Doherty Makes His Move Into the ‘Heeling Process

The hardest thing so far about being the 17th basketball coach in North Carolina history has not been the history.

It hasn’t been being only 38, or taking over a sacred public trust, or stepping into a coaching time line that goes Frank McGuire, Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge and . . . Matt Doherty.

It hasn’t been the national titles, or the impossible expectations, or seeing Coach Smith scribbling notes from the stands at your practice.

What has worn on Doherty are the same things that wear on the widget salesman who gets transferred from South Bend to Chapel Hill.

It’s living out of boxes, going to the DMV, getting the electricity turned on.

As of Tuesday, the North Carolina coach was still living the domestic life of Ralph Kramden.

Since July, when Doherty accepted the job after a whirlwind courtship, the most visible man in North Carolina has been crashing on rented furniture.

“I’m in a two-bedroom apartment with a 3-year-old and a 1-year old,” Doherty said this week. “My daughter wakes up at 4:30 in the morning. In an apartment, everyone’s up then. That’s the hardest thing, dealing with not being settled. Basketball is basketball.”

We’ll see. Youth is being served in North Carolina, and it’s more than a coach and his wife sharing the 4 a.m. bottle feedings.

It’s going to be an interesting scene Saturday when 36-year-old UCLA Coach Steve Lavin shakes hands with 38-year-old Matt Doherty at Pauley Pavilion, two babes at the wheels of powerhouse programs.

Consider that the two men had a combined one year of head coaching experience when they took over programs that have combined for 14 national championships.

Lavin, of course, had no experience when he took over for Jim Harrick.

Doherty was called to a higher place after a one-year stint at Notre Dame.

“Well, at least I had one year under my belt,” Doherty joked on the phone this week.

Doherty knows Lavin only casually but understands the similarities.

And, probably not unlike Lavin in his first year, Doherty has been too consumed with day-to-day duties to consider the larger ramifications.

“When you’re in it, it’s not as overwhelming as when you’re reading about it,” Doherty said. “When you’re watching UCLA vs. North Carolina on TV, you say ‘Wow.’ But when you’re in it, it’s a game. It’s what you do. It could be nobody in the stands. It’s different than looking from the outside.

“It’s the same thing when you talk about the lineage: McGuire, Smith, Guthridge, Doherty. I don’t have a whole lot of time to say ‘Wow.’ I’m blowing through this sucker right now.

“In the airport, people stop me for autographs, but I don’t deserve to sign autographs. All I’ve been is appointed the head coach. I haven’t won anything yet.”

What Doherty has won so far is six games, but, more important, he has already lost two--including a home defeat against nemesis Kentucky.

“A guy comes up to me the other day, I don’t even know him, and he says, ‘What’s the matter with your team?’ ” Doherty said. “I said, ‘We’re 6-2.’ ”

Matt Doherty, welcome to your dream job.

Actually, Doherty says it was more fantasy than dream.

Doherty may be a member of the North Carolina family, but he is not immediate. He played four years for Smith from 1980-84, a small forward on the giant 1982 championship team that included Michael Jordan, Sam Perkins and James Worthy.

But to think Doherty was maneuvering for the long-term job after Smith/Guthridge was fantasy.

Doherty was probably the fourth or fifth name down the list.

When Guthridge abruptly resigned last summer, saying he lacked the energy to go on after last season’s arduous and improbable trek to the Final Four, everyone knew the drill.

Kansas Coach Roy Williams, Smith’s favorite coaching disciple, would be called and would serve.

But, in emotional, gut-wrenching defiance, Williams turned down the job.

Smith, still running interference behind the scenes as coach emeritus, checked Williams off the list and moved down to Larry Brown, George Karl and Eddie Fogler.

It was only after North Carolina Chancellor James Moeser suggested that Athletic Director Dick Baddour (and Smith) look elsewhere that Doherty made the list.

It took him about five minutes to accept.

“I thought the only chance I’d have at the job was if Coach Guthridge stayed another seven years and I was doing well at Notre Dame,” Doherty said. “And then it would have been too late for Coach Williams because, at 57, he wasn’t going to make that change.”

Doherty got the job. Now, the hard part.

