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Friday, November 10, 2000
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Doherty Puts Own Mark on Program
By T. Nolan Hayes
Sports Editor
Matt Doherty knows what it’s like to be the new coach in town.
He experienced it for the first time last season, when he left his
job as an assistant coach at Kansas to become the head man at
Notre Dame.
He felt pressure to win because coaches always do, but expecta
tions for success weren’t extremely high. The Fighting Irish had
posted losing seasons in conference play in each of their four years
of Big East play.
Things will be a little bit different
for Doherty this year. After one sea
son with the Irish, who won 22 games
and went 8-8 in the Big East with him
at the helm, Doherty has returned
home to Chapel Hill. Waiting for him
was a team that went to the Final
Four last year under Bill Guthridge.
Doherty is starting over again, but this time the stakes are higher.
“There’s anxiety. There’s excitement, nervousness. There’s all those
kinds of things, all those kinds of emotions that you feel,” Doherty
says. “But the neat thing is that my staff and I have gone through this
before. Last year we were in the same boat, but now we’ve been
through it together. That will really make our transition easier.”
And no doubt about it, there will be a transition.
True, Doherty is part of the UNC basketball family, having
played for Dean Smith from 1980-84 and coached under former
UNC assistant Roy Williams at Kansas from 1992-99. But that does
n’t mean he is a clone of either man. Doherty subscribes to Smith’s
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main basketball philosophies - popularly known as “the Carolina
way” -but he will put his own signature on the bottom line.
He wasted little time in getting that point across after taking over
as head coach July 11. He brought his staff with him from Notre
Dame, leaving Guthridge’s three assistants - Phil Ford, Dave
Hanners and Pat Sullivan - without jobs. He moved UNC’s weight
room to anew location, one that allows all of his players to work
out together at the same time. He increased the difficulty of the
team’s preseason conditioning program.
The list continues, but perhaps the biggest change Doherty has
“If I’m sitting next to somebody on a plane,
I’m going to say hello to them. It’s my nature
to be friendly and get to know people. ”
Matt Doherty
UNC Men's Basketball Coach
well. He’s a younger coach. It’s like he lives in our shoes.”
Doherty prides himself on that. He wants to know what the
newest fads are among his players and the UNC student body
because he says that kind of knowledge keeps him young.
And Doherty is a quick learner.
Shortly after getting his BMW -one of the perks for being the
main man in Chapel Hill - Doherty had a discussion with junior
forwardjason Capel.
“Man, a lot of trees,” Capel said, looking at the car.
“Yeah,” Doherty said, pretending to know what Capel was talk
ing about.
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brought to the program is anew atti
tude. At age 38, he has a perspective
different from that of Smith and
Guthridge, who were 66 and 62,
respectively, when they retired.
“He’s cool to talk to,” junior for
ward Kris Lang says. “I’m not neces
sarily going to say he stoops to our
level, but he understands us very
The Doherty File
Full Name: Matthew Francis Doherty
Born: Feb. 25,1962, in East Meadow, N.Y.
Education: B.A. in business administration (UNC 1984)
Wife: Kelly Propst, of Concord
Children: son, Tucker, 3; daughter, Hattie Fitzgerald, 1.
Coaching Experience: assistant, Davidson (1989-92);
assistant Kansas (1992-99); head coach, Notre Dame
(1999-2000)
Highlights During UNC Playing Career (1980-84)
■ Played on teams that combined for a 117-21 record
(.848 winning percentage)
■ Won the 1982 NCAA championship
■Won three ACC regular-season championships
■ Won two ACC Tournament titles
■ Participated in two Final Fours
■ Led the team in assists in 1982-83 (150) and 1983-84 (124)
■ Became the second player in UNC history to accumulate
1,000 points, 400 rebounds and 400 assists
■Averaged 9.0 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists
per game for his career
■ Played in all 101 games his final three seasons
Highlights During Stint at Notre Dame (1999-2000)
■ Posted a 22-15 record
■ Guided Notre Dame to most wins in a season since 1986-87
■ Ranked second in NCAA in wins among first-year coaches
■ Guided Notre Dame to wins against five ranked opponents
■ Coached Troy Murphy, consensus first-team All-American
and Big East Player of the Year
But after a few seconds, Doherty’s curiosity got the best of him.
“What do you mean, ‘a lot of trees?’” he asked.
“You know, the wood in the car,” Capel replied.
Doherty can now be heard saying “nice trees” when he sees a
fine automobile on the street. Kind of difficult to imagine Smith or
Guthridge saying that, isn’t it?
“It’s something that he’s changed,” junior center Brian Bersticker
says. “He tries to form a relationship with the team off the court.”
