted with a bid in a BCS bowl for much of last season before falling off at the end of the year and facing off against the Wolfpack at the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte.

They should have another solid if not spectacular showing this season and most projections have them pretty evenly matched with the Tar Heels -- not bad for a team that's been playing in Division I-A for less than 10 years.

It was cool when Texas came to town four falls ago. I enjoyed seeing Louisville play two years ago. There wasn't too much trouble selling tickets for those games. But UNC was done by the end of the first half in each of them.

The teams on this year's slate might not be as fancy as those, but they also provide the chance for fans to see UNC win against quality teams. It's more exciting to see competitive games against middle-class teams than to see blowouts at the hands of top-level programs -- all the better to turn out for these games.

It looks like this might be the best Tar Heel football team since the first one of John Bunting's tenure. There has been significant improvement over the past two seasons, and things are finally coming together for the team. With another tough schedule, though, they will need all the fan support they can get. I hope I'll see you today and throughout the fall at Kenan Stadium!

Tom Jensen is a local political activist and a recent graduate of UNC. Readers can contact him at tjensen@email.unc.edu or c/o The Chapel Hill Herald, 106 Mallette St., Chapel Hill, NC 27516.

Cheer on UNC in College World Series

As published in the Chapel Hill Herald on June 17th, 2006

Their coach returned to his alma mater a few years ago, replacing someone who had a reputation for not treating his players terribly well. The coach has a long record of coaching very successful teams that underachieve in the postseason. The team is led by four underclassmen picked in the draft and likely to leave for greener pastures after this postseason, making it imperative that they win the national championship now because it might be a while before they have this good a team again. It sounds an awful lot like the 2004-2005 national championship Carolina basketball team, but the description also fits this year's UNC baseball team -- and if the Diamond Heels play well over the next week they too could finish number one.

It's easy to stop thinking about Carolina sports once the basketball season is over and the students are gone. But if you don't check out the baseball team in the College World Series you're missing out. An obvious reason is that it's probably the best team in the history of the program. But the reason I would count this as my favorite UNC sports team ever in any sport is the way they selflessly work together with a singular focus on winning.

Coach Mike Fox takes a lot of flak from fans for his ever-changing starting lineups.

The Tar Heels have had about as many permutations of the starters this year as they have had games played, and that's one of the reasons I like the team most. Every game there are good players who don't make it into the starting lineup. Folks constantly get moved around in the batting order. These are the kinds of things that prima donna athletes complain about all the time, but it seems like these players take it all in stride and do whatever they can to help the team win regardless of their role in a given game.

Take sophomore outfielder Matt Spencer. He started almost every game for the first couple of months of the season but lately has been coming off the bench, frequently to pinch run.

He did a great job taking second base on a wild pitch in the ninth inning of last Saturday's win over Alabama.

Spencer would be starting every day for just about any other team in the country, but he is doing a great job as a role player here.

This is also a team blessed with players who have shown an ability to persevere and grow.

Take freshman outfielder Mike Cavasinni, for example. At the start of the season he was a dreadful hitter, to the point that he finally lost his spot in the starting lineup. But he kept on working hard, got back into the lineup, and now has become a fearsome leadoff hitter.

Sophomore catcher Benji Johnson is another example of someone who has really grown as a player. As a freshman his at-bats were sometimes painful to watch, and when he hit a home run in the first game of this season I was shocked.

As the season's progressed he's become the team's biggest bopper, hitting some of the longest home runs I've ever seen.

The Tar Heels have three second basemen, Bryan Steed, Garrett Gore and Kyle Shelton, who play almost interchangeably. They all deserve to get more at bats, but they all play their best when they get in the game.

Sophomore outfielder Seth Williams, a big home run hitter as a freshman, has struggled with injuries this year but has adjusted his game to be a dangerous clutch hitter.

Chad Flack got most of the limelight after last Saturday's big win, and justifiably so. But the win would not have been possible if not for the contributions of four other Tar Heels. Third baseman Reid Fronk reached base in both innings, in the eighth inning on a well-timed hit by pitch. Fronk has taken one for the team more than 20 times this year, making him a leading run scorer.

Relievers Matt Danford and Jonathan Hovis each got the team out of dicey situations in the game relatively unscathed. Hovis, the only senior on the team, has played a quiet but integral role on the team for four years. Redshirt pitcher Luke Putkonen pitched a flawless eighth inning, setting the stage for Flack's heroics.

And of course there are the stars who you've probably heard about already. Pitchers Andrew Miller and Daniel Bard will be multimillionaires as soon as the season ends. Robert Woodard, who is not as highly acclaimed as his fellow starters, doesn't know how to do anything but win. Josh Horton was an All-American, Tim Federowicz a freshman All-American and Andrew Carignan a lights-out closer. Jay Cox's little brother is the cutest child in the world, providing a lot of entertainment for Boshamer Stadium patrons. Cox is OK himself, as the team's overall best hitter.

This is a special team, and the remaining opportunities to check them out are limited.

All of the College World Series games are on ESPN or ESPN2. They played Friday, and results are in the Sports section today. They will play again Sunday. Take some time out of your life to watch, hopefully, UNC's next national champion team.