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Episode 6 with David Noel
63 Plays2 years ago
Joining Robbie to preview the 2022-2023 NCAA College Basketball sesason is Assistant Coach of the NBA D-League's Motor City Cruise and member of the Unviersity of North Carolina's 2005 National Championship team David Noel.
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Transcript
Introduction of David Noel
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi again everyone, welcome to the Raw Sports Report, Episode 6 of this new podcast that I have enjoyed doing so far and talking about all sports in the previous 5 episodes and since I last recorded
00:00:20
Speaker
The Atlanta Braves have ended their season. We're not going to talk about baseball. I'm still not quite over that yet. I'm not going to talk college football. We are going to turn the page and talk about the college basketball season that will gear up in a couple of weeks. And to do that, I have a very special guest, the first ever guest on the Ross Sports Report, a former North Carolina. You're never a former North Carolina Tar Heel, isn't that right?
00:00:49
Speaker
That's right. So a North Carolina Tar Heel, a member of the 2005 National Championship team, David Noel. David, thanks so much for joining us and being our first guest on the Ross Sports Report. I appreciate that, Robbie, man. I didn't know I was the first guest, man. You supposed to have some bells and whistles and all that kind of stuff for your first guest. They're on the way. They're on the way.
David's Recruitment Journey
00:01:16
Speaker
But first of all, of course, David now currently an assistant coach for the Motor City crews with the Pistons G League. We'll talk about that here in a little bit. You're getting acclimated to living in the north in the Midwest. I'm sure that's been interesting here in the last couple months, but starting out.
00:01:34
Speaker
growing up in Durham, of course, right near the Duke Blue Devil campus, playing for Southern High School. As a middle schooler and high schooler, you got to see great Carolina and Duke basketball. You grew up watching Vince and Antoine and that crew and Shimon Williams go into Final Fours. Of course, in 2000, Carolina went to a Final Four with Joe Forte. You saw a transition from Coach Dean Smith to Coach Guthrie to Coach Doherty. And then your freshman year,
00:02:04
Speaker
You come in with Coach Daugherty talk about first of all your recruiting process and was it Coach Gut that first started recruiting you or was it was it Daugherty or Earl L combination? So actually it was the football program at the University of North Carolina that started recruiting me. So a lot of people forget that I came in as a football player and I chose North Carolina because they had a history of
00:02:30
Speaker
allowing their football players to play basketball. Like basketball was my love. I was really good at football though and saw it as a chance for me to continue my education and continue playing. And then one winter night after a basketball game, Coach Fred Quarterbaum, I never forget it, he came up to me and he talked to me and he, at the time he was saying that, you know, they really liked
00:02:55
Speaker
like me and wanted to figure out a way to get me to just play basketball. And after that, we had another conversation with Coach Doherty. He came to a game. I had a pretty good game. It was a really good game. I don't want to toot my own horn.
00:03:10
Speaker
It was a really big game against one of our rivals over at Hillside and so they saw me play and then they asked me after the game that I really want to just play basketball and you know I sat down with my family and talked about it and we said yes only problem was they didn't have a scholarship at the time so I ended up walking on at the University of North Carolina my freshman year
00:03:32
Speaker
much to the chagrin of the football program and Coach Button at the time. And still to this day, ever since I had to call them and had a conversation with them about de-committing and just playing basketball, Coach Button has never spoke to me again. So I feel bad, but at the end of the day, I had to do what I felt was right for me and my career. And it worked out pretty well.
00:03:58
Speaker
So during those times about thinking about football and basketball, did you talk to Ronald Curry, who was a quarterback in North Carolina and a point guard on the basketball team? Also very famous if probably the most famous football basketball star in North Carolina, Julius Peppers.
00:04:14
Speaker
That's who I spoke to. I spoke to Julius Peppers. I actually spoke to Julius on my visit. They were fresh off of the Peach Bowl, and I will never forget it. Sam Akins was my host on my recruiting visit, and Sam was just one of the coolest dudes ever, man. He rolled around in his blazer. It was a two-door blazer with 12 speakers in the back.
00:04:42
Speaker
And so, like, I absolutely loved the atmosphere. And I was all in on the football program. And then, you know, me and Jules had the conversation. You know, and he just kind of told me what it could be like and that kind of deal. But then, like I said, fast forward to the winter because I took my visit that summer. Fast forward to the winter. It just all worked out for me to be able to play just basketball. And again, at the time, that was my love. Basketball was my love. So that's what I went with.
Transition to UNC and Coaching Impact
00:05:13
Speaker
And of course, your freshman year, the season of 03, you come in fresh off a season that is very forgettable for most North Carolina fans. The 02 season where Coach Doherty and that squad went 8 and 20. But the foundation was laid that year of the 8 and 20 with freshmen on that team, Jawad Williams.
00:05:37
Speaker
Melvin, Melvin Scott, Jackie Manuel or the freshman, you come in in the I guess the fall of 02 going into the winner of 03 with Raymond Felton, Shawn May and yourself. So that's pretty six pretty good players right there going into the 03 season, which was your freshman year.
