REWARD FOR A DISCIPLE DOHERTY LIKES A GOOD CHALLENGE, AND HE'S MEETING IT WITH TAR HEELS.

Byline: Steve Dilbeck Staff Writer

These things just happen sometimes. Preparation meets luck, and there you go. Seemingly out of nowhere, a dream opportunity that seemed farfetched suddenly becomes reality.

Matt Doherty called it more than all that. He's called it a fantasy, ``the level beyond dreaming.'' But it came and what was Doherty to do? He already had an ideal job. Head basketball coach at Notre Dame. In his first season, he had turned a slumbering program around, winning 22 games and advancing to the NIT championship game.

Things just seemed to go right. Dominoes tumbled as if by design and there it was: an offer to become North Carolina's head coach.

A former Tar Heel, a starter on Dean Smith's first championship team with Michael Jordan, he had his dream unexpectedly come true this summer. Most coaching vacancies occur and are filled in the spring, but by June, coach Bill Guthridge had decided his three years as Smith's first successor were enough and retired.

All of North Carolina turned to Kansas coach Roy Williams, the former Tar Heels assistant and presumed inheritor of a storied college basketball program. Only Williams turned it down and decided to remain at Kansas, where Doherty had been an assistant for seven years before going to Notre Dame. Others with North Carolina backgrounds - Larry Brown and George Karl - took themselves out of the running.

And there it was, what Doherty calls ``the best job'' in college basketball.

He loved it at Notre Dame, but how could he refuse? He had been driven by challenges his entire career and the chance to return to North Carolina, to coach in the ACC, to be eight miles away from Duke, was all more than he could resist.

So not unlike the many trying to succeed John Wooden at UCLA - where the Tar Heels play today in a nationally televised game at 1 p.m. - Doherty became the second coach to succeed Smith at North Carolina. He offered a blend of the old and new, trying to continue a tradition while clearly establishing his own identity.

``You don't make change just to make change,'' Doherty said. ``You make change that you feel is necessary and fits your personality.

``I want things to continue the way they were going here, because they were going very well for a long time. But yet bring the things that I see fit, that I think will help this program, and also fit my personality.''

So, unlike the almost grandfatherly Guthridge - who moved in with Smith into a windowless office in the bottom of the Smith Center - Doherty sometimes yells, sometimes kicks things. He is more openly passionate, something many followers felt the program needed.

As a condition of his hiring, Doherty brought his assistants from Notre Dame with him. That meant the three current North Carolin including former Tar Heels All-American Phil Ford - were let go. This did not go particularly well with some of the North Carolina faithful, but it quickly became obvious the 38-year-old Doherty was now the man in charge.

His private dream might have had him coaching at Notre Dame for five years before moving to North Carolina, but the opportunity came now and those who know Doherty have little doubt he will succeed.

UCLA associate athletic director Betsy Stephenson held the same position at Kansas for four of the years Doherty was an assistant for Williams. She knew him professionally, and he and his wife socially, and said there was never any doubt Doherty was headed for the coaching big time.

``Coach Williams is always training his staff to be a head coach,'' Stephenson said. ``It was only a matter of time before Matt was selected, or picked the right place. When he got the job at Notre Dame, I thought he was the perfect fit. Then when the opportunity came up at North Carolina, so quickly and somewhat unexpectedly, I also thought he was the perfect fit.

``He's a very classy individual. He works extremely hard, he's very professional in every aspect of his career. He's just a real pleasure to be around.''

Doherty took the job at Williams' urging. Said Williams at the time: ``They got the better coach. . . . He's loyal, he cares about everyone, he's driven to succeed. To me, that means he has everything.''

When Doherty was hired, Smith called him ``the total package'' and ex-Tar Heels teammate Sam Perkins said, ``If Smith is God, Matt Doherty is one of his disciples.''

Thus far, Doherty has the 15th-ranked Tar Heels off to a 6-2 start. In his three years leading North Carolina, Guthridge won 80 games and twice took the Tar Heels to the Final Four, so it wasn't as if there was a major dropoff. Doherty said he might come under less scrutiny being one coach removed from Smith, who occasionally catches a practice but never attends a televised home game. Still, Doherty is following a local legend who is down in the basement.

``More of it is made from the media than it is for me,'' Doherty said. ``You get into your job. It's a day-to-day thing. People ask me, 'What do you do?' I say it's the same thing I did at Notre Dame, just that my office is bigger. That's the way I go about it, that I have to go about it.

``I don't have time to really reflect on those other things. But it is probably definitely easier for me, not to having directly replace Smith. And that's not a slight to coach Guthridge, because he went to two Final Fours in three years, but obviously the main comparisons are always going to be made to coach Smith.''

MATT DOHERTY FILE

Born: Feb. 25, 1962

Hometown: East Meadow, N.Y.

College: North Carolina, 1980-84

Started as sophomore forward on Tar Heels' first NCAA-championship team with Michael Jordan, James Worthy and Sam Perkins in 1982. Averaged 9.0 points in his four-year career.

Coaching: Assistant coach at Davidson for three years, assistant to Roy Williams at Kansas (202-42) for seven years and head coach at Notre Dame one season (22-15).

Notable: Drafted in the sixth round by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1984 but did not make the team. . . . Spent three years on Wall Street as a bonds salesman before entering coaching. . . . Married to the former Kelly Propst of Concord, N.C. Two childeren, son Tucker, 3, and daughter Hattie, 1.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo: (1 -- color) ``I want things to continue the way they were going here, because they were going very well for a long time. But yet bring the things that I see fit, . . . and also fit my personality.'' -- Matt Doherty

(2) First-year North Carolina coach Matt Doherty brings a positive presence to the job he calls the best in college basketball.

Grant Halverson/Associated Press

Box: MATT DOHERTY FILE (see text)