University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag December 23
December 23, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 23, 2003
By Adam Lucas
efore you finish that last-second Christmas shopping--and be honest, we know you're not finished yet--or hang the last ornament, there's always time for a little Carolina basketball. The Mailbag never takes a holiday, so on with the questions (and on Dasher and Dancer)...
I really hope to get to a game this and experience the atmosphere in person. However, I beseech thee Adam Lucas, purveyor of Tar Heel basketball, to let us, those who are away from Blue Heaven, get an idea of how the area of UNC, the city of Chapel Hill and all the insiders are feeling with this exciting change to our beloved program. I know its better in person, but in your best Washington Irving impression be descriptive!!!
Steve Childers, Myrtle Beach, SC
We don't know who Washington Irving is, but hopefully he's a seven-foot big man who Roy Williams is signing for next season (Insert cries of "darn right" from readers here). Sounds like he'd be a natural English major.
Seriously, there aren't any headless horsemen riding around Chapel Hill these days, but there's no doubt that basketball has again ascended to its rightful place in the Southern Part of Heaven. Outside the Smith Center before Saturday's game against Wake Forest, one woman was overheard to say that she had been buying tickets outside the gate for ten years and had never seen as tough a ticket as the game against the Deacs.
Credit for some of that difficulty--and for what has seemed to be an improved Smith Center atmosphere during games--goes to the Carolina Athletic Association, which has made it much more difficult for students to sell their tickets. That results in more students attending games, which results in a rowdier environment. There were significantly less Wake Forest fans in attendance on Saturday than have made an appearance in recent years. Tickets to a Carolina basketball home game were traditionally some of the hottest sporting event tickets in the country. That waned somewhat in recent years, but demand is white-hot again this winter.
Around town, it's hard for Roy Williams to go anywhere without posing for a picture, signing an autograph, or shaking a well-wisher's hand. The players, too, say they've noticed an increase in comments by their fellow students.
I am tired of hearing that the team practices free throws. All teams practice free throws. We still can't hit them when it counts. There is no excuse for missing 4 straight toward the end of the first overtime, when we could have easily iced the game.
My wife is Canadian and knows virtually nothing of basketball, preferring hockey. She has watched perhaps 3 UNC games with me in our nearly 5 years of marriage. Yet EVERY TIME she has watched with me, she has badgered me the whole time with the same questions: "Why can't they hit their free throws?" "If these guys are supposed to be so good, why aren't they hitting their free throws?" "It's not like there's someone guarding them!"
We aren't going to go very far if we can't put games away from the line.
Brian Klaff, Toronto
Congratulations to Brian, who by sending this email exactly 1 hour and 57 minutes (maybe even less once you factor in the Canadian exchange rate) after the conclusion of Saturday's game became the first reader to mention free throws. Unfortunately, he wasn't the last, and Damion Grant now stands in second place in terms of number of questions asked about a topic.
Entering the Wake Forest game, Carolina ranked squarely in the middle of the league in free throw percentage, hitting 69.1 percent of their charity tosses. Nearly everyone has brought up the four missed free throws at the end of the first overtime, but absolutely no one has noticed the fact that Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants combined to hit six of six at the end of regulation. Without those, the game never goes into overtime.
It's a popular misconception that you "can't go very far if you can't put games away from the line." In last year's national championship game, Syracuse hit 10 of 17 free throws, or 58.8 percent. That's a mark that we doubt would pacify Carolina fans angry about UNC's 17-of-31 performance on Saturday (Wake was 16-of-31). For the season, Syracuse hit them at a 69.4 percent clip--a meager three percentage points better than last year's Tar Heels.
This isn't a slam on you, Brian, or your hockey-loving wife, but some fans seem to latch on to free throws because it's something that is easily identifiable, and it's something that most fans understand. Explaining the miscommunications of screening that led to Carolina's aborted last-second shot is hard; free throws are easy. Plus, shooting a free throw is an act that nearly everyone has done at one time or another. But it's substantially different to shoot a couple in your driveway and to take a pair in front of 20,000 people after playing 50 minutes of an ACC basketball game. Saying "After all, no one is guarding them," is like going out in your backyard and throwing the Nerf football around with your buddy and then wondering why Brett Favre throws so many dang incompletions.
The main problem is that fans like to make free throws a predictable action. They're simply not. Back to those ACC free throw stats--entering Saturday's games, State led the league in accuracy with a nearly 80 percent mark. Against South Carolina Saturday afternoon, however, the Pack made just three of eight attempts and lost the game by three points. Was it because they somehow practiced their free throws differently that week than in previous weeks? Probably not. It's because sometimes the shots just don't go in. No one said that Sean May needed to practice his layups after he went 3-of-18 against Akron and missed numerous easy attempts. If there was some easy solution to the problem such as "practicing more," don't you think a Hall of Fame coach like Roy Williams would do it?