00:05:55
Speaker
Absolutely. And the foundation was set from that point on, because that was the nucleus of what began to be an historic run for us at the University of North Carolina. The team that we won with in 2005 was absolutely loaded, you bring in. So my class, me,
00:06:20
Speaker
Raymond Felton, Sean May, Rashad McCants, Byron Sanders, Damian Grant. And then you follow that up with the Ray Sean Terry. And then you follow that up with the Marvin Williams and Quinn Thomas. And now you have the foundation. And then, of course, the coaching change with Coach Williams happens in 2003. And so I think what happened was we knew we had the talent. And now it was just about getting the guidance. And not that Coach Daugherty couldn't do that.
00:06:49
Speaker
I just think Coach Daugherty, his time was up. We had ran short, and now Coach Williams comes in. And now, because of Coach Williams, we get Marvin Williams. So Marvin said, I was going to play for Coach Williams wherever he was. And thankfully, he was at the University of North Carolina because Marvin Williams was definitely a huge part of why we were able to win a national championship in 2005.
00:07:16
Speaker
So you're watching the final four at the end of the 2003 season. Your season ended in the NIT in the third round, a loss 19 and 16. You're watching the final four. Carmelo winning the national championship against coach Williams at Kansas. He walks off the floor. People ask him the questions he said.
00:07:36
Speaker
what he said on CBS walking off the floor and then fast forward to I think April of a couple of weeks later and here's the press conference. Talk us through that period of time from the end of the national championship game when Coach Williams said that on CBS to being hired as the North Carolina basketball coach.
00:07:55
Speaker
So I'm going to give you guys my perspective. I was absolutely happy that Coach Williams said that, because at the time, I have told this story before, I did not want to play for Coach Williams. So this is the way it was. So remember, if we rewind back to the beginning of our freshman year, we played Kansas in the preseason in IT. And Coach Doherty put in a system that he kind of knew would
00:08:24
Speaker
kind of chew Kansas up because again, we had identical systems. And so we were able to get out and I'm talking about we beat Kansas pretty good. And while we're beating Kansas pretty good, Coach Williams is on the sideline going crazy. I'm talking about he's fussing, he's using all of the dag gums and everything. And I'm like, I'm looking, I'm on the floor running up and down the court like, man, I don't never want to play for that dude.
00:08:55
Speaker
But sure enough, fast forward to that April, Coach Williams accepts the job and I said, oh my God, this is a crazy man, get ready, come in here. But much to my delight, Coach Williams was an absolute mastermind of the game. He was able to take us and mold us into the men and the players that we are now. And again, till this day,
00:09:20
Speaker
I thank Coach Williams for the opportunity that he gave me, because again, I came in under Coach Daugherty. And again, I was a walk on. And so I was promised a scholarship for that sophomore year and on.
2005 Championship Season Insights
00:09:34
Speaker
And honestly, Coach Williams didn't have to honor that. And he did, man. So I spent the rest of my time at the University of North Carolina trying to prove him right. And I hope that I did a great job for it. And again, I thank him every single day for that.
00:09:49
Speaker
I think I think he would probably say you absolutely did and you continued to prove to him throughout his first year that on his second and third year that first year 2004 you make a run in the NCAA tournament, lose to Texas in the second round that offseason. You knew what was coming back. You knew what was coming in with Marvin and and QT also because I think and and I'm gonna ask this in a minute when we talk about 05 about Quentin, but and you can you can answer this.
00:10:18
Speaker
I think Quentin was one of there are many unsung heroes on that old five team, but Quentin was a very big part of that. But talk about the off season from 04 and 05 preseason ranked number four in the country going into 05. What was the was there a difference in that off season in the previous off seasons? The transition year, of course, was different from Doherty to Coach Williams. But what was the preseason and offseason like heading into 05? The difference was accountability.
00:10:47
Speaker
So in 2003, when Coach Williams came in, he began to kind of force us to be accountable.
00:10:56
Speaker
and then it spilled over into player to player accountability. And so that's what the difference was. So we would go into like pre-season and summers and all that kind of stuff and guys would have excuses and guys would have, you know, little knick-knack injuries and all this kind of stuff that they, you could go, but nah, I feel this a little bit, so I'm not gonna go. We started holding each other accountable.
00:11:21
Speaker
we started holding each other accountable on and off the floor. And so what you saw in 2005 was a culmination of, yes, we had the talent.
00:11:31
Speaker
Okay. How do we mold this talent and then player to player accountability? And I think that's what got us over the hump because the summer going into 2004, 2005 was completely different from the first two summers. And when I'm talking about from just a competitive nature, uh, from guys really like, Hey, we gotta be here on time. Let's go.
00:11:54
Speaker
Like it was one of those types of atmospheres. And I think that's when we became a lot closer. That's when we started doing a lot more things on and off the floor and excuse me, off the floor. And I think it just continued to spill over into the season and it was a wonderful season for us.
00:12:14
Speaker
You talk about a wonderful season. You go to Santa Clara, the first game of the year on and you drop a drop the game. You're like, wait a minute, we had all this accountability and offseason work and then you go to Santa Clara and you lose by 11 and you're kind of like scratching your head like what just happened? Oh, absolutely. And now I remember Raymond Felton didn't play that game, but we still thought we had enough and I and I and I tell people this all the time. The the 2000.
00:12:44
Speaker
The four losses that we had in the 2004, 2005 season, I thought were perfect losses. Going into the season, we were ranked number one. We jump out there with Santa Clara and they stomp us. So now that brings us off of the cloud nine that we were on going into the season. You take us off a cloud nine and now you humble us. And now it's like, okay, we realized the work that we got to put in. So we understood the accountability piece in the summer.
