UNC’s ‘Blue’ tradition

SAN ANTONIO — As part of a run-of-the-mill exercise in fifth grade, a teacher asked Patrick Moody to compile a list of goals.

Like a lot of kids in a basketball-mad state, his reply was quick and concise.

He jotted down: “I want to play basketball at the University of North Carolina.”

Consider it an aim fulfilled beyond any reasonable expectation this season. Moody was one of several walk-ons to make the Tar Heels. But he and the rest of the “blue team” — the designation for the group that typically acts as a scout team in practice — managed to do more than simply earn roster spots.

They have played in nearly half of North Carolina’s games, a five-man victory cigar for North Carolina coach Roy Williams to direct to the scorer’s table with yet another rout in hand.

An NCAA tournament game isn’t the most likely place to find walk-ons logging time. Yet sure enough, the five guys who are just as emblematic of the Tar Heels’ dominance this season as any Ty Lawson-fueled fast break or Tyler Hansbrough dunk have played in three of four postseason games for North Carolina (36-2).

“You definitely never think it’s going to happen, and it’s like, ’Wow, it really did happen. We could be on One Shining Moment,’ ” senior Surry Wood said of playing in a round of 16 game last week. “You go back to the hotel, and all of us have a lot of friends that will text us and say, ’Wow, that’s so cool, way to go.’ It’s something not everybody else gets to do.”

Few major programs have as comprehensive a walk-on program as North Carolina, and much of it stems from tradition. The Tar Heels still operate a junior varsity team, and four of this year’s walk-ons started out on the JV.

All of the walk-ons are, like Williams, North Carolina natives. And given Williams’ deep ties with the program, he looks for ways to find court time for his practice players.

“I would have loved to have been one of those guys, so I have that feeling for them,” Williams said. “They’ve been great for us. They work extremely hard, they listen, they pay attention to what the other team does and they take it out on the court and try to do it.”

While few notice the guys at the end of the bench, the walk-ons possess backgrounds as intriguing as the starters.

Marc Campbell transferred from UNC Greensboro, giving up a scholarship in the process much like Wes Miller had a few years earlier. Greg Little is also a scholarship tailback with the Tar Heels’ football team (and has been away from the basketball team during spring practice). Moody sprained an ankle a month and a half before tryouts this year but still managed to make the team.

Once there, they have plenty of responsibilities. In addition to the same weightlifting regimen as the scholarship players, they must master opponents’ offensive and defensive sets the day before a game. Since January, they often have played the bulk of practice to give rest to the starters and second team.

That doesn’t even factor in the challenge of regularly guarding a player like Hansbrough, a task that falls to the often-bruised Wood.

But the payoff comes with game time — and it has been unusually frequent this year, even for a powerhouse like North Carolina.

“Me and Jack [Wooten] and Pat are always talking about it,” said junior J.B. Tanner, who has 15 points in 17 games this year. “Once it gets to about 15 or 20, we’re like, ’What’s the chances we’re going in?’ ”

Added Wooten: “The chatter definitely starts. It starts in your head, and we start to whisper amongst ourselves just wondering ’When?’ and ’If?’ Someone will usually throw out some odds whether we’ll get in. Then you get the nervous butterflies, too. Even though the game’s been decided, I still get nervous.”

One understandable reason: Williams is demanding of his players, even in garbage time. Lousy defense is inexcusable at any juncture, and the walk-ons’ goal usually is to win the minute or two they’re on the floor.

“[Williams] doesn’t tell us to sit there and dribble it out,” Wood said. “We realize sometimes somebody has to get a certain kind of shot. This year, a couple games it turned to be Jack’s turn and Jack went off for five points.”

Wood paused a minute and snickered at his choice of words. A day later, he wasn’t laughing — just wearing a wide grin and a net around his neck, a trophy to take home from the Tar Heels’ regional championship.

It meant a chance to maybe play in a Final Four. There’s no guarantee, especially with four No. 1 seeds remaining in the tournament.

But what is certain is no one will enjoy the next few days as much as North Carolina’s “blue team.”

“People say it all the time, but it’s a dream, it really is,” said Moody, whose brother, Christian, played in a Final Four for Williams’ final Kansas team in 2003. “It’s a dream, but it just keeps getting better it seems like.”