C of C deal: Roy Williams 'dumb enough'

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — You almost got to see Tyler Hansbrough play at Carolina First Arena, which means you nearly got to witness North Carolina's uniquely tenacious big guy dive all the way onto Meeting Street in pursuit of a loose basketball.

Lucky for vehicles and horse-drawn carriages, Hansbrough, a senior, will not be in the Tar Heels' traveling party next season when North Carolina plays at the College of Charleston. Junior guards Ty Lawson and Wayne Ellington and the rest of Roy Williams' starting lineup likely will be gone to the NBA, too.

But the College of Charleston's three-year contract with North Carolina that begins with tonight's game here at the Dean Dome is nothing less than a triple-treat:

• Tonight. These Tar Heels, still a consensus favorite to win the national championship despite Sunday's Atlantic Coast Conference loss to Boston College, are the best team Charleston has faced in any regular season (the 1997 Arizona team that edged the Cougars in a second-round NCAA Tournament game in Memphis remains the top overall opponent until Hansbrough, Lawson and pals actually give Williams his second NCAA title).

• Wait 'til next year. The 2009-2010 Tar Heels, wholesale changes and all, will be the toughest ticket in College of Charleston sports history. Or at least going back to South Carolina's 1912 football appearance in Charleston.

• The 2010-2011 season. Game 3 of the series, back in Chapel Hill. Maybe on Tyler Hansbrough NBA Rookie of the Year Bobblehead Night.

Cremins cachet

"It's because of Bobby Cremins and the respect that I have for him," Williams said of his agreement to play a game on the Cougars' home court. "I do love Charleston. We own a home down there at Wild Dunes. There's no question that it's one of my favorite places to play golf and sit on the beach and eat seafood, but I don't think I'll be doing any three of those when we come back next year and play.

"Bobby had talked to me about coming (this season) and opening their new arena and we couldn't get that exactly worked out. But he thought this would be nice for their program and nice for him, and I'm dumb enough to play a home-and-home at Princeton several years ago when I was at Kansas and to take a team to the Palestra (in Philadelphia to face Penn) just because our radio announcer had never done a game in the Palestra, so I've been dumb enough to do a lot of things."

This is classic Cremins cachet, the famously charming personality paying off on the schedule and in black ink.

Buzz flap

The close-knit North Carolina basketball "family" wasn't exactly enamored with the way the College of Charleston treated Buzz Peterson, who blasted the school's sloppy search process after interviewing for the job Gregg Marshall filled for 24 hours between the dismissal of Tom Herrion and the hiring of Cremins. Peterson played on North Carolina's 1982 national championship team, with Williams serving as one of Dean Smith's assistant coaches.

But Williams and Cremins are long-time friends, and Williams' scheduling decision makes it even easier for him to get good tables and off-menu options at his favorite Lowcountry restaurants.

Nothing, however, will be easy for the Cougars. Until losing Sunday, former No. 1 North Carolina was 13-0 with a gaudy victory margin of 26 points.

The Tar Heels are playing stellar defense.

"We're better (defensively) right now than we were at this stage last year," Williams said, "and at times during the course of our play we have been better this year even than we were at the end of the year last year."

So maybe it's best for the Cougars and for traffic on Meeting Street that Cremins and Co. only has to face Tyler Hansbrough this once.

Reach Gene Sapakoff at gsapakoff@postandcourier.com or 937-5593.