Lucas: Morning Work

By Adam Lucas

John Bumgarner knew this was going to happen.

The Carolina head basketball manager was standing on the Smith Center court before the Northern Iowa game that opened the 2017-18 season. He turned to Luke Maye and said, "You're about to go for 30, aren't you?"

Bumgarner knew it was going to happen because he knew what had occurred in the past 24 hours. He knew Maye had wanted to do the "Michigan" drill—so named because the Tar Heels got it from Wolverines coach John Beilein—and hadn't been able to do it after practice the previous day.

"You could come in tomorrow at 8 a.m. and do it," Roy Williams told the junior forward. It was not quite a challenge, but Williams knew Maye's competiveness. The next morning—the day of the Northern Iowa game—there were Maye and Bumgarner, ready to do the drill.

The Michigan drill requires five minutes on the clock. The shooter takes a sequence of three three-pointers and one one-dribble pull-up. The Wolverine requirement is making 55 shots in five minutes to get the green light. The Tar Heel record in the drill is Marcus Paige with 79. Maye is consistently in the low 60's.

After their morning session the day of the season opener, Maye went out and had 26 points and ten rebounds. Bumgarner greeted him in the locker room with, "See you at 8 a.m.!" And they've met every home game day since then.

That's why no one was especially surprised when Maye drained both his three-pointers on Wednesday against Western Carolina, and made five of his seven field goals overall. They've seen him shoot those shots tens of thousands times in an empty Smith Center.

Tar Heel assistant coach Hubert Davis discourages his shooters from simply taking a certain quantity of shots in a workout. "Have a goal," he constantly tells them. So Carolina players began trying to make 8-of-10 three-point shots from five different spots on the floor.

At some point during the summer of 2016—this is going to sound ridiculous—the 8-of-10 goal became too easy for Justin Jackson. That's right, 80 percent from the three-point line was too simple. So he switched his benchmark to nine-of-10. Maye was almost always in the gym with Jackson, so he also altered his goal to nine-of-10.

"Now," Bumgarner says, "nine of 10 is getting too easy for him, so we're trying to come up with a different goal for him."

Some of Maye's drills are scientific. The Atlanta Hawks put Jackson through a three-point shooting drill during last summer's pre-draft workouts that simulated shooting perimeter shots on the move. The duo liked it so much they began using it at the Smith Center. Last year's head manager, Chase Bengel, lost track of how many shots he rebounded for Maye over the last couple of years, but when he saw the Huntersville native come off a screen against Arkansas and hit a three-pointer on the move, he knew it immediately—"That's the Atlanta Hawks drill," he said.

Some of Maye's drills aren't so scientific. Remember that first half three-pointer he made on Wednesday night that whirled all the way around the rim before dropping softly through the net? Maye is a fanatic about getting his shooting touch "just right." It's not unusual to spot him in the Smith Center with a manager—Bumgarner, Bengel or 2017 manager Tyler Hagan have been his most frequent rebounders—standing just to the right or the left of the basket, taking shot after shot, repeating the shot until his touch is acceptable to him. You've heard about a "shooter's roll." Maye manufactured his shooter's roll with endless hours in the gym.

The offseason work is why his teammates will tell you they're not surprised by anything he does, even when he notches a—ho-hum—simple double-double of a dozen points and dozen rebounds against Western Carolina in a scant 26 minutes, meaning that nearly every minute he was on the court, he was scoring a point or grabbing a rebound.

The only area you might see some surprise in his teammates is with his ballhandling. It's not that Maye was a bad dribbler. It's that he's 6-foot-8, 240 pounds, and ballhandling is about as important to him as a three-point shot is for Brandon Huffman. But someone forgot to tell Maye he wasn't supposed to be a good dribbler. So after every offseason workout with Hubert Davis, he asked the assistant coach to end the session with a series of ballhandling drills.

That's how he became the player who handed out five assists against the Catamounts. His best moment in the passing category didn't even result in an official assist. Midway through the second half, he dribbled behind his back, spun neatly into the lane, and dished to Sterling Manley…but the freshman missed.

Luke Maye, playmaker?

Why not? It's no more unexpected than "Luke Maye, NPOY candidate," and that's where we are.

The Tar Heels are 9-1 through ten games. They don't play at home again until Dec. 20, at which time John Bumgarner already knows his phone will buzz with a text the night before.

"See you at 8?" Luke Maye will write.

"See you there," will be the reply.

Players Mentioned

Brandon Huffman

Sterling Manley

Luke Maye

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