Season: 1998-1999
Record: 24-10 overall, 10-6 ACC(3rd place)
ACC Tournament: Lost to Duke in the finals
NCAA Tournament: Lost to Weber State in the 1st Round
Roster: Brian Bersticker, Michael Brooker, Jason Capel, Ed Cota, Ronald Curry, Vasco Evtimov, Brad Frederick, Brendan Haywood, Kris Lang, Orlando Melendez, Terrence Newby, Ademola Okulaja, Max Owens, Scott Williams.
Source: UNC Media Guide
This is a team that often gets forgotten, mainly because we all had therapy after Harold Arceneaux did unholy things to the Heels during that 1st round loss in the NCAA Tournament. The greatest consolation I take from that game is the fact Arceneaux was a total flop after being hailed as some kind of great player for putting up 36 freaking points against UNC. I do not recall ever hearing from him again which probably is a good thing. The unfortunate aspect of this ending was it was the last game for Ademola Okulaja who was one of my favorites in the “jack of all trades” player department, a role currently being filled by Danny Green. And if you are still in the mood to blame someone for that loss look squarely at Brendan Haywood since he was completely non-existent taking only three shots and scoring one point as the Heels went down to one of the most embarrassing NCAA Tournament losses since they fell to Boston College in 1994.
The loss to Weber State really added to the enigma this team ended up being. The problem in my mind seemed to lie in that fact that you had supporting cast left behind after Antawn Jamison and Vince Carter left. Ed Cota was as close to a elite player as you had on this team though the frontline of Haywood-Okulaja-Kris Lang was not bad, simply young save for the senior. Jason Capel was also thrust into a major role as a freshman and actually performed well considering. The real problem was the lack of depth which was also a problem the season before. UNC went through this spell functioning with five good players and nothing serviceable off the bench. Max Owens did average 7.8 ppg in 1999 but simply did not shoot the three consistently enough. This offense also did not score a lot of points, probably because the tempo was much slower.
The frustrating nature of this season lies in the fact the Heels won the Preseason NIT beating two ranked teams in the process. Of course major red flags went up all over the place when the Heels scraped by Old Dominion by two then lost to College of Charleston by two the next night. This was followed by a overtime win versus UNC Charlotte(which was a repeat of the 2nd round NCAA Tournament game during the previous season.) The Heels also lost to California on the road after ACC play had started. All of this seemed to be indicative of some wild inconsistency on their part, though not as much in the ACC since four of their six losses came at the hands of Duke and Maryland and in the case of the latter the Heels knocked them off in the ACC Tournament semifinals before getting trounced by Duke who was well on their way to that incredible choke job in the national title game.
In the end, the Weber State loss, being the last think we remember or don’t remember depending on how good your psychiatrist was frames this season to be far more disastrous than it probably was in reality. Had UNC advanced to the 2nd Round and lost to Florida then we probably walk away thinking that is exactly how this season should have ended. Of course we were accustomed to these minor hiccups along the way and since we were UNC, the expectation was things would bounce back. Little did we know what lay ahead and losing to Weber State was nothing compared to the humiliation waiting three years later.
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I actually shattered my roommate’s coffee table after the Weber game. Most embarrassed I’ve ever been as a sports fan (by my actions).
This was also foreshadowing for how vastly overrated the 1998 recruiting class was, as they accounted for 4 of the most disappointing years of my UNC fandom…
The power button on my TV is broken because of the loss to GT in the 2005 ACC Tournament.
This season was worse for me. During the 2002 season, I became punch drunk somewhere in the middle of the 2002. I guess I should gone with a name brand therapist instead of the generic one I found. Maybe I would feel the 2002 season was worse.
Interesting. The GT loss didn’t bother me at all. To me they had already clinched #1 in the East, so I wasn’t really concerned with the ACCT.
I think the Weber State debacle is a great example of how we tend to minimize the accomplishments of our teams. Think about it, the wolfies would salivate right now for a 24-10 season, going to the ACC Championship game.
