With North Carolina atop the college basketball polls, many pundits are shaking their heads wondering just how the Tar Heels are pulling off this little magic trick of theirs. Many had written off the Tar Heels at the beginning of the season as a band of "not ready for primetime" players. But you need not look any further than the fire in Matt Doherty's belly to find out the secret to their success thus far.

Legend Dean Smith left the college game and North Carolina a better place almost four years ago, but he left the game a tyrant in his own right. He was treated with a quiet reverence. The "Dean of College Basketball Coaches" ruled with an iron fist on the court and then was a player's best friend once he graduated.

The much-maligned Bill Guthridge was handed Smith's torch to leave his own brand on the Tar Heels and win his own hand full of rings. After two trips in three years to the Final Four, back problems led Guthridge to become a milder, gentler tyrant on the bench and his team eventually took on that same mild mannered personality. In that frame of mind, North Carolina wasn't going anywhere fast and Guthridge was smart enough to get out while the gettin' was good.

North Carolina officials searched far and wide to come up with the best tonic they could have for their faltering basketball dynasty. Enter 38-year-old Matt Doherty and his entire fire-eating Notre Dame staff to energize the NC "wine and cheese" basketball community like it hasn't been in years.

Doherty doesn't enter the DeanDome like a gray-haired dictator with the masses bowing at his feet. He explodes onto the scene like a silver streak waving, high-fiving, throwing t-shirts to the crowd and in general, getting everybody all worked up because he knows he can leave when all is said and done without having to clean up the mess. So, how does he do it?

Doherty is not your grandfather's NC coach. He's not even our NC coach. He belongs to the X-generation, the me and we generation, and in the minds of those that come up against his Tar Heels, he's of the generation of coaches from hell. Just ask Coach K about his new archrival. His Blue Devils team was smacked down by Doherty's minions in a two-point nail-biter in their own backyard on Feb. 1.

During his team's two-week stint as No. 1 in the land, Doherty's 'Heels have done nothing less than run up the nation's longest winning streak to 18 games, punking Wake Forest and Maryland in the past week. Any tranquil memories of the old, stoic Chapel Hill were laid to rest with bonfires and off-court shenanigans that followed the upset of huge ACC rival Duke the week before.

Things are a changin' in Deansville. The atmosphere in Chapel Hill has taken on an almost gridiron feel with two-sport men Ron Curry and Julius Peppers calling audibles on the court and whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Jason Capel and Peppers had career high point nights and Joseph Forte upheld his 25.5 ppg average over the past six games as the Tar Heels downed the Terrapins Saturday night.

Forte and Brendan Haywood are in the running as finalists for the Naismith college basketball player of the year award, as Carolina mascot "Ramses" should be also. The Tar Heels' mascot has become such an intimidating factor to opponents and referees that he was unceremoniously tossed from the barn against the Terps. The mascot-less Heels, leading by one at the half, came out so fired up by the incident that they sprinted to victory in the second half.

You only have to look one place for the spark that has lit up this madness under the seats of Tar Heels world. Matt Doherty leads his troops with a fire and charisma that makes his Heels throw their bodies all over the hardwood to win for him, to win for North Carolina, to win for themselves.

Doherty learned his round ball playing for his hero, his mentor, "His Deanship" and he has taken coaching in the "House of Dean" to a new level. Instead of a strict dictatorship, Doherty crosses that line between dictator and friend with an adroitness that should embarrass the legacy of those who came before him.

He joins pickup games with his players and jumps in the middle of their crazed locker room celebrations. He is their coach, but he is one of them. The players even call him "Doherty" and he doesn't beat them senseless with a folding chair. He praises and berates with a smoothness and confidence that makes his kids go out and want to kill for him.

Playing in a conference that will probably send five or six teams to the big March dance, just surviving the final weeks of the regular season will be a challenge for Matt Doherty's Tar Heels. But a second win over Duke should place North Carolina as the No. 1 seed in Greensboro. That may prove to be such a home-court advantage that the Tar Heels may very well ride the fire in Matt Doherty's belly all the way to the Final Four.

You can contact Steve Schindler at sportslist@schindlerslists.com