Lucas: Guard Dogs

By Adam Lucas

PALO ALTO—After Monday's 96-72 victory at Stanford, Roy Williams sat back in his chair at the postgame press conference and looked…what was that look, exactly?

It was perplexing because it was so unfamiliar at this point in the season. But as he sat there with Joel Berry on his right and Kenny Williams on his left, the Tar Heel head coach looked almost, just a little, maybe just perhaps—content.

Not for good, of course. By the time you read this, it will have worn off and he won't even remember it. But purely in that moment, with a 29-point scorer on one side and a 20-point scorer on the other side and both gentlemen having demonstrated their willingness to take a charge or dive on the floor or defend anyone on the court at any time, Williams had one of the most perfect starting backcourt nights he's had since coming to Carolina.

His two starting guards scored at a very high rate, but neither hunted shots. They defended. They pushed the tempo. They led. By themselves, they outscored Stanford in the first half, 38-36.

In other words, they competed. Which is one of Roy Williams' very favorite things in the world.

Kenny Williams had perhaps the hottest ten-minute stretch of his life in the first half, pumping in six three-pointers and only missing when he didn't get a full grip on what would have been the seventh before releasing it. At halftime, he had 20 points on ten shots.

And in the second half, he only took one.

"I thought Kenny was absolutely sensational," the head coach said. "The best thing about it is that he wasn't selfish for one second during the course of the game…I can't say enough about what I thought he did for us. To be that unselfish and care that much about your teammates is terrific."

A scene from the first half: Kenny Williams is hotter than he has been in his college career. He has an opportunity with the ball on a 3-on-2 fast break. Smoke is coming from his right hand and the net is whimpering. So what does he do? He runs the break perfectly, stops at the free throw line so he doesn't get too deep and risk a turnover, and dishes an assist to his roommate, Luke Maye. People as hot as Kenny Williams at the YMCA don't make that pass. Williams does.

Here's what else Roy Williams loves about his junior guard. Late in the first half, Stanford guard Isaac White was getting hot. He'd made a couple of three-pointers and his energy was driving the Cardinal offense, for which he had scored seven of the team's last eight points.

On the next possession, Williams ended up matched on White. He promptly stoned him on an attempted drive, stripped the ball away from him, and the play led to another basket for Berry.

The sequence wasn't entirely a coincidence. As he was heating up, White began providing some running commentary to Berry. It was enough chatter that the Carolina senior entered the halftime locker room talking about it.

"He said some dude was talking to him and got him fired up," said roommate and frequent subject of the Berry wrath Theo Pinson. "He said, 'Alright, I've got something for you.' I said this last year. That's the wrong person to talk to. He's already mad. There's no reason to talk to him even more. The dog was in the cage and couldn't buy a bucket. He saw one go through the hoop and it was over with. You just let the dog out of the cage."

Berry missed his first three shots and then at one stretch made 10 of his next 14. When White started chattering, Berry had six points. Suitably inspired, he proceeded to score 23 more.

Don't take these road victories for granted. With the win, Carolina is now 15-10 in true scheduled road nonconference road games. Another name for these games is "games other teams would never schedule." The 15-10 mark doesn't count games mandated by the ACC/Big 10 Challenge. These are only games the Tar Heels actively sought out and scheduled to play on the road in another team's home venue. They've done it 25 times in the Williams era, and they'll do it twice this season (there's an upcoming trip to Tennessee).

The head coach firmly believes it helps his team, because it reveals a little about their character. What he found out Monday must have been encouraging. The shots won't always fall for his starting guards at the rate they did on Monday. But Berry was still diving on the court chasing a loose ball in a 20-point game in the second half. When your Final Four MVP is doing that, the rest of the team doesn't have much choice.

Just as encouragingly, there was a moment in the first half when Berry was frustrated with the officiating. You could watch the process happen as he walked to the bench. First, his eyes went wide with disbelief at the call. Then you could see his brain processing three years of coaching, the memories of a couple occasions last year when Berry let outside forces take him out of his game. In the next moment, he began clapping his hands and draped an arm around a teammate.

Berry's maturity and leadership allowed the rest of his teammates to simply play the game. That's why, when White threatened to heat up again in the second half, the Tar Heels dropped back on defense just long enough to let Roy Williams bark, "Kenny!" and gesture at White. Williams--who has talked about developing a thirst for defending the opponent's best perimeter player--took the assignment on White, the Cardinal couldn't find an opening, and the Carolina offense was off and running again.

All things considered, it's hard to imagine the Tar Heel backcourt could play a better game. Their teammates, however, have a plan.

"Next game," said Brandon Robinson, who had watched the whole thing from the bench while nursing a shoulder injury, "I'm talking junk to Joel in the locker room before the game and then I'm going to watch him go off."

Players Mentioned

Luke Maye

Theo Pinson

Brandon Robinson

Kenny Williams

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