He insisted on putting his own stamp on the program, even if it meant bringing his entire staff from Notre Dame and leaving Tar Heel assistants Phil Ford, Dave Hanners and Pat Sullivan without jobs.

Doherty was determined to be himself, not a morph of the meticulous Smith or the grandfatherly Guthridge.

Indeed, it was a new dawn in Chapel Hill when Doherty, unimpressed with a fall practice, drop-kicked a trash can.

“I don’t do that for a reason,” he said. “I do it because it’s me.”

Doherty has been careful not to tamper with tradition, set down in tablets by Smith and carried on by Guthridge, but he has not been afraid to tinker.

Doherty has leaned heavily on both Guthridge and Smith but ultimately makes his own decisions.

Smith still slips into practice and takes copious notes, which he discusses with Doherty.

“If somebody else came in, and hadn’t been a part of it, it might offend some people,” Doherty said. “But I believe in the tradition and philosophy here. I won’t step over any lines. But I’m also independent enough, stubborn enough, hard-headed enough, that I’m going to do some of my own things. And that will be OK.”

Doherty has even dared to say publicly: “I may not win a national championship this [season].”

But he also says he’s in for the long haul.

How long?

“Twenty-seven years,” Doherty, who would be 65 at that point, quipped. “Then I go to the beach.”

NUMBERS GAME

We know Jarron and Jason Collins are twins, but must they do everything alike?

Through the first six games, all victories, the Stanford players’ statistics were almost identical.

Jarron had scored 76 points. So had Jason. Both were shooting 55% from the field.

Jarron had 51 rebounds.

Jason had 51 rebounds.

Jarron had 16 offensive rebounds. Jason had 16 offensive rebounds.

Jarron is a senior. Jason is a, well, believe it or not, this is where the similarity ends.

Because of injuries that wiped out most of his first two seasons, Jason is a sophomore athletically with two more years of eligibility.

When both brothers are in the starting lineup, Stanford is 19-0.

IF IT WEREN’T FOR BAD LUCK . . .

It has been a rough start for Oregon State (5-5), but you don’t know the half of it. The Beavers, led by first-year Coach Ritchie McKay, had lost five consecutive nonconference games before Tuesday’s 58-50 victory over Eastern Washington.

This week, with the return of Mike Cokley from a suspension, the Beavers were finally able to field as many as nine players for practice.

Among the casualties have been Kelly Knox, the team’s manager, who was knocked unconscious after getting hit in the head by a ball at practice.

On Dec. 17, the Oregon State team flight from Denver to Eugene returned to Denver because of a landing gear problem.

If that wasn’t enough, three players have had their apartments burglarized in recent weeks.

The worst hit was Jimmie Haywood, a 6-foot-2 sophomore guard.

“He lost everything,” McKay said. “He had 25 pairs of Nike shoes going back to Day 1. For a young person, that’s a pretty difficult thing to go through.”

LOOSE ENDS

Michigan State Coach Tom Izzo after his team’s 46-45 victory over Kentucky last weekend: “They won the battle, we won the score.”

You have to wonder if this is going to be Tubby Smith’s last year at Kentucky, given the grief he has taking over the team’s 3-5 start and the coach’s decision to stick with his son, Saul, at point guard. Maybe Tubby should have taken the Atlanta Hawks’ job when he had the chance.

Silver linings? Kentucky’s five losses have been by a total of 14 points.

Seems like only yesterday that Smith coached Kentucky to its seventh national title with a victory over Utah in 1998, but two years is an eternity in Kentucky time.

The Wildcats are off to their worst start since 1988-89. What’s more, Michael Bradley, the 6-foot-10 center and former prized Kentucky recruit who transferred to Villanova, was named the Big East player of the week after getting 43 points and 24 rebounds in victories over La Salle and St. Joseph’s.

Things could be worse: Smith could be coaching at Temple, where John Chaney is embroiled in a six-game losing streak, the longest in his 19-year tenure, while escorting players out the door. Last week, Chaney granted sophomore guard Ron Blackshear his release. Blackshear is a great shooter but had grown frustrated with his playing time and apparently has had trouble grasping Chaney’s match-up zone defense.