Having said that, this game highlighted the fact that recruiting had taken a hit because IMHO Guthridge was known to be and interim coach. Don’t doubt that our friend down the road in Durham took advantage of that factoid.
Capel and Lang were good role players really, in terms of Final Four caliber teams.
I believe the Weber State game was about as helpless as I’ve ever felt. I was living in Chapel Hill at the time, so I luckily didn’t have to hear much lip from Dookies or State folks.
As far as Harold “The Show”, he was basically a nobody before that game and he certainly has been a nobody since. We can add him to a long list of guys who’ve been touched by the basketball gods while playing against the Heels. But, honestly, that team probably didn’t deserve to advance anyway. We didn’t have any real “athletes” (save maybe Curry), and Cota was the only star. Haywood’s tendency to disappear (as he did that fateful day) meant that Cota’s passing skills were often wasted.
I firmly believe that this was team represented one of the best coaching jobs ever by a Tar Heel coach. Look at the talent on this team: only one player, Haywood, has played a minute in the NBA. Only 2002, can compare in terms of lack of professional talent. And this team was very competitive in this season–they gave that great Dook team their only minor test, by being competitive in the game at Cameron and beat a great Maryland team in the ACC Tourney. (If Battier hadn’t thrown Max Owens to the ground on a crucial play, then maybe they would have even stolen an upset, not that I obsess much about these things.)
I am a loyal Guthridge man through and through and I think in some ways this team was very similar to the 2006 one–the only difference of course is that we hadn’t won the championship the year before and Duke wasn’t as good in 06 as they were in 1999. Plus George Mason sounds more respectable than Weber State. (Hell, anything sounds more respectable than Weber State–we were penalized by it being a funny name). Big differences I grant you.
I definitely would have put 1996 here.
Look at that roster and it’s no wonder this team was such an enigma. They only had Ed Cota, who was not a scorer. No one after that comes close to being a “star.” Haywood’s career was a major disappointment. The expectations on Kris Lang were way over his head (he is a role player off the bench at best if “typical” Carolina recruiting had been done). I, too, was an Okulaja fan, but by and large this team was slow and couldn’t shoot.
To me, Guthridge and Doh were polar opposites: Gut was a brilliant coach but lacked the recruiting will/ability/results, while Doh was a brilliant and tireless recruiter, but definitely lack the coaching/managing side of the coin. It is too bad we couldn’t have combined the the two… oh wait, we did… it’s called Roy Williams!!!
Reading this, I just had a flashback to 10th grade and all the unending taunting I had to suffer at the hands of everyone at school the day after the Weber State game. Stupid Maryland fans.
You are a funny man C. Michael! I remember being very surprised at this team’s success. I thought going forward that we would be successful with this squad. Boy, was I wrong! But a final four appearance the next year was surprising as well, with the addition of Joseph Forte.
Oh what could have been with Jamison and carter had stayed one more year.
Keith,
Please don’t get us started on “what if they had stayed” debate!!
98-99 was my freshman year. I remember the summer before the year started, my uncle walked into Haywood at the Student Stores and got his autograph. What an up and down year it was, winning enough to get our hopes up despite the inconsistencies. I agree with EGL, weber state sounds like dweeber state. Webber State would have been a little more respectable. In any case, after the debacle that was Arceneaux, I remember calling up my uncle and telling him to rip up that worthless autograph b/c Haywood wasn’t going to amount to much (this was a moment of weakness). One happy memory I have about the season that allowed me not to go through therapy was the joy of watching dook lose to an underdog in uconn. I remember driving around campus immediately after the game, and there was this feeling of victory, almost.
AS I have previously stated, one of my good high school friends was responsible for throwing away that pass at the end of the game for Weber State. I won’t drop his name right now, but he did tell me (in June of 1999) that he only felt the jitters at that moment. He said the name on the jersies had got to him.
Just some food for thought. Retribution came a few weeks later when Trajan Langdon tripped over himself and Duke blew the first of two Final Four games against UConn.