It is funny how much attention has been shown toward what makes the Heels tick. While Sean May and Raymond Felton are vitally important to this team floating, they will not be the primary determinants to whether or not UNC wins the National Championship. The key is Rashad McCants.

Felton and May are vital building blocks, yes, but UNC has lost many important games with the vital aspects in place. In each of the last 6 Final Fours, however, the key to winning came down to the jump shooting. Rashad McCants is that third point of hope for the Heels. If his shot is on target, the Heels stand a very good chance of winning it all. Add in a hot Jawad Williams or Melvin Scott and the Heels are unbeatable.

This is easier said than done, though. In 1998 Shammond Williams was most notable at the Final Four for his 2-12 shooting. Utah got out to a 15-2 lead on the frigid Heels, who could never recover. Shammond was just 1-13 from the field in the previous Final Four in an losing effort to the 33%-shooting Arizona Wildcats. Who can forget the curiously awful performance by Rick Fox in 1991? Coming off of a 50% shooting effort for the tournament, Fox was 0-7 from “3″ and 23% overall in a close one to Kansas.

Will Rashad join Donald Williams or the score of players who faltered when the pressure poured on in a cavernous dome? Rashad did quite well last week when the pressure was on in the cavernous Carrier Dome, however it was one of the few times he has excelled under pressure in his career.

Caulton Tudor got it right in yesterday’s column. Watch McCants during and after his first 2 or 3 shots and you’ll see how UNC will do. McCants, in fact, is the key to UNC’s chances to win it all.

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The Heels opened the 2005 ACC Tournament with another heist against Clemson. The Heels had trouble getting it going until the re-entry of Rashad McCants in the late stages of the game. Everything changed at that point and the Heels moved on to play Georgia Tech today.

Hopefully this team-wide, dreadful shooting slump is over. The Heels shot just 44% from the field for the game to follow up their terrible 40% showing against Duke. Against Duke the Heels didn’t hit a jump shot beyond 10 feet during the entire second half. They looked about as bad against Clemson, except they played woeful defense to boot. Things started to click, however, as the Heels outscored Clemson 30-10 in the waning moments.

Maybe the team was overlooking Clemson, or even the whole ACC Tournament. Their #1 seed and placement in Charlotte for the first couple of rounds seems set in stone. Maybe the reintroduction of Rashad McCants is tough on chemistry. Regardless, Melvin Scott is a huge step down, and the Heels will not go far into the NCAA tourney without McCants. While it isn’t hugley important for him to be in full condition this or next weekend, it is imperative to have him near 100% for the Sweet 16 round.

Hats off to Clemson. Of course I want the Heels to win, but it is too bad that Clemson isn’t playing elsewhere in the tourney today. They played fantastic, inspired, clean basketball. Oliver Purnell is a class act and we hope their run in the NIT goes extremely well.

NCSU sealed their miraculous NCAA bid last night is bringing down the Paul-less Demon Deacons. Their defense is probably tied with Duke’s for the best in the conference. Both teams shoot about half of their shots from the three-point line, so their game today ought to be a missilefest. If they can rebound well, they stand a decent chance of beating Duke.

Today marks the rematch of two couples of teams that only played once in the lopsided regular season. Duke came back at NCSU to win, and UNC dominated Ga. Tech at home. I’m not sure whether GT is playing that well, or Va. Tech is playing that poorly yesterday. Tech clearly has to get a good game from BJ Elder to win today. Funny how last year it was McCants and Elder who were both on fire. Remember McCants high fiving Elder after one of Elder’s big shots? Now those two are the catalyst for two teams that are sputtering. They are the keys to today’s game. Don’t be surprised to see Luke Schenscher play a big role today for the Jackets.

Wake Forest suspended Chris Paul (before the league could) for his actions at N.C. State last Sunday and it probably cost them the rematch game last night. “Too friggin’ bad”. Paul is a dirty player. I was at the game but missed the specific incident, but so did the refs. The replay shows that Paul used the defensive move of punching Julius Hodge in the groin. NCSU fans rode Paul the rest of the game, booing him when he touched the ball and yelling obscenities. A few classless guys reportedly yelled,”I killed your grandfather.”

Not surprisingly NCSU botched their last position with gave Paul the opportunity to hit the game winner. After hitting it Paul made a point to run to both sidelines and the baseline and taunt the entire State crowd in the north end of the building. His teammates smartly dragged Paul toward the tunnel in which Paul had to be restrained from coming back out into the arena.

There is no place for this conduct in the ACC and there is no place for the league and official’s inaction regarding this and other matters. Hopefully Wake Forest lost the other pod placement in Charlotte and will be sent off to Tuscon to choke in the first round. Charlotte will probably host UNC and the Melchioni-middle-finger-waving Duke Blue Devils. It will certainly be chippy and neither team will enjoy too much of a home court advantage with all the rabid booing going on. I may spark the teams on. Regardless it will be the loudest, most active venue for the entire NCAA tournament.