00:13:14
Speaker
And but now we understand that we can't just walk out here on the floor and because it says North Carolina across our jerseys that people are going to lay down for us and Santa Clara taught us that in the first loss of the season. So again, each loss that we had that yeah, I felt like it taught us something. I felt like it was it was it was perfect for us. They were learning experiences and we were able to grow throughout the season from each one of those losses.
00:13:39
Speaker
You real off 14 wins in a row and then another loss at wake, which back in the day going to wake was one of right. I mean, right next to Duke, probably the second toughest place to go play basketball in the ACC. Absolutely. And at the time they had an incredible team. Um,
00:13:57
Speaker
with Chris Paul, Eric Williams, Justin Gray. They had a team full of studs. And a lot of those studs was from North Carolina. So again, it was another opportunity for guys that probably wanted to be at North Carolina, ended up at Wake Forest. Not saying that there's a difference, but there is a difference. North Carolina's a blue blood. Let's be honest. But at the end of the day, they taught us another lesson.
00:14:23
Speaker
Again, we can't come in just because we have North Carolina written across our shirt and think that guys are going to lay down for us. And again, Wake Forest proved that point to us again. But again, we ran out. We had just run off 14 straight. That taught us, again, both of those road losses taught us what it was going to be like in the tournament. Because being in the tournament, you weren't going to have any home games. And so I think, again, the L's that we chopped up in that season,
00:14:52
Speaker
Perfect time.
00:14:55
Speaker
The next L in that season was at Cameron. Lose by one to camera in Cameron. Of course everybody knows the Carolina Duke rivalry. We can touch on that in a little bit, but you lose by one to in the middle of the regular season and that just leads to probably one of if not the actually the best regular season game of 05 was at the Smith Center there to finish the regular season against Duke when everybody learned who Marvin Williams was that day.
00:15:25
Speaker
Absolutely. And coach Williams looked at us with, I want to say about two minutes on the clock and say, Hey, I want y'all to believe in me. We're going to win this game. And we had the confidence because I think we were down nine, something like that crazy. And we had the confidence and we knew that we were, we
00:15:45
Speaker
we would at least have an opportunity. We weren't gonna just lay down. We weren't gonna just give up. And again, it's Duke on the other side. So that made it even more, that added even more fuel to the fire for us. So we ended up, again, we all know how the game ended up. Marvin Williams gets an incredible putback off of a Raymond Felton, a missed free throw. And you see me jacking Marvin up. Everybody's so hyped. The Smith Center is as loud as I've ever heard it.
00:16:12
Speaker
in my entire career at the University of North Carolina and we ended up pulling that victory out and becoming the regular season ACC champions. You go to the tournament and long time North Carolina fans know it's okay to lose in the ACC tournament because most of the time when you lose in the ACC tournament good things happen in the NCAA tournament and that was the case. Absolutely.
00:16:36
Speaker
Absolutely. That loss to Georgia Tech was, again, I felt like that was another one of our, because we didn't play that well against Clemson in the first game. So we didn't play that well against Clemson in the first game. And then we come out and Georgia Tech, again, they had a really good team at that time with BJ Elder.
00:17:01
Speaker
Jared Jack, Will Bynum, like they had a really good squad. Will Schinzer, like they had a really good team at that time. And they matched it. They had just played for it. They had just played for it the year before and lost to UConn. Absolutely. Absolutely. So they're coming off of a national championship run. And then you meet us in the ACC tournament. So again, for us,
00:17:26
Speaker
We wanted to win that game. We wanted to win the ACC tournament. But we also knew the importance of what those losses, again, were going to mean. And to understand, in a tournament setting, we can't have this type of lapse. We can't go out and play bad against Clemson and barely squeak by and then come out against Georgia Tech and actually lose. Because again, that ends all of our hope for a national championship run. And we really did believe we had the team forward.
00:17:55
Speaker
And all year we had proved it, and now it was time to go prove it in the NCAA tournament. Still got the one scene. Still got two games in Charlotte, which is a blueprint for a Carolina Final Four run. Maybe not outside of this past year, but most times that Carolina has gone to the Final Four, it started in Greensboro or Charlotte or or even wake for a large Joel Coliseum in Winston Salem. They've gone in the first two rounds and then you go to Syracuse.
00:18:23
Speaker
against Villanova. Every national championship team in the NCAA tournament has that one game that they have to get over. I think 17 was second round against Arkansas, maybe, that there was a nip and tuck there in the second round. But I think that was it. But yours was Villanova in the Sweet 16. Talk about that game surviving and had to come back and survive late to win by one.
00:18:48
Speaker
So again, like the lesson that was learned earlier in that season against Duke, the lost by one at Cameron prepared us for this Villanova team. This Villanova team was really, really good. Oh, my God. They were they were they were a monster. You're talking about a three guard monster with Kyle Lowry. Oh, my God. Why the name slip in my mind?
00:19:17
Speaker
Um, Alan Ray. Yeah. And, and I forget that I forget the other guard, but man, they had a three headed monster that was so good. And.
