Former Tar Heel Jerry Stackhouse
AP photo
Les Robinson knew exactly what he was up against when he walked into Oak Hill Academy that night back in the fall of 1992.
In theory, he was challenging an aging 61-year-old coach with fidgety nerves and an affinity for cigarettes. In reality, Robinson was wrestling Godzilla, in a friendly yet intense recruiting war with Dean Smith, the biggest name in college basketball.
So as Robinson, then the head coach at N.C. State, entered the gym, he wasn't surprised to find Smith and UNC assistant Phil Ford waiting for him.
They were there to court Jerry Stackhouse, a wildly athletic and versatile guard ranked among the top three prospects in the country.
Both UNC and State had been recruiting Stackhouse for close to three years. Their evaluations had finished long before.
"But you still had to be there," Ford said.
And so they sat. For hours.
"If you want the kid, you better stay," Robinson said. "No one's immune to that. Not even Dean Smith."
It sounds crazy. Two high-profile college basketball coaches held hostage in a high school gym by an 18-year-old trying to figure out which basketball team he liked most.
But in the extraordinary world of big-time recruiting, where one player can prove history changing, that cauldron boils without end, particularly in North Carolina where three ACC programs reside within 25 miles of one another and a fourth, Wake Forest, is just up the road on I-40.
"I don't think there's any landscape in college basketball that comes close to what you find right here," said current N.C. State assistant Mark Phelps. "Forget about playing the games. The sport of basketball recruiting in this state is unbelievable."
Balance of power
Throughout history, the recruiting battles have been many, the consequences often landmark.
In 1971, Norm Sloan and N.C. State beat out UNC for a slick forward named David Thompson. Three years later, the Wolfpack was celebrating its first national title.
In 1990, Duke edged out Carolina for Grant Hill, who played a major role in Duke's back-to-back national championships in 1991 and '92. In that same era, Carolina sneaked past the Blue Devils to land 7-foot center Eric Montross, who averaged 15.8 points and 7.6 rebounds as a junior to lead UNC to the 1993 national title.
And so it often unfolds that one player completes the championship puzzle of one school while delivering a sturdy punch to the stomach of another.
The balance of power in the Triangle experienced its most dramatic shift in the mid-1980s when the rise of Mike Krzyzewksi and Duke ultimately spawned the sport's pre-eminent rivalry between the Blue Devils and UNC.
Meanwhile State, once a national power, was left on the outside, like Paul Anka singing back-up for Sinatra.
"That's what makes the State job so tough," Robinson said. "Because two or three generations of Wolfpackers don't want to accept that."
Since 1980, Carolina and Duke have combined to win six national championships and produce 81 NBA draft picks. Only three times in the past 18 seasons - 1996, 2002 and 2003 - have neither Duke nor Carolina played at the Final Four.
"People would constantly ask me, 'When do you think you're going to be competitive in the ACC and when do you think you're going to be competitive in the top 20?'" Robinson said. "I'd say, 'I don't care about the ACC or the top 20. I just want to be able to compete in the neighborhood.' If we can finish second in our own neighborhood, I'll be a happy man."
A State of mind
Only once in six seasons did Robinson reach that goal. His successor, Herb Sendek, has accomplished the feat three times in nine years.
Author and ACC historian Barry Jacobs is one of the many who label Sendek's job at State the most pressure-packed in America because of the feats of Duke and UNC.
"It's always darkest at the base of the lighthouse," said Jacobs. "Everybody else lives in that shadow. And the closer you are, I assume the bigger the shadow."
Seemingly unperturbed in that shadow, Sendek has tried to create his own reality in Raleigh, understanding there are 329 other programs in Division I.
"We're not just competing with them," Sendek said. "Certainly it's unique in this neighborhood, given the proximity of our schools and the enthusiasm of the people that support us. But as obvious and formulaic as it may sound, you have to begin with where you are at."
Mark Phelps, Sendek's recruiting coordinator, says State's mission is to recruit with blinders on, to set lofty yet attainable goals and then pursue them.
For State, the most significant recruiting score in recent years was undoubtedly Julius Hodge, a well-rounded and charismatic forward out of Harlem who signed to play for Sendek in 2000. Over four years in Raleigh, Hodge scored 2,040 points, was later taken in the first round of the NBA Draft and raised the profile of the Wolfpack program.
"That has proved to be important leading to berths in the NCAA tournament and higher finishes in the ACC than in previous years," said Brick Oettinger of the Prep Stars Recruiter's Handbook. "Hodge was a crucial guy for Herb. Without that, he wouldn't be coaching State now."
Last spring, with Hodge leading the way, the Wolfpack made its fourth straight appearance in the NCAA tournament, the program's longest run of success since Jim Valvano produced five straight NCAA berths from 1985 to 1989.
"If N.C. State and the accomplishments that we've had over the last several years could stand alone, it would be, 'Wow, that's pretty impressive,'" Phelps said. "But because you put us back in the neighborhood relative to Duke and Carolina, now you're looked at a little bit differently."
Phelps thinks the Wolfpack's recent achievements have built a foundation that has elite players looking at State a bit differently. This year's freshman class includes McDonald's All-American Brandon Costner and fellow top-100 recruits Courtney Fells and Ben McCauley.
