Matt Doherty knows why Roy Williams’ UNC Tar Heels are so bad this year. He’s lived it
If there is anyone who understands what it feels like to coach a losing North Carolina basketball team, it’s Matt Doherty.
“Listen, I can relate to this,” Doherty said when we spoke Saturday by phone. “I was 8-20 as a head coach there — the worst record in the history of Carolina.”
Doherty was talking about the 2001-02 season, when his second Tar Heel team had a similar year to the one UNC is now having.
The current Tar Heels were picked to finish second in the conference in the ACC media’s preseason poll. Instead, UNC enters this week’s ACC tournament with a 13-18 overall record and seeded dead last — 14th out of the 14 participating teams.
The Tar Heels play No. 11 seed Virginia Tech at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Greensboro in a first-round ACC tourney game. Their only chance at making the NCAA tournament: Win five games in five days.
Doherty, 58, lives in Mooresville, about a 30-minute drive north of Charlotte. He speaks frequently about leadership to corporations, occasionally serves as a TV analyst for the ACC Network and has a couple of regular local radio gigs in Charlotte. While no longer a college basketball coach, he is the father of two college athletes — a son on the Bellarmine lacrosse team in Louisville, Ky., and a daughter who attends UNC and competes on the rowing team.
Doherty started for UNC’s 1982 national championship basketball team alongside Michael Jordan and coached the Tar Heels from 2000-03, taking the job after Roy Williams, then at Kansas, initially turned it down. Doherty resigned under pressure at UNC after going 19-16 in his third season. But the freshmen he recruited to that squad (Raymond Felton, Sean May, Rashad McCants) were the core of UNC’s 2005 national championship team under Williams, who accepted the job the second time around and has been the Tar Heels’ head coach since.
Here are excerpts from our interview, when Doherty talked about everything from Williams’ “least gifted” comment this season to the opponent that used to make him most nervous when he was UNC’s head coach. I’ve lightly edited Doherty’s comments for clarity and brevity.
Q: How did UNC wind up last this season in the ACC?
Doherty: First of all, injuries have played a factor … And they rely heavily on some inexperienced players. Cole Anthony at the point — as good as he is, he’s still inexperienced, and even when he’s healthy, he’s played very average at times … Christian Keeling is just now coming into the player they thought he could be. ... Justin Pierce is not a normal-level talent for a UNC rotation player.
I also think sometimes the half-court offense gets a little jammed up … Everybody is playing four out (players on the offensive perimeter) and one in now. But Coach (Williams) has his style and has won national championships with it. For Cole, whose biggest strength is driving the ball, you’ve got two bigs in there (Garrison Brooks and Armando Bacot) and it’s sort of jammed up. When Pierce is in there instead of Bacot and floats to the three-point line, the spacing is better.
Q: You worked under Coach Williams for seven years at Kansas as an assistant. What did you make of your former boss’s comment midway through the season that this was the “least gifted” UNC team he has ever coached?
Doherty: That’s where the frustration came out. I think if he had to do it again, he probably wouldn’t say it. As much as he loves Dean Smith, Coach Smith would never have said that … As a player, as a parent, that’s an “Ouch.”
Q: UNC went 6-14 in conference play, but has gone 3-1 over its past four ACC games. What would it take for the Tar Heels to make a run in this tournament?
Doherty: Cole Anthony has to continue to take care of the basketball. His assist/turnover ratio needs to be good. They need to have consistent outside shooting to open up the floor for Garrison Brooks, who is really good. They actually can beat anybody in the ACC tournament — I know I wouldn’t want to be playing them in the first or second round.
Q: You have often noted that confidence is a delicate thing for players or coaches. When were you most jittery before a game?
Doherty: I joke about that. People say you must be really nervous before a Duke game, and I say, ‘No, not really. I’m really nervous before the Clemson game at home.’ (Editor’s note: One of the few streaks left intact after Doherty’s three-year tenure was UNC’s undefeated home record against Clemson — the Tigers finally ended that streak in Chapel Hill this season.)
Q: Where did you think UNC would finish in the ACC before the season began?
Doherty: I didn’t make a pick. But I did see them practice in November and I didn’t think they were that talented. Then again, the league is not that talented. The good thing is that help is on the way — they have some really good players coming in. But that doesn’t matter for these players or these coaches at this time. It’s been a tough year.
Q: In the 2001-02 season, when you coached that 8-20 UNC team, I’d say the cupboard you had inherited by that point was pretty bare. For instance, you were starting Adam Boone at point guard. How would you rank that team’s talent compared to this one?
Doherty: There’s not much comparison. Cole Anthony is a lottery pick.
Q: When you do these leadership talks to corporations, what do you tell them you wish you had done differently as UNC’s head coach?
Doherty: I didn’t really know myself then. I knew I was intense and driven and all that stuff, but I thought everyone could be like that. ... It turns out, 98 percent of people don’t think like me. That’s where Coach Smith was so great — treating everyone fairly, but not treating everyone the same.
I also did not manage change properly. Your reputation is going to be made in the first 90 days on the job, and you get defaulted to your first impression. The day after the press conference, I went to go see Carmelo Anthony (Doherty was trying to recruit him; Anthony ended up going to Syracuse). Looking back, I should have stuck around. Talked to the secretaries. Talked to the staff. Managed change better.
This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 2:16 PM.