Free throw shooting is down, there's no doubt about it. That's partly because the summer, which used to be reserved for working on fundamentals in a hot gym, is now primarily used for AAU tournaments. High school players play hundreds more games per year than they used to, and every game they play is a couple less hours shooting free throws. You don't have to like it, but it's probably time to stop holding today's players to a mid-1970s standard of shooting, because it's only going to frustrate you. We'll doubtless get some emails along the lines of "little things win games," and there's no question that that's correct. But so do big things, and identifying free throws as the key part of any loss is missing some of the big things. Why did Sean May foul out? Why did the Heels fail to properly guard the inbounds passer at the end of the first overtime? Why did Raymond Felton have to get injured, causing him to miss crucial minutes? There's no easy answer for any of those questions. But take heart, Tar Heel fans: according to Roy Williams, the worst two free-throw shooting teams in Kansas history went to the Final Four. If that's the case, maybe we should all start rooting for the Heels to clang a few more.
I've got a question about something I saw at the Wake game. I noticed an adolescent boy sitting at the end of the UNC bench; he even joined the team huddles during time outs. I was just wondering if you could clue me in as to who he was, and how he got to be cool enough to sit on the bench (I must say I was quite jealous).
Betsy Fisher, Chapel Hill, NC
That's the team's free throw instructor.
Whoa, just kidding. Someone help us dig out from under all these emails. Actually, that's Denzel Robinson, who got to be that cool by being born into it--he's the youngest son of assistant coach Steve Robinson. It's not unusual to see Denzel or his older brother, Tarron, at a Tar Heel practice, either.
I know that Carolina is just 6-1 now, but just for laughs, what is UNC's most wins without a loss (while members of the NCAA) disregarding the 1957 season?
Daniel Price, Galax, Virginia
Your parenthetical statement eliminated what would have been the winner--a 34-game winning streak that began on Dec. 15, 1923 against the formidable Durham Elks (who presumably did not play the game wearing Shriner's hats) and ended on Feb. 2, 1925 against Harvard.
Other than the 1957 season, the longest Tar Heel winning streak began on Nov. 26, 1983 against Missouri. The Heels won 21 straight games before losing a one-point decision at Arkansas on Feb. 12, 1984. Carolina played that game without starting point guard Kenny Smith, who broke his wrist after a vicious foul against LSU on Jan. 29 and didn't return to the lineup until the next-to-last game of the regular season. Smith's return eventually wound up complicating that team's chemistry, and the Heels suffered a disappointing ACC Tournament loss to Duke and an even more crushing NCAA Tournament defeat to Indiana.
The longest Carolina winning streak in the recent past is an 18-game stretch during the 2000-01 season ended by a 10-point loss at Clemson.
What is the secondary break and when is it used?
Kim Almond, Mount Pleasant, NC
This was Kim's second question. The first was "What is quantum physics and when is it used?"
We'll warn you that there's a reason we're writing about games instead of coaching them, so any errors below are purely our fault and shouldn't be assigned to Roy Williams. Explaining the secondary break is complicated without a telestrator or, in the case of Roy Williams, a dry-erase board. When reading this explanation, just imagine that you're seeing all the hand gestures that we're making to try and explain what's happening.
Essentially, the secondary break is what happens after a fast break is unproductive. The defense has gotten back to stop a quick transition opportunity, but the offense is still flowing from the fast break. This can happen after either a made or missed basket. If the Heels don't have an immediate wide-open shot, watch for a big man--either Jawad Williams or Sean May, usually May--to receive the ball at the top of the key. Backscreens are set for the wings, which can lead to lobs or backdoor layups on a pass from May. If that doesn't happen, the big man gets rid of the ball and posts up after one of his teammates sets a downscreen for him.
The secondary break ends when the post men swap places on the blocks to try and confused the defense and create an easy scoring opportunity. If that doesn't work, then Carolina moves on to their more traditional halfcourt offense.
George Lynch was one of my favorite Tar Heels because of his intense style of play and floor leadership. I've not seen that type of "Johnny Hustle" get the job done no matter what attitude that Lynch had...until now. Jawad Williams is definitely displaying a different mentality this year over the last two, which shows in his play. I know this is a loaded question, but what happened?
Rick Smith, Myrtle Beach, SC
We'd take issue with a couple of your statements. First, Ademola Okulaja exhibited several Lynch-like characteristics, but was always overshadowed by Vince Carter, Antawn Jamison, and Ed Cota.
As for Jawad Williams, we don't believe the key change came between his sophomore and junior seasons, but rather between his freshman and sophomore campaigns. He eventually evolved into the key leader on last year's team, which was the youngest in Carolina history. Because Williams doesn't always outwardly show much emotion, however, fans didn't always see it. "Jawad is like that quiet guy who doesn't say a lot, but when he says something, you listen because he knows what he is talking about," Sean May says.
During the tough stretches of last year Williams served as a listening ear to virtually every member of the six-player freshman class. It wasn't something that took place in the public eye, but it made him the undisputed leader of the Tar Heels. That status has certainly carried over to this year. If you watch the team closely in huddles or during timeouts, it's frequently Williams who makes some emphatic points.
Adam Lucas will answer your questions about the Carolina men's basketball program this season in an exclusive column published each Tuesday on TarHeelBlue.com. Lucas, editor of Tar Heel Monthly, will answer your questions on personnel, strategy, opponents and anything on your mind about the Tar Heels other than recruiting specifics. You can email your questions to Adam--please make sure to include your first and last names and hometown.
