Imagine how good Antawn Jamison would have been if he'd known how to play basketball before this year.
To hear the two-time All-Atlantic Coast Conference forward tell it himself, Jamison must have been enjoying one heckuva case of beginner's luck his first two years at North Carolina.
"I think right now I'm just beginning to understand the game of basketball," Jamison told reporters Tuesday.
Yeah, right, Antawn.
If he didn't know what he was doing as a freshman, Jamison must have been carrying a fairly large rabbit's foot in his pocket. He burst on to the ACC scene in 1996, averaging 15.1 points and a team-high 9.7 rebounds per game.
He was the first freshman in the history of the ACC to lead the league in field-goal percentage (.624) and just the fourth freshman ever named to the All-ACC first team.
And remember, he didn't understand the game of basketball.
"I had to go a whole lot farther with my game," Jamison said. "Basically, my freshman year, that was just rebounding and being in the right place at the right time."
He makes it sound so simple, doesn't he?
"I knew coming into my next year, most teams were going to make it harder on me to score," Jamison continued. "I think I've definitely improved each year, but I still have a long ways to go."
That Jamison might have any room left for improvement is a frightening thought for ACC opponents and coaches. Most agree that the agile power forward is already the most dangerous player around.
"He is the best player in the country," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "He has incredible ability and competitiveness. He's truly one of the special players who's been in our league."
The numbers back up Krzyzewski's words.
Bucking the sophomore slump, Jamison upped his scoring average to 19.1 points per game last year, good for third in the league, behind current NBA players Tim Duncan and Keith Booth. In 35 games, he also posted 17 double-doubles.
Perhaps even more impressive is UNC's record in those games; through the first 2 1/2 years of Jamison's career, the Tar Heels are 33-8 when he reaches double figures in both points and rebounds.
"He's constantly getting 20 points and 10 rebounds a night," said Duke's Chris Carrawell, one of several Blue Devils who will take turns trying to shut down the ACC's leading scorer tonight.
"Jamison may be the best player in college basketball right now," Carrawell said. "And he's carrying them at times. That's going to be a key matchup for us."
What makes Jamison so tough to stop, aside from an uncanny knack for finding his way to the offensive glass, is his tremendous speed in transition-a trait reminiscent of former Tar Heel great Rasheed Wallace.
"I don't know if he's ever run track, but he gets from baseline to baseline faster than anybody," Krzyzewski said. "He's so instinctive."
But Jamison was not satisfied with "instinctive."
As if to prove his point about improvement, Jamison spent the last offseason working on his outside shooting and his free throws, two fundamental areas that may have been his only weaknesses.
As a freshman, Jamison shot just 52.6 percent from the foul line. The easiest way to stop the super-rookie, it seemed, was to send him to the line. With work, Jamison improved to a respectable 62.1 percent last year, and he didn't stop there.
Through 22 games this year, he's averaging 71.6 percent from the charity stripe, a figure that places him ninth in the ACC.
"He's worked so hard in the offseason," coach Bill Guthridge said. "He's a real warrior. He's played hurt a couple times. The game over at [N.C.] State exemplified that in my mind; he hit the floor a couple times and he kept coming back."
An elbow injury suffered in the preseason sidelined Jamison for the season opener against Middle Tennessee State. Since then, he's put the pain out of his mind and has not missed a game.
In fact, as he enters tonight's contest, Jamison is in the midst of his most productive year ever.
Jamison leads all ACC players in scoring (22.3 points per game) and rebounds (9.8 per game), and he trails only teammate Vince Carter in field-goal shooting (61.4 percent). His numbers in conference games are even better: 23.2 points and 10.3 rebounds per game.
"He does a great job; sometimes he carries this basketball team," guard Shammond Williams said. "I think it's important we can get the ball to him inside [against Duke]."
If he continues his red-hot play, Jamison has a chance to do something no Carolina player has done since Mitch Kupchak in 1976-average a double-double for an entire season.
But none of those numbers means as much to the Charlotte, N.C., native right now as these: one and two.
"This game is very special for me," Jamison said. "I can recall in junior high and high school, watching Duke-Carolina on TV and saying, 'I hope someday I can be a part of it.' Guys in high school now are watching me and hoping to be where I'm at.
"I'm proud to be a part of history. You've got to enjoy moments like this."
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