Taking over for Chewbacca

Nothing in sports represents Star Wars like North Carolina basketball.\nDean Smith is Yoda. Michael Jordan is Luke Skywalker. Phil Ford is Boba Fett. Charlie Scott is Lando Calrissian. Larry Brown is Obi-Wan Kenobi. Melvin Turprin is Jabba the Hutt (but this is still a work in progress mind you). Rasheed Wallace is Lord Vader, powerful but jaded and now on the dark side. Matt Doherty is Chewbacca, temperamental and not-so-lovable after a while. ESPN broadcaster and unabashed North Carolina shill Stuart Scott is C3P0, the round ninny who used his unusual lexicon to tell us what was going on from afar, namely Bristol, Conn.\nAnd Roy Williams is Han Solo. He's the one flying the plane.\nWhen Williams resigned Monday at Kansas to become the head coach at North Carolina, he pulled off what might seem like a lateral move on the surface but the biggest move up in his heart.\nWilliams is a North Carolina alum and an assistant to Smith from 1978-1988. Smith, who coached UNC from 1962-1997 and is college basketball's all-time winningest coach, never seemed to deny the tidal pull awarded him in his later years after it became clear he was not just another coach.\nHow did Smith become a deity? Well, he recruited the Chosen One, and it takes a special talent evaluator to notice Serge Zwikker.\nHe also recruited Jordan and just as Michigan will always be identified with the Fab Five, North Carolina will always have Jordan, and that is a recruiting tree that keeps on giving.\nSmith was always referred to as the "only man who could hold Michael Jordan under 20 points." Yes, Smith taught Michael the Right Way to Play Basketball, and the rest is myth. (Actually, Michael held himself to 13 points in the 1984 NCAA Tournament loss to IU by getting himself into foul trouble.)\nThe hiring of Williams brings us right back to the area of myth and only reminds us that North Carolina basketball, fair or not, pales only in comparison to Notre Dame football for coaching pressure.\nWilliams takes over for Doherty, a former Smith player who didn't strike people as deferent enough to Smith and eventually was forced out after three years. Doherty's lack of acquiescence to Smith could have become irrelevant if he had won a lot, but his teams did not make the NCAA Tournament the last two years, an absolute no-no at North Carolina.\nWhat struck me watching from afar wasn't just that people were upset North Carolina was losing, but that it wasn't some Camelot of college basketball many thought it was. Rumors lurked as to how nastily Doherty treated players. Three players -- guards Adam Boone, Brendan Morrison and 7-6 center Neil Fingleton -- transferred after last year's eight-win disaster. To paraphrase another movie, yes, Virginia, players do transfer from North Carolina.\nSome gave Doherty sympathy because post-Smith program caretaker Bill Guthridge did little recruiting. But still this was North Carolina. Doherty was in over his head, as only Dick Vitale thought he was doing a good job, and Vitale would praise a mop handle if you put it in front of a college bench.\nWilliams is a mini-Smith. His .804 winning percentage is frighteningly good, but he somehow hasn't won a national championship. Smith won only two, and those 1982 and 1993 teams might not have been in Smith's top three, maybe not his top five.\nWilliams has kept to Smith's average of a Final Four about every four years. Williams took Kansas there four times in 15 years while Smith took North Carolina there 10 times in 36 years. When either of their teams lost in the NCAA Tournament, it frequently came in games they were expected to win, including Kansas' loss to Syracuse in the national championship game last Monday or their loss to Arizona in the 1997 NCAA Tournament when they were overwhelming favorites to win it all.\nSmith passed on to Williams a patterned style, free of gimmicks and focused on team play to a fault. Both liked to play fast as befitting their itchy personalities. While Syracuse might play a 2-3 zone the whole game to beat Kansas, the Jayhawks wouldn't think of doing something unconventional in return.\nThat is my best explanation. After all, a guy with an .804 winning percentage is obviously adept at preparing his team. He just gets too dogmatic when the going gets tough.\nTo quote another movie, what's ultimately ironic is that there is no place like home, and Williams felt he needed to get away from Kansas to get there. Follow the Tobacco Road.