Doherty has made the same effort in the community. He has
been a visible presence 'since school started, giving speeches in the
Pit and eating occasionally at Lenoir Dining Hall on campus and
Sutton’s Drug Store on Franklin Street. Doherty also played three
on-three with his staff against a team of students at Midnight
Madness on Oct. 14. And with the election year in full effect, he and
his wife, Kelly, spent time in the Pit promoting voter registration.
Doherty could have bypassed all of those things, and no one
would have thought twice about it. But he didn’t. Maybe it’s
because he doesn’t have the 879 wins that made Smith almost God
like and unapproachable. Or maybe it’s because he doesn’t have the
desire that Guthridge had of avoiding the spodight at all costs.
Whatever the reason, UNC men’s basketball now exudes an aura
of accessibility that has been missing in recent years.
“I just think it’s in my nature,” Doherty says. “If I’m in the eleva
tor with somebody, I say hello. If I’m sitting next to somebody on a
plane, I’m going to say hello to them. It’s my nature to be friendly
and get to know people.”
But that’s not to say that Doherty is always Mr. Nice Guy. He is
known as a players’ coach -a guy who looks at things from players’
perspectives and is fun to play for -but he is still a coach.
And he is demanding.
“When he says something, you just do it,” Capel says. “There’s no
saying anything back, and there’s no even questioning it because he’s
only going to ask you nicely one time. And after that, it’s not going to
be quite as nice as it was the first time. That’s as kindly as I can put it”
Comments like Capel’s are a sure sign that Doherty has the
respect of his players. Part of what has helped Doherty gain that trust
so quickly are his understanding of what Ids team can control and his
desire to perfect those things. Doherty’s opinion is that the Tar Heels
can control two main aspects of their play in every game this season:
how hard they play and what kind of physical shape they’re in.
His preseason conditioning program reflects this philosophy. The
Tar Heels are running more this year than they ever have before.
“He likes to run you till you puke,” Lang says. “He’s good at that.”
Recent history shows that UNC needs it. The Tar Heels have not
used many substitutes in recent years, and fatigue has been a factor
that has hurt them in up-tempo games against the likes of Duke and
Florida. One of Doherty’s goals is to eliminate that problem. He
also likes the idea of his players gaining confidence through condi
tioning that they can use to get through tough situations in games.
And as much as anything else, all
the running brings the team closer
together. Players were pulling for each
other as they struggled to make their
times on all of their sprints and runs.
“You knew four days out of the
week it was basically going to be a gut
check, and you had to respond to it
and learn how to get through it,”
Capel says. “There wasn’t any punking out, and there wasn’t any
getting around it. You had to get through it or else you were letting
the team down. We did that, we got through it, and I think that
makes us a lot closer team and more prepared team.”
Doherty knows all about putting in work to achieve a goal. Every
day he wakes up and looks in the mirror, he sees the benefits of it.
Growing up in East Meadow, N.Y., Doherty spent coundess hours
on the courts of Prospect Park trying to improve his game. On a typi
cal day, he would get up at 8 a.m., walk the three blocks from his
home to the park and play until lunch time. He’d then stroll over to
a place called Meadow Dairy, where he’d order a bologna gyro,
Linden’s chocolate chip cookies and a quart of milk for lunch.
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Doherty would then head back to-the park until
home to eat and return one final time. to. play pw ku
The cycle was the same every day. Doherty didn
monotony because he was doing what hd loVed.Ar
paying off. He earned a scholarship to North iCardli
points per game during his career as a forward and
a national championship ring.
But basketball would not be a part of his future t
ly, anyway. Doherty, a sixth-round pick of the Clesv
in the 1984 NBA Draft, didn’t make it in the piqs'.
There’s no saying anything back, and there’s
no even questioning it because he’s only
going to ask you nicely one time. ”
Jason Capel
UNC Junior Forward
ketball players in my position, people would say, 'V
doing? How come you didn’t make it in th£ NBA?’
“And you could say, ‘No, I’m not in the NBAlbr
on Wall Street,’ and I think that was a cool thing to
reason to start a career, but you don’t knew at'than
Doherty soon found that out, so he left Wall Strei
Charlotte even though he had no job there, and'he
ing an entrance into the real estate business: But sel
too much like selling bonds, so that was out.
Doherty decided that he needed to' get back info t
worked for a couple of years as a color commentator
the Davidson radio network in addition: to some higl
North Carolina men's basketball coaGhii
the helm July 11. Here, he does a derr
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piest of times.
“I think deep <dow
was for the wrong re
says. “L think I did if
the cool thing to dp,