CHAPEL HILL – Last March, Sterling Manley sat in front of his locker inside Spectrum Center in Charlotte the day before North Carolina’s second-round game of the NCAA Tournament and made an absolute declaration:

He was going to make his run times later in the fall thus avoiding another season relegated to coming off the bench, courtesy of an old-line rule at UNC. Perhaps antiquated in some corners of the modern college basketball landscape, at Carolina, it’s as much a part about being a Tar Heel as pointing to the passer has ever been.

And it’s a proven element to the program’s fiber.

Each player must pass a series of runs, completing them in a time designated by the training staff and unique to each Heel. Manley didn’t quite reach his times last fall, and therefore per Roy Williams’ rules, he was ineligible to open any game in the starting lineup.

That won’t be an issue this winter, as Manley made all of his times, including finishing the mile in under 6:40, so if the Hall of Fame coach deems him worthy of starting at some point over the next five months, he can put the 6-11 sophomore on the floor at a game’s outset.

“Just had to push. Did I really want it or did I just want to be a chump and not attack it,” Manley said he asked himself. “I just had to attack it.”

Running a mile and doing the 33 Test – 3 baseline-to-baseline runs in 33 seconds eight times – may not be a part of the process at many programs, but it is at UNC, and the Pickerington, OH, native didn’t have an issue with that at all last year despite the results.

“I already knew North Carolina was tough,” he said. “Coach promised me I would get a degree and promised me I would sweat.”

In achieving his and the staff’s goals, Manley has certainly perspired. He sweat a whole lot, but perhaps not in the manner one might expect.

Manley did it his way, which is really the staff’s way. Instead of relentlessly rehearsing those same runs every day many times over, Manley simply placed trust in the process.

“Here, there’s no doubt that you’re going to get better with the stuff that we do,” said Manley, who averaged 5.4 points and 3.6 rebounds in 10 minutes per game last season. “I feel like there’s nobody that goes and tries to compete in practice as hard as us in the country on a day-to-day basis. Whether it’s a run-and-shoot or a regular practice.

“So, over the course of the year, if you constantly do what they ask in the running – and always conditioning after practice – you’re not going to not get in better shape.”

He knew that would get him across that finish line in time to avoid another year of carrying that albatross around his neck. And it was just that, sort of.

Every time he put on those Carolina blue duds, Manley faced one incontrovertible dose of reality: He wasn’t going to start. No run time, no starting, a season-long reminder that stood out like wearing a Carolina jersey inside Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“Oh yeah, no doubt,” Manley said. “It was like, ‘I didn’t get this but I can play. So, if I go on this court and give 10 and 10 they won’t think about it, or I do this or I go and compete hard in practice and they won’t think about it.

“(But) coach never forgets anything. So once it came again, I just had to knock it out of the way so it won’t be hanging over me.”

Done.

And now Manley’s sophomore season will be about basketball, just the way he prefers.