Individually, they are two of college basketball's best players. Together, they are probably the most explosive combination on any team in the country.
As freshmen at North Carolina, they waited their turns, not always quietly or humbly, but confidently and, at times, divisively. As sophomores, they have unleashed their talents on opponents ready, but often unable, to stop them.
Jerry Stackhouse and Rasheed Wallace will lead the top-ranked Tar Heels into Cole Field House tonight against No. 8 Maryland, hoping to add to their team's 18-1 record as well as their own growing resumes. And, perhaps, their future legends.
"Whatever we do, we don't have to rub it in," Stackhouse said last week. "If we go out and play well and win, we don't have to holler that we played well and that we're the better team. The score should show that and we can walk out knowing we're the better team. People respect you more if you don't mock people or show disrespect."
That is the party line so often preached by the Tar Heels, the one their coach, Dean Smith, wants each of his players to follow. But Stackhouse and Wallace have expressed their individuality with more than just flights of fancy and stuffs of dreams.
It happened last season, when both were unhappy with their roles on a team dominated by seniors. Though their minutes increased and their roles expanded by the time the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament began -- Stackhouse was named MVP, which didn't sit well with a man whose program is built around senior leadership -- it led in part to the defending national champions making a second-round exit from the NCAA tournament.
"We'll miss those guys as teammates, but as far as the team is concerned, it is better that we have more minutes and more defined roles," Stackhouse said before this season began. "This year, nobody will be looking over his shoulder. This year we'll be a happier team."
Clearly, this North Carolina season has belonged to Stackhouse, a 6-foot-6, 218-pound forward who was considered the best prospect to come out of North Carolina since David Thompson, and to Wallace, a 6-10, 225-pound center who is the most athletic big man ever to play for the Tar Heels.
Along with Maryland's Joe Smith, Stackhouse and Wallace are the three best players in college basketball in the minds of many pro scouts and, should they decide to skip their last two years, the top three picks in this year's NBA draft.
Like Smith, both are undecided about their plans. But there has been speculation surrounding Wallace dating to last spring and a recent flap about whether Wallace was attending classes only heightened those rumors. Stackhouse also has given indication that he is thinking about it more seriously.
"It's definitely something to think about," said Stackhouse, who leads the ACC in scoring with 20.6 points a game. "I watch games on television all the time. Whether it's college or pro, that's all I do. It's always been a dream of mine and to actually come close to playing there sometime soon, it's hard not to think about it. The astronomical figures that are going on now, it's definitely something to think about, especially when you're struggling to get a couple of hamburgers and pizza at night."
Said Wallace, whose 66.2 percent field-goal shooting leads the ACC: "The decision is up to my family. If my family calls for it, then I have to go. If not, then I'm here."
There are few college teams, if any, who possess two players with such natural ability. Some might say Arkansas, with Corliss Williamson and Scotty Thurman. Others might have said Marcus Camby and Lou Roe at Massachusetts before Camby was injured last week. But most of the other top teams this year have one dominant star, not two.
"I liken them to [Bobby] Hurley and [Christian] Laettner in what they did for those Duke teams," said Maryland coach Gary Williams, who got his first extended look during a 100-90 loss to the Tar Heels at the Smith Center last month.
But . . . "these guys are only sophomores," said Williams. "They're both so explosive. They can do some many things. Stackhouse gives you some ball-handling now. Rasheed is so quick. It's always dangerous when players as talented as they are work as hard as they do."
Said Florida State coach Pat Kennedy, who has known Stackhouse since his stepbrother, Tony Dawson, played for the Seminoles in the late 1980s: "I think they've developed a special chemistry. They're both so diversified. They're not one-dimensional."
Asked if any team in the country has two players that good, Kennedy said, "It's not even close."
No matter how hard they work, it's their talent that overshadows everything, and mostly everyone. Especially Stackhouse, whose athletic prowess is reminiscent of a young Michael Jordan and whose power is likened to a young Larry Johnson.
"He could be the best North Carolina player since Jordan," Williams said before last month's game, in which Stackhouse scored 22 points and pulled down nine rebounds. "And that's saying something, considering the players they've had there."
Said Virginia coach Jeff Jones: "He's just relentless."
Stackhouse made one monster dunk against the Terps, starting his dribble at the top of the key, leaving Keith Booth at the foul line and then taking off, bringing the ball back behind his ear and then throwing down a thunderous one-handed jam.
But that was merely a prelude to a move he made last week at Duke. With North Carolina ahead comfortably early in the game, Stackhouse began his dribble about 30 feet from the basket, faked Cherokee Parks with a jab step, drove under the basket and threw it down from the other side with one hand after getting fouled by 6-10 Erik Meek.
"That was an 8," Stackhouse said after the game, which ended up going into double overtime before the Tar Heels won, 102-100, behind an evenly divided 50 points from he and Wallace. "I'll save the 10 for the Maryland game."
Wallace was looking forward to tonight's game for another reason: his matchup with Joe Smith. Statistically, the meeting last month was a draw, but Wallace took advantage of Smith's foul trouble to finish with 21 points, nine rebounds and five blocked shots in 32 minutes. Smith had 20 points and 10 rebounds in only 20 minutes.
"He gets up off his feet so quickly," said Smith. "When you least expect it, he's up there and dunking over you."
Told that Smith enjoys what could be a short -- at least in college -- rivalry between the two, Wallace said, "Joe Smith's a great player. I wouldn't respect him if he didn't say he was looking forward to it, too. That tells me he's a man."
In basketball terms, Stackhouse and Wallace are men. More often than not, men among boys.