00:19:29
Speaker
even bigs that were really, really good at the time too. So that Villanova team was definitely much to be matched there. And as we talk about, you know, unsung heroes of the tournament, Melvin Scott in that game was an unsung hero for us. He came off at a bench and not playing many minutes and came up and stepped up and hit big free throws, hit big shots, where we just didn't seem like we could get anything going. And of course, Shawn May had a heck of a game, but again,
00:19:59
Speaker
The unsung hero of that game was Melvin Scott, and it just proved that, again, him being a senior, not getting many minutes at the beginning and then stepping up, it just showed you how deep our team was and how prepared we were for the run to the national championship.
00:20:19
Speaker
You go to St. Louis, Coach Williams of course becomes kind of the talk there as will he get his first national championship. You go and spit in the Mississippi River like Coach Smith did in New Orleans in 1982. You get to the final game on Monday night and it's Illinois.
00:20:37
Speaker
They, I think they've been number one pretty much. It's either been you or Illinois. Number one all year long. They had a very, very good basketball team and it came down to the wire. You ended up winning by five, but it was. It was down to the last minute. What a good team. Illinois had that year too. Oh man, they were loaded and Randy Foy was the other guy from Villanova. That's right. Mindy Foy. So Randy Foy Allen Ray and Kyle Lowry. But yes, fast forward to Illinois that.
00:21:06
Speaker
That was a dream matchup for us because everybody forgets like we have played, uh, Illinois the previous two years. So they smacked us our freshman year in champagne because again, we were coming off of the, you know, the, the fresh face, uh, or the freshmen and coming off winning the preseason and I T and
00:21:28
Speaker
North Carolina's back, everybody's screaming that, and then we go to Champaign and we get blitzed by Darren Williams and Dee Brown and Augustine and all of these guys, Luther Head. Luther Head, yeah.
00:21:46
Speaker
And then the next year we see him again in the ACC Big Ten Challenge in Greensboro and we end up pulling that one out. So this was really a dream matchup for us and we knew how good they were. They knew how good we were. And we were ready for the game. We knew we had a good feeling about it.
00:22:06
Speaker
We knew it was going to be a tough game, but I felt like there was nobody in the locker room that doubted us winning this game against Illinois.
00:22:17
Speaker
Was there a cooler looking dude than Dee Brown? Oh man, Dee Brown with the high socks and the headband. All those out there, fast as heck, yeah, man. Like Dee Brown was that man, bro. Him and Ray used to have battles all through high school and all that kind of stuff, because they were highly ranked, highly touted. So it was definitely a great matchup of guards and bigs.
00:22:42
Speaker
So how special, of course, your career full of accolades, how special is it to this day that you were a part of a team that gave one of the greatest, if not the greatest basketball coach of all time, his first national championship?
00:22:57
Speaker
is something that we'll all cherish for the rest of our life, man. Again, not only do we get to live out the dream of being one of the few college teams to win a national championship, but to provide a coach, the stature of a coach, Roy Williams, his first national championship. It's nothing that you can really,
00:23:22
Speaker
you can't you there's no words to describe it and you don't really think about it until you know you look back and you you remember you know these times and you're like dang dang we really did give coaches first one so as proud as we are of it and as proud as he he is of it um i think we all we all knew the work that it took
00:23:44
Speaker
And then we were just ready to give back to the younger generation, the guys that were coming behind us, kind of the blueprint, so he could get more, and luckily he did.
00:23:55
Speaker
So you fast forward to the offseason between 05 and 06 after the celebrating.
Post-College Contemplations and Leadership
00:24:01
Speaker
Did you kind of have a feeling that you were going to be the last man standing there in Chapel Hill with Sean and Raymond and McCants and Marvin going pro? Oh, absolutely. I had a feeling and and again, a lot of people don't know this, but had all of them guys came back, David Noel may not have been there.
00:24:22
Speaker
Ah, interesting. Yeah. So, well, I won't say been there. David Noel probably would have went and played football. Okay. Because I didn't, it was the first time in my career that I thought about the after. Okay. What's next? What's next? And so I knew that if we had that entire team come back,
00:24:50
Speaker
I didn't think that I would be able to showcase who I was as a basketball player. And so I took it, I thought about it, and luckily it didn't happen. I had the conversation with my family and I told them, I said, if all of these guys come back, I'm not sure
00:25:17
Speaker
if I'll just play basketball. And so when all of those guys left, I was happy. I was happy for them, but I was also happy for myself because I said, this is gonna give me a chance.
00:25:33
Speaker
to show the side of David Noel that not a lot of people will be able to see because there was so, so much talent ahead of me on any given night. Now I was able to have my nights
00:25:49
Speaker
with Raymond there, with Sean there, with Marvin there, with Jawad there, with Jackie there. And I felt like I played my role perfectly. But at that particular time, it was the first time that I had thought about
00:26:04
Speaker
Oh man. Like if, if I can't show them what I can do, then I don't know about basketball after this. And so, and so that was my thought process. Luckily it didn't happen that way. Um, because 2006 was by far the funnest year that I've ever had playing basketball at the university of North Carolina. And I know people are going to question that because again, 2005 was so fun with the finish of it and the national championship, but the, the,
00:26:31
Speaker
the responsibility that was upon my shoulders to lead this young group of freshmen in 2006, man, it was unbelievable. It was incredible. And I enjoyed every single bit of it.
