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CHAPEL HILL - This is the one piece of advice Marcus Ginyard wishes someone had given him before his freshman year at North Carolina: "Coach Williams is right 100 percent of the time, no matter what," Ginyard said. "Even when you know you're right, he's still right."
A bit of humor from the fifth-year senior, perhaps, who has heard more than his share of Roy Williams stories, anecdotes and lectures. To the degree he's serious, though, this year North Carolina has five freshmen in the same position Ginyard was in as a freshman.
Any advice Ginyard wishes he had heard, they will hear - from him.
Ginyard knows what they're about to experience, starting Monday night. He knows exactly, because he went through it himself four years ago.
As part of a freshman class that also included Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green and Bobby Frasor, Ginyard stepped right into a starting lineup that lost five starters and its sixth man from the national championship basketball team the year before.
In an eerie echo this winter, the fivesome of John Henson, Dexter Strickland, David and Travis Wear and Leslie McDonald will attempt to pick up the slack left by the departure of four starters from last year's national-title team, a task Ginyard understands better than anyone.
"Hearing from somebody that's been through pretty much exactly what they've been through and exactly what they're going to go through is something that makes it a little easier for them to see some of the things that we're going to try to tell them and try to get in their heads," Ginyard said. "To see that coming from somebody they know has been through it is always good."
Back then, David Noel and Rayshawn Terry were the returning bench players asked to take on leadership roles. (Roy Williams said, later, that Noel was the best leader he ever coached that season.)
This season, that job falls to Ginyard, his college career prolonged by the foot injury that forced him to redshirt last season.
When it came to making that decision, Williams said part of the argument to sit out was the opportunity to play the Noel role for this team, to mentor the freshmen and settle a team saddled with the expectations left behind by his classmates and former teammates.
"I think that appealed to him some," Williams said. "I don't think it was the decision-maker, but I think it was in that column. It is something we have talked about since last year, that not only am I asking you to be a good player, I'm asking you to be a leader."
It's hard to draw comparisons to the two teams, before and after, outside of the circumstances and their success.
Is losing Raymond Felton, Rashad McCants, Marvin Williams, Jawad Williams, Sean May, Jackie Manuel and Melvin Scott a bigger blow than losing Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, Tyler Hansbrough, Bobby Frasor and Mike Copeland?
Can this year's incoming freshman class match what Hansbrough, Green, Ginyard, Frasor and Copeland brought to the Tar Heels in the wake of the 2005 championship?
The first question is up for debate, the second is awaiting history's verdict, although it's hard to imagine the bar set any higher for this year's UNC newcomers.
They have an advantage their predecessors did not, however. They have the perfect mentor, one who understands better than anyone else what their lives will be like.
"There's no question about it," Ginyard said. "I definitely see myself in these kids."
