Phil Ford - Bio Phil Ford was a three-time All-American point guard at Carolina, the 1978 National Player of the Year and then was the first-round draft pick of the (old) Kansas City Kings, Rookie of the Year and an NBA all-star. Following his playing days, Ford joined Dean Smith’s coaching staff, helping the Tar Heels win the 1993 NCAA title and recruit some of Carolina’s greatest players, including Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, all going on to be NBA all-stars. Ford later coached in the NBA for eight years under UNC legend Larry Brown, winning the NBA Championship with the Detroit Pistons in 2007. Ford’s weekly column will analyze the Tar Heels’ play this season, particularly in the backcourt where no Carolina point guard has quite measured up to Fabulous Phil! Proud of This Team I can't recall being any prouder of a Carolina basketball team than I am of this one. Coach Smith always used to say, "You have to be good AND lucky to win a national championship." We've Overcome Injuries Before It's such a tough break for Kendall Marshall, because he's playing the best basketball of his career. A Wild Weekend, For Sure! It was kind of a wild weekend, wasn't it? We beat two teams (Maryland and State) that were playing really well, and any time you lose the defensive player of the year that's going to affect your team. Marshall Deserves First-Team All-ACC I don't have a vote, but if I did Kendall Marshall would be on my first-team All-ACC ballot. Maybe I'm partial to point guards, but you can't underestimate Kendall's value to this basketball team. Winning Different Ways One of the great things about playing for Carolina is that you have so many fans. And the rest of the people are always mad at you for something! Remembering Clemson And 'Honey-Dip' Wise Of Carolina’s now 56 straight wins over Clemson in Chapel Hill, I participated in only three of them because my junior year we played our “home” game against the Tigers in Greensboro. Good Teams Can Recover My junior year (1977), we were 12-1 and ranked No. 5 in the nation. And then we lost three of our next four games. Road Wins Help Your Confidence We had two wins last week that reminded me so much of Coach Smith, and I hope he was watching both of them on television.   Defense! Defense! Everybody knows how good we can be offensively because of the talent we have.  But the game against State was a glimpse of how good we could be defensively, as well.  Expectations, Expectations! Basketball is not an undefeated sport anymore, and you’re going to get beat.

The WCHL Morning News with Ron Stutts