"We're at the point where we're recruiting Top 75, Top 50 prospects, some of the elite players in the country," Phelps said. "Because of the neighborhood that we're in, that's not a process that can happen overnight. It if did, you'd really have to take a look and say, 'Now how was that done?' Because if you do it with smoke and mirrors and chicken wire and bubble gum, you don't have any type of foundation."
Earning interest
Up the road, Duke and UNC build on the greatest recruiting foundation: tradition.
"When you think about Duke and Carolina, you're talking about first-class operations," said Montross, who was recruited heavily by both schools. "What they've got is something awfully special."
Roy Williams believes so deeply in the mystique of UNC basketball that he was lured back to Chapel Hill after 15 seasons establishing himself as a legend at Kansas.
Williams knows that coaching in the Dean Dome, a basketball museum where the jersey numbers of Michael Jordan and Phil Ford hang, gives the baby blue "NC" logo instant credibility.
So while he acknowledges that attracting interest is effortless, Williams disputes the notion that Carolina's recruiting efforts are akin to checking items off a shopping list.
"Understand now that we can pick, but so does everybody else," Williams said. "Duke does. Kentucky does. Indiana does. A lot of programs have that power. So those old guys who say that North Carolina doesn't recruit, they select, that's a bunch of hogwash."
While Duke and Carolina have the luxury of viewing just about every model on the showroom floor, they also have the responsibility of choosing the right one.
Split decisions
Former UNC assistant Doug Wojcik knows the scrutiny that comes with every leap and stumble on the recruiting trail.
"When you're at Carolina, it's about decisions," said Wojcik, now the head coach at Tulsa. "It's about decisions everywhere, but at Carolina those decisions occur under a pretty strong microscope."
Needing a point guard in 2001, Wojcik and the rest of the Carolina staff went to work evaluating and recruiting a stellar prep crop that included blue-chippers Sean Dockery, Jarrett Jack, John Gilchrist and Daniel Horton. The Tar Heels, according to Wojcik, essentially had to reject a well-rounded Texas point guard named Deron Williams, instead staying closer to home to sign lifelong Tar Heel fan Raymond Felton out of Latta High School in South Carolina.
In that same period, Carolina was involved in a tussle for Shavlik Randolph, a marvelous prospect from the neighborhood, a McDonald's All-American forward out of Broughton High School in Raleigh. All three schools in the Triangle fought for Randolph like Christmas shoppers at a Toys 'R' Us sale. Duke eventually won out.
Yet last May, Randolph left Durham having averaged just 6.3 points and 4.3 rebounds over three college seasons.
"Everyone thought Shav was a pro," Wojcik said. "But look what happened. You're talking about N.C. State, Duke and Carolina all duking it out for that kid. So did Duke make a bad decision? I don't know. You answer that."
In the fall of 1992, Stackhouse was the treasure, a prize sought by all three programs in the Triangle. By the start of his senior year at Oak Hill, he seemed to be leaning toward N.C. State for the chance to play immediately.
Virginia and Florida State were also in the fray with North Carolina running fourth. And yet on that long night at Oak Hill, Dean Smith stood his ground - or more exactly, stayed planted in his seat - as Stackhouse participated in the longest workout in basketball history.
"Because Dean's there, the coach is putting on a clinic," Robinson said. "He's doing every drill ever known to mankind, showing off for Coach Smith."
So while focused on the chore at hand, Robinson entertained himself by holding Smith captive simply with his presence.
"I took pride in just making him stay there," Robinson said. "I'm thinking, 'He might get Stackhouse. But he's going to have to sit up here.' I enjoyed that immensely. One of the legends in basketball couldn't leave as long as I was there.'"
'Les, you dumb #$%'
A week later, Stackhouse took his official visit to Chapel Hill, returned home and announced his intentions to play at Carolina.
Robinson needed some time to digest the disappointment.
Not long after the announcement, he had an epiphany. At an officials summit in Greensboro it occurred to Robinson that Duke - then the two-time defending national champion - had vanished from the Stackhouse sweepstakes about a month earlier.
Robinson sought out Krzyzewski for enlightenment.
"I'm talking to maybe the most powerful coach in the game at that moment and I said, 'I'm just curious Mike - why'd you get out?'" Robinson remembered. "He said, 'Les, I knew Carolina had to have the kid. And I knew they were going to do everything they had to. Look, I know they didn't cheat. But I knew Dean was going to pull out 30 years of stoppers. And that's a lot of stoppers.'"
As Robinson got on the road that night, he was flooded with embarrassment.
"I get in the car, I'm driving, I turn on the radio just thinking and it hit me," he said. "I said 'Les, you dumb #$%. You were just talking to the heavyweight champion of the world. He was in the ring with Dean Smith and he ran. And you were there sparring away like an idiot thinking you were going to whip him.'"
After he finished pounding his head on the steering wheel for a few miles, Robinson forgave himself.
"I thought about it a little longer and said, 'Wait a minute. Mike didn't have to have Stackhouse. I did. His cupboard wasn't bare. I needed him.' So I rationalized to myself that we had to stay in the fight."
In many ways, in the state of North Carolina, it's a fight that never ends.