00:26:44
Speaker
And that was it. That's it. I mean, not only if Sean and the others would have stayed, but you had Tyler Hansborough, Danny Green, Bobby Frazier, Marcus Ginyard all coming in. Right. And who would then, of course, as everyone knows, go on to win the oh nine national championship. But one thing I want to mention about that, that class that did leave when they all declared
00:27:09
Speaker
Could you see early on that Marvin Williams would be the longest tenured NBA player of that group? Is that surprising to you or did you kind of see that riding on the wall? I kind of saw that riding on the wall. To be honest, I knew Ray would last long.
00:27:31
Speaker
I thought Sean would last long because of his talent. Now again, Sean's career was cut a little bit short because of injuries. I knew how great of a player Rashad was. His situation turned out to just be a little bit different. And so...
00:27:50
Speaker
Having Marvin, so when Marvin came in his freshman year in 2004, 2005, it was the first time that I had ever seen somebody that highly touted work that hard.
00:28:05
Speaker
Like me, myself, I was known as a hard worker, but I didn't necessarily have the talent that these guys had. I wasn't a McDonald's All-American. I wasn't highly recruited, that type of deal. I just knew, I knew I worked hard and I knew I wanted to get better. So I worked at it every single day. Marvin had the talent.
00:28:25
Speaker
And he had to work at it to like to blow your mind. And so I kind of saw that he would he would go on to do big things. I think I think what did he get? He went out and oh.
00:28:40
Speaker
Wasn't it last year? Five, yep. And he retired in the bubble. So the bubble was 2020, right? Yeah, yeah. So you're talking 15 years, 16 years in the league. And that's amazing. He could have played some more.
00:28:57
Speaker
Like he decided to hang it up. So yeah, I kind of saw that writing on the wall and because of the player that Marvin was and the way that he could finesse his game, change his game, he could go inside and out. He didn't necessarily have to rely on athleticism because he was a great shooter. I definitely kind of saw that writing on the wall.
00:29:20
Speaker
So the 2006 season, unranked, coming in, just off a national championship, it's you and the Kitty Corps. You and Hansborough and Danny Green and Frazier and Gignard. And of course there were others along the way that were underclassmen, not just the freshmen, but the O-16, you go 23-8.
00:29:41
Speaker
Second in the ACC, you finish 10th in the country, and you lose to a Cinderella team in George Mason that went all the way to the final four. You personally average 12.9 points per game, 6.8 rebounds per game, and 3.5 assists per game, which that stat right there as a big man is something I'm sure you're proud of to share the basketball.
00:30:03
Speaker
Could you see again? Here's the writing on the wall. Could you see and this oh nine this oh nine freshman class? They won all four times in Cameron. They went to two final fours They went to Let's see. Oh seven was the elite eight was at the loss to Georgetown. Yeah, Kentucky. That was yeah against Georgetown That's right
00:30:25
Speaker
Jean against Georgetown. Of course the unfortunate Final Four in 08 against Kansas and then the sticker gate when Roy put the sticker on the finals. And then of course they obliterated the 09 National Championship just running through that tournament without even hardly breaking a sweat. Could you see that riding on the wall as you were teaching and molding these freshmen into what they would become down the line in 09?
00:30:55
Speaker
I didn't, I can't say that I saw a national championship and how dominant they were. I did see an incredible freshman class with a work ethic that was flawless. I saw an incredible freshman class with guys that literally wanted to be the best that they could be at whatever role they had at the University of North Carolina. And then Tyler Hasbro, his motor,
00:31:25
Speaker
was like no other. So my friend, my senior year, their freshman year. I know everybody, you know, even coach Williams talks about how I led their team.
00:31:40
Speaker
Being a leader is great, like it is. Like being a leader is fun. Like I enjoyed my role, but those guys made it easy to lead. And because again, another example of talent working crazy hard. Like Tyler Hansbro was by far probably one of the best big men I've played with. And to watch him work every single day,
00:32:10
Speaker
to get better at the University of North Carolina every single year. It was amazing to watch along with Danny Green. A lot of people forget like Danny wasn't necessarily one of the guys that was constantly in the rotation his freshman year. But he continued to work and work and work. And now you see Danny Green
00:32:34
Speaker
And so what the Danny Green that you see now is the Danny Green that was at the University of North Carolina. He could do everything. He could defend, he could shoot it, he could handle it. He was by far one of the most versatile guards to ever play at the University of North Carolina. It was just everything around him, like all of the talent surrounding him kind of again, like covered up what he could do. So for me and that team and what we did that year,
00:33:04
Speaker
We knew it coming in, but we played it. Coach Williams would tell us all the time, we're gonna play it to the media. Yeah, we're young, we don't have any expectations, but behind closed doors in those locker rooms and on that court, we knew that we were going to work every single day. We concentrated on work that we put in and it turned out to be a special season for us and one that a lot of people didn't expect us to have.
