Tar Heels Giant Loves Wild Kingdom

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Here is Eric Montross:

Standing in the middle of a basketball hurricane, Montross has blood dripping down his cheek from a cut under one eye. On the back of his shaved head, blood trickles from an open wound caused by someone's teeth that got in the way.

There's a red scratch down one arm and a look of controlled fury in the eyes of a 7-foot, 270-pound mountain of a basketball player who has suddenly become a man in North Carolina's victory over No. 1-ranked Duke last season.

This, too, is Eric Montross:

In the wide-open spaces of unspoiled Alaska, 20 people with little in common except a love of the outdoors and animals stare in quiet reverence at the eagles gliding above them.

One of the nature lovers, curious about Montross' height, asks if he plays basketball. He says yes, the moment passes and Montross is again lost in the other world he loves - a wild kingdom far away from the compressed frenzy of the Smith Center or Cameron Indoor Stadium.

There are times when Montross lets his mind wander away from basketball, away from the pivot moves he practices with numbing repetitiveness and the footwork drills that can mean as much to a big man's game as his size.

He thinks about hopping into his Blazer, popping in one of his country music tapes and disappearing into the wilderness.

"I wouldn't mind finding myself some land up in the mountains where I'd be able to take care of the land and build a home. That would be real fun," said Montross, knowing such a life is at least a basketball career away.

The appreciation of the outdoors was planted by his parents, who raised Montross in a secluded, wooded area of Indianapolis and who have taken him to Alaska (three times), Africa and other places where nature's shot clock still operates.

His eyes beam when he talks about the photograph he snapped of a bear that poked its head through the bushes directly below a platform where Montross was standing.

His mother, Janice, talks about the look of wonder on Montross' face in a photograph that shows him with his father in a canoe while salmon "hit the water like popcorn" in an Alaskan stream.

It also acts as an outlet for Montross, who has little choice but to live a very public life.

"Contrary to the way he may appear on the basketball court, Eric is very sensitive," said his father, Scott Montross.

"The more he becomes comfortable from a size standpoint and a notoriety standpoint, the more he treasures being in an isolated atmosphere. There's a real premium he has on the time to himself."

When you're 7-feet tall and sturdy as a redwood, it's tough to go anyplace without drawing stares. It happens on the basketball court all the time. Referees notice him, opponents watch his every move and fans, especially those from other schools, zero in on him like Rush Limbaugh on liberals.

The day before the first Duke-North Carolina game last season, the Duke student paper ran a large, blank white space on one page. It was dedicated to Montross.

With a buzz haircut that's harsh by military standards (he challenged his father to get a crew cut and his father double-crossed him, Montross said) and by wearing the unlikely number of 00 (he got tired of wearing a number in the 50s), Montross attracts more attention.

But then, subtlety on the basketball court is not his strong suit.

His is a game of power that's still developing. If he has a signature shot, it's a one-hand dunk that bends the rim almost perpendicular and threatens to bring down the house lights.

He's a good player now but not nearly as good as he's likely to be.

Montross may be 28 before he reaches his basketball peak. That's the way it is with big men. You can see it happening now. Two years ago, when Montross arrived at North Carolina as the crown jewel of the Tar Heels' now-famous recruiting class, he was a raw, overgrown kid whose body had outraced the rest of him.

Because of that and the recruiting mania that labeled Montross the next Bill Walton - even though their styles were as different as MTV and The Nashville Network - Montross was an early disappointment to some.

He came crashing through last season. Montross was the emotional and physical center of the victory over Duke and his season took flight from there.

This year, Montross has been more assertive, forcing himself into the action.

He's a double-edged dream - the kind of big man every coach dreams of having and the kind every coach dreads facing.

"If there's a better low-post player in the country, I don't want to see him," Virginia Coach Jeff Jones said.

"He's become a great player," Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins said. "If he gets it close to the basket, it's over."

Montross has been good enough, averaging about 15 points and eight rebounds, that the rumor mill around Chapel Hill went crazy recently with talk that Montross may turn pro after his junior season, especially since he's on schedule to graduate in 3 1/2 years.

The pros can wait, Montross said. North Carolina's coach, Dean Smith, will investigate the possibilities after the season but thinks his center needs one more year of development.

"I will complete my undergraduate studies at North Carolina," Montross insists.

Money isn't an overriding concern to Montross, whose father leaves his law practice in Indianapolis to watch his son play almost every game in person.

There's another factor that sometimes gets overlooked in the swirl of dollar signs and lottery talk. Montross likes what he's doing.

"People say college is the best time of your life," said Montross, a speech-communications major who did a term project last semester on clear-cutting forests in Alaska and its effect on animals.

He also understands that he has plenty of basketball still to learn. Like so many big men, Montross has a tendency to bring the ball down when he gets it rather than keep it over his head. That negates his size advantage. Montross is getting better at it, though he still slips.

Montross has also cut down on the foul problems that plagued him his first two years although Smith hints that Montross doesn't get the benefit of many calls, especially when he has the ball.

"He's capable of scoring more now if we had the officiating we had 20 years ago when, if you got hit, it was a foul instead of (officials) sucking on the whistle and letting them play," Smith said.

Montross won't get drawn into that battle. He will play the way he's been taught, using his size and strength to go with what's around him. It's not a gentle game the way Montross plays it and it's not always graceful. More and more, though, it's a game he has begun to control. If there's a single characteristic that separates North Carolina from other teams, it's Montross.

And there are times when Montross separates himself from the game. Though he is passionate about basketball, it is not the consuming force in his life. There are other mountains to climb.

Like the one Montross scaled in the Brooks Range of Alaska using caribou antlers as walking sticks. That's where he stumbled upon a herd of mountain goats in the high country.

Montross just sat and watched.

During a 10-day safari to Africa, Montross felt like a child on Christmas morning.

"There's something about being 5 feet away from an elephant or watching a leopard with its kill under a tree on this beautiful, vast plain," Montross said.

"I found a peaceful, easy feeling outdoors."

Far away from the sound and fury on the other side of his life.