00:33:30
Speaker
And of course, I said it was you and the freshman. You also still had Ray Sean Terry with you, who was a junior. And Wes Miller, who was a sharpshooter, he was a junior on that team, too. Of course, now Wes Miller, the head coach of Cincinnati, after having great success at UNC Greensboro, and has earned a right to play, to be able to be able to coach at a high level in college basketball. And QT was still there as well. So it wasn't just you and the kitty corps, but
00:34:00
Speaker
That group, and you fell into George Mason, but I guess the highlight of that year was the win at Cameron. It's awful sweet to win in Cameron, and Tyler Hansborough in that group, Danny Green and Bobby Frazier, never lost in Cameron. Right, and I would be remiss to not mention
00:34:24
Speaker
the growth of Ray Sean Terry that year, his junior year, like he was incredible. Again, we had Tyler Hansborough and then Wes Miller becoming the best shooter that I've played with in a long time. And then the Quentin Thomas being
00:34:50
Speaker
the steady hand like we ended up starting Bobby Frazier as a freshman, but
00:34:57
Speaker
Q always came in and gave us the steady hand. He always came in and gave us the guy who we could always count on to be solid at every turn. And that's what we got in camera indoor. Like we got everybody's best. We knew Duke, who they were at the time. We knew JJ was chasing a record. We knew all of these things, but at the end of the day,
00:35:20
Speaker
We told ourselves, let's just keep working and we'll have an opportunity at the end. And sure enough, that's what ended up happening. They started off hot and it cooled down pretty quick. They made a run at the end, but we were able to sustain it and come out with the victory. And from that point on, like you talked about, that freshman class never lost in Cameron Indoor Stadium again.
00:35:47
Speaker
And then the next year, after you had left that next year, they brought in another wave of stars with Wayne Ellington, Ty Lawson, Brendan Wright, who stayed for one year. Alec Stevenson, I think, stayed for one year before he went out to back to Los Angeles. And of course, that was the foundation for 09. Absolutely. You were drafted by the Pucks and then played overseas a good bit.
Professional Career and UNC Legacy
00:36:14
Speaker
in your professional career, but everybody always, and we're going to fast forward in a moment to current day, but everybody talks about the summers after you graduate and you come back and the camp days that it is and everything like that with all the players that come back. Talk about
00:36:34
Speaker
some of those pickup games real quick and then we'll preview what's to come this season. And it was family. It was family oriented. So we all would come back every single summer. And that's a part of trying to pass on the legacy, right? Like I had just led
00:36:56
Speaker
my group of freshmen to a pretty good year. Again, unexpected for what we had at the time, but then
00:37:07
Speaker
during the summers, you're able to talk to the incoming freshmen and let them know. And then you're able to still continue to talk to your Tyler Ambrose and your Bobby Frasier's and your Quinn Thomas's and your Ray Sean Terry's because they're coming back. And so you tell them, hey, remember this, remember that, remember this, remember that. So the foundations of,
00:37:31
Speaker
What you do for the next season is absolutely late in the summers because, again, that's that's a time for your chance. That's your chance for your game to grow as an individual. And if you get better individually, then you get you guys get better as a team. And so Tyler took a step forward. Raishan took a step forward. You had the freshmen coming in who were really, really talented, learning how to play hard like like we did on a consistent basis. So the.
00:38:00
Speaker
The amount of time spent in the summer is always great because, again, you get that camaraderie, you get the pass down, the knowledge that you're learning as you continue to go through the rest of your career. So in those pickup games, after you graduated a couple summers later, what was the best five on the floor that you were a part of in one of those pickup games?
00:38:29
Speaker
Oh, that's a great question. That's a great question. Cause you still, you still had old heads coming back. So you still had Shemon that was still coming back. Yeah, buddy. Like Shemon was an absolute monster in pickup. And he would, he would coach you while he was torching you.
00:38:55
Speaker
like he'll be dribbling and you reach, yeah, don't reach young fella, bang. That's the type dude Jamal was. Oh my God. So I would say, I would say there was a team one time of
00:39:12
Speaker
because most of the time now, at that point, it's pros versus the current players. So we rarely kind of mix the teams unless it was, you know, we just didn't have enough guys, but it was, you know, your alumni versus the current guys. And I can say one time it was Shema, it was me, it was Jawad, it was Sheed,
00:39:42
Speaker
And who was I, who was I other guy? Don't need anybody else. Yeah. I mean, you could just throw anybody else out there, but I feel like I want to say I know Ray came back often, but I don't think Ray was there that night. It was because it was a night game. Um, it was, it was during the camp and where, where we would play like around 10 o'clock at night. And I remember that it was, it was, it was me, Shemon, Jawah, she'd,
00:40:08
Speaker
And Marvin, Marvin was the other guy. Marvin was the other guy. So yeah, so that was our five. And we ran off quite a few wins. She was out there shooting it from half court, cash. Like at that point in time, he was running a three point line, a three point line. So like we, but the amount of talent that's in the gym
00:40:33
Speaker
in the summer times at the University of North Carolina during those times was unbelievable, man. Unbelievable.
Coaching Changes and Future of UNC
00:40:40
Speaker
Absolutely. So now we fast forward to 2020, and Armando Baycott's a freshman, Leakey Black's a sophomore, and Coach Williams, I don't really want to say it, but he kind of had his 2002. They go 14 and 19 in the COVID season. It gets canceled right after they lose to Syracuse in the NCAA tournament.
00:41:03
Speaker
It was a weird, weird season all the way around. COVID was weird. Cole Anthony started out hot, got hurt, never reached back to where he was in those first six or eight games. Christian Keeling, they thought, I thought coming in at a Charleston Southern, he was going to be fantastic. The Pierce kid coming out from William and Mary, I thought would be a good mix. And you had Baycott and you still had Garrison Brooks and then Leakey. Things just didn't work.
00:41:31
Speaker
2021. You bring in Caleb Love and RJ Davis and Puff Johnson their freshman year, which happens to be Roy's last at 18 and 11. They never really clicked after Cole left for one year.
00:41:46
Speaker
Did you see, and here we go, writing on the wall again, in 2020, 2021, did you have any conversations with Coach Williams, or did you see it coming that maybe he was about to hang up his whistle? I did not see that one coming at all. I was walking through the airport coming back from Puerto Rico, and I got the call from Shawn May. And Shawn said, hey, man, just want to give you a heads up. Coach Williams is retiring. And I said, what?
00:42:15
Speaker
what are you talking about? And he was like, we, he wanted to give y'all a call before he hit the news, but yeah, he's done. And that's how we found out. Um, and so at that point I shot coach Williams, a text message thanking him for taking a chance on me in 2003 and
00:42:36
Speaker
and telling him thank you for every single thing. Because at that point, he was the reason why I was able to have the career that I had. And again, I spent every single day at the University of North Carolina trying to prove him right. And now it just all came to a head at that point, and all I could do was say thank you.
00:42:59
Speaker
to one of the greatest to ever do it. And I still say thank you to this day because I learned so much from him and I'm taking a lot of what he did in coaching us as my foundation, as a coach in my career now.
00:43:19
Speaker
Was there ever a doubt that Hubert was going to be the guy in the inner circle of you and your former players and the and the fraternity that is North Carolina basketball? Was there ever a doubt that Hubert was that it would have been anybody other than Hubert taking the job or getting the offer? Honestly, I don't and I don't think anybody knew. I don't think anybody knew like it like Hubert getting the job. It wasn't a shock.
00:43:43
Speaker
but we didn't know. From the outside looking in, it seems like that's the obvious choice, but at the time, nobody knew. Again,
00:43:58
Speaker
The great job in hiring Hubert Davis, he had done a heck of a job there at the University of North Carolina in recruiting and coach Williams brought him in for a reason. And I think it was a great strategic plan by coach Williams and him being a predecessor, he proved it this year. He proved it this year and why he can be one of another great coach in the lineage of great coaches at the University of North Carolina.
00:44:28
Speaker
back with David Noel, part of the 2005 national championship team in North Carolina. And in our first part, David, we were talking about the years prior to this coming season and last year, the dynamic season that they had in 2022, you were talking about that you saw it, the talent was there. It was just getting all the pieces together. And that's what coach Davis kind of put together with his own little footprint or a handprint on it, I guess you could say.
00:44:58
Speaker
Absolutely. I always felt like that North Carolina had the talent to be a national championship contender. I felt like we had everything we needed. We had good guard play, we had good big man play, and we had shooting around that. So it was just a matter of it all coming together. But throughout the year, they just never showed
00:45:23
Speaker
It never came together for the University of North Carolina. So you had losses at Purdue, you had losses against Tennessee, and they were big losses to Kentucky's. So all of the big teams that they played, they never were able to kind of hold their own against it. So it didn't give us much confidence going into the NCAA tournament, but I always felt like the talent was there.
00:45:52
Speaker
And of course, the last regular season game against Duke, which was a love fest for Duke all week long leading up to it and then to completely go in there and demolish them on their senior night, Coach K's last home game. It was a thing of beauty. Absolutely. That was a lot of pressure that Coach K put on those kids.
00:46:13
Speaker
And I was glad for it because all of that pressure, I knew those freshmen couldn't handle it. All of those former alumni in the stands and all of the parade, which was well-deserved by Coach K, by all means, again, one of the greatest to ever do it, was very much a party for him, but I was glad that it ended the way that it ended.
00:46:39
Speaker
And then you move to the NCAA tournament and this kid. This team just kept getting favorable matchups. I think more than anything else as they move through and of course ultimately Saint Peters in the Elite 8. They had kind of run their Cinderella story out and Carolina wins by 20 and then you get to the final four and there's Duke again. Yeah buddy, that was that was. I was hoping that that game didn't happen,
00:47:09
Speaker
Because like, so the fact that we won it, like again, hindsight is 20, 20. The fact that we won it, yes, everybody can say, yeah, we wanted that game. But I promise you, every North Carolina fan was sick to their stomach. Because again, had they won that game, it would have put a blemish on the winning camera.
00:47:33
Speaker
it would have put a blemish on the season, you know, that North Carolina was having. And then the fact that Duke could have possibly went on to win a national championship in Coach K's last game. Oh my God. Like that would have been nauseating for North Carolina fans. But guess what? It did not happen. We were the ones to finish off an end
00:47:56
Speaker
the Dukies in the final four, first time ever. And so by far one of the greatest years in North Carolina basketball history. And had we won the national championship, I say this all the time, it would have been the worst year in Duke basketball history. But for now, it's probably not the worst, but it's definitely top two.
00:48:19
Speaker
Oh yeah, absolutely. It's close.
Current Role and Reflections
00:48:24
Speaker
And of course it didn't go well in the second half against Kansas, but Kansas played a fantastic second half. Coach Bill Self must have given one heck of a halftime speech in the locker room to come back from 15 points down.
00:48:37
Speaker
And of course, Carolina finishes national runner up in a surprise, I think, for a lot of people in Hubert Davis' first year. Now, you transition to Hubert Davis' second year, preseason ranked number one in the country.
00:48:52
Speaker
You exit Brady Manick, you enter Nance, who is a transfer. Puff Johnson has a year to mature. RJ Davis, Caleb Love, Leakey Black coming back for his COVID year. Armando Baycott coming back for one more year. It kind of seems like 2016 into 2017 all over again, where Theo and Joel came back to make a run at it one last time, along with Puff's brother Cam.
00:49:21
Speaker
Is this kind of setting up to be another 2016 to 2017 type situation in your eyes? I know a lot has to go right and a lot had to go right in 17 for that team to win, but it's kind of right in that same story early on. Absolutely, I do believe that this team is set up to be very, very good this year. I do have a couple. I want to call him concerns, but.
00:49:49
Speaker
For me, Brady Mannock was the key to North Carolina's run and the way that he could shoot the basketball. Now, again, you replace that with a Pete Nance, and he is very, very formidable the way that Brady Mannock was.
00:50:05
Speaker
What I'm hoping happens is there isn't as much pressure on the starting five to do what they had to do last year, and that's carry the load for the entire game. I'm hoping that whether it's the freshmen, whether it's self-tremble or one of the other freshmen's or whether it's
00:50:23
Speaker
Dontre Stiles in his second year becoming, because again, he shows some light in the national championship game that moving forward, you can be like, oh my God, he could be one of those guys. And whether it's a Puff Johnson, because to put the expectation on Armando to have the type of season that he had, again, this year that he had last year, to put the expectations on Caleb Love to have the type of year that he had last year.
00:50:48
Speaker
is very, very difficult. You want them to be close to that, but I don't know. So that just means we're going to have to have other guys step up. And then again, you don't have Brady Manick this year. So as great as it is to be ranked number one at the beginning of the season and all that kind of stuff, North Carolina has their work cut out for them. And also too, like they have one of the toughest schedules to start out.
00:51:12
Speaker
So it won't surprise me if they drop a game early, but hopefully last year taught them how to win in tough situations and it won't be
00:51:23
Speaker
the season that they had at the beginning of the year, last year, where they're losing to these teams who seem superior and then having to make a run in the NCAA tournament. Hopefully, they can be consistent throughout the whole year. They can learn throughout the whole year. And the losses that they do have, they're learning experiences like they were for us in 2005.
00:51:48
Speaker
You mentioned that that schedule, Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan in the preseason. They go to Oregon and play in the Phil Knight Classic. That's going to be tough. So Hubert has set up a schedule that is going to test them going into ACC play. And of course, the ACC always, always tough. Some questions, though, who is going to be
00:52:10
Speaker
I know that Virginia, you know, you always can't count out Virginia. Miami has some good players that played well last year. Georgia Tech up and coming. They had a good surprise year last year. And what will Duke be the first year Coach K? So it'll be interesting to see how the ACC shakes out, but you have to feel good about Coach Davis' squad going into that.
00:52:35
Speaker
Oh yeah, no question. I think you feel good about it for sure. And that was about the execution of it all and understanding how things are going to work out. And I think on a nightly basis, North Carolina, again, they're going to have to show up.
00:52:52
Speaker
And they can't think just because North Carolina is written across their chest that everybody's gonna lay down, especially this year. They're not gonna catch anybody by surprise. Everybody knows they're coming. Everybody knows who Caleb Love is. Everybody knows who RJ Davis is. Everybody knows who Leaky Black is. Everybody knows who Armando Baycock is. So they're not gonna surprise anybody. They have to go out and dominate people. And I'm hoping that that's the message that they're receiving day in and day out as they start the season.
00:53:23
Speaker
Well, David, let's talk a little bit real quick before I let you go about the Motor City crews. Talk about that season that's coming up for you as an assistant coach there, acclimating yourself to life in the Midwest.
00:53:35
Speaker
So again, I was drafted to Milwaukee, so I know a little bit about the life in the Midwest, but luckily it hasn't gotten too cold yet. It was actually about 75 today, so I'm definitely feeling that weather, but yeah, I'm excited for this opportunity. I've learned so much in the couple months that I've been here, being able to participate in Pistons practice training camp and all that kind of stuff.
00:54:00
Speaker
So it's been really, it's been fun. And I'm a student of this game. I love this game. I always, I kind of knew that I was going to be a coach coming down towards the end of my career. So I'm prepared for this moment. And every single time I get to step out on that court and pass down the knowledge that I have,
00:54:22
Speaker
to the younger generation and guys who I have been in their shoes before now, it's just been special, man. So I enjoy it every single day that I get a chance to jump out there on the floor with these guys and help them develop and help them reach their goals. And it's a blessing every single day.
00:54:42
Speaker
Well, David, thanks so much for joining me. It's an absolute pleasure to talk to you and to relive some great memories for you and for all the North Carolina basketball fans that will listen to this podcast. And good luck on your season with the Motor City Crews. I appreciate it, Robbie, man. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it that I'm your first guest. Makes me feel really, really good. I truly appreciate you having me, brother.
00:55:04
Speaker
Absolutely, David. Thanks so much, and we'll talk again soon. This has been the Ross Sports Report, Episode 7, coming up next week. Thanks for listening.