University of North Carolina Athletics
THM: Making The Pieces Fit
May 20, 2003 | Men's Basketball
May 20, 2003
Tar Heel Monthly is the premier magazine devoted to the stories and personalities behind UNC athletics. Click here for subscription information.
The following is an excerpt from the most recent issue of the magazine.
By Adam Lucas
Being a Carolina basketball fan this summer is likely to transport you back to your elementary school summer vacation days.
You remember them, don't you? Long, sweltering days passed in the back of Mom and Dad's station wagon, on the way to some highly touted vacation destination. For most of the trip, you knew just one crucial refrain: "Are we there yet?"
As soon as Roy Williams was announced as Carolina's new basketball coach on the night of April 14, Tar Heel fans began asking that same question about the 2003-04 season. When does practice start? What does our nonconference schedule look like? When is the Duke game? Are we there yet?
Sadly, it's still a good five months until practice begins. But it's never too early to start assessing how the 2004 Tar Heels might look playing Williams' brand of basketball, and it's infinitely more satisfying than counting South of the Border billboards. There are a few traits characteristic of every Roy Williams-coached team:
Offensive Tempo: The year before Williams arrived in Lawrence, Kansas averaged 70.6 points per game, and that's with a certain superstar named Danny Manning. In Williams' first season, even without Manning on the roster, the Jayhawks posted 88.9 points per game.
He's continued that high-scoring trend throughout his head coaching career. Last season, KU placed third in the NCAA in scoring offense (82.7 ppg). In 2002 they led the nation in scoring. The Jayhawks were indiscriminate about getting out in transition-they ran after made baskets, missed baskets, and inbound plays.
"I hate it when the ball is walked up and down the court, so we're going to run," Williams said. "I think that with the abilities they have they can do that, and we're going to make them run faster than they ever have in their lives."
The new head coach backed up those words just a day into his tenure, when he put the returning players through grueling workouts. NCAA rules allow coaches to work with players in four-person groups in April, and it was a tired group of Tar Heels that assembled later the evening after his press conference for the annual basketball banquet.
But it was also a happy group. The players know they have the personnel to play uptempo basketball, and chief among that group of talent is point guard Raymond Felton, who should thrive in an offense designed to get him down the court as quickly as possible. KU guard Aaron Miles averaged 6.4 assists per game this season by pushing the ball down the court for the Jayhawks. That's only slightly less than Felton's 6.7 assists per game, and with all due respect to Miles, it's difficult to imagine a situation in which Felton wouldn't markedly improve on those figures next season.
"We've been playing that way in practice," David Noel said. "Ray just gets the ball and goes. He cuts through everybody and lays it up."
Someone has to get Felton the ball and ignite the break, and that's another way Carolina's personnel should blend with Williams' style. Sean May is a gifted passer with a knack for making crisp outlet passes. His offseason task will be to make sure he arrives at practice in good enough condition to run the floor after making the outlet pass so that he can be on the receiving end of Felton's passes on offense.
Funnel it in, throw it out: One of Matt Doherty's most noticeable style changes during his tenure at Carolina was the way his team got away from the inside-based game fans had grown used to in the past. Doherty repeatedly intoned that he wanted players who could, "pass, handle and shoot," and due to a combination of recruiting misses and staff preferences, never landed a highly-ranked post player other than Sean May, who possesses significant perimeter skills.
The result was a team that sometimes struggled to find high-percentage shots and too often jacked up the first decent-looking three-pointer available. Consider this remarkable stat: last season, Kansas shot less than 10 three-pointers on seven different occasions. In Matt Doherty's three seasons at Carolina combined, the Tar Heels attempted less than 10 trifectas only twice.
That stat signals a significant difference in the way the two coaches approach the game. Too often, Doherty would stand before the press corps after a 25+ three-point attempt game for the Heels and describe most of the attempted jumpers as "good shots." They may well have been good shots. But under Williams, the Tar Heels are likely to look for even better shots, and from closer to the basket.
"We're going to throw the ball inside and get great shots, and if we don't like what we have inside we're going to throw it back out." Williams said. "I think basketball is an easy game. What you can do, you try to do. If you can shoot it, shoot it. If you can't shoot it, find something else to do...We're going to try and do what we want to do, not what the other team wants us to do. I've always been amused by football coaches who say we took what they gave us. I don't want that. I want to take what I want."
The national perception is that KU guard Kirk Hinrich did little more than stand around the three-point line and hunt perimeter jumpers. However, even though the senior was a reliable 41% three-point shooter, he took well over half his shots last year from inside the line. That may indicate an adjustment that needs to be made by several Tar Heels, most notably Melvin Scott, who took almost three-quarters of his shots from behind the stripe. Another player likely to tweak his game is Rashad McCants, who is an excellent three-point shooter (41.4%) but sometimes settled too easily for jumpers in his freshman year. With Felton pushing the tempo, McCants should find himself with plenty of one-on-one opportunities in transition to take the ball to the basket and utilize his exceptional athleticism and jumping ability.
Man-to-man defense...mostly: Roy Williams was adamant about his defensive philosophy on the night he was hired.
"We're going to play man-to-man defense because I can't coach zone and I despise it," he said.
And, well, that's true. Mostly. But Williams will also make occasional use of the point zone defense, which is really a zone in name only. For those intent on highlighting every aspect of Williams' philosophy that draws on the teachings of Dean Smith, the point zone is a definite derivative of Smith's approach.
At first, the point zone looks like a typical 2-3 or 1-3-1, but the player with the ball is always covered man-to-man. In addition, the players one or two passes away from the ball are covered man-to-man. That usually leaves the center roaming the paint, staying between the ball and the basket.
The first part of the point zone looks like it was made for next year's Tar Heels. Raymond Felton evolved into a solid defensive player by the end of his freshman season, capturing the award for the best defender at Carolina's basketball banquet. His quickness and basketball IQ allow him to beat most opposing players to their spots, and his fast feet and stout upper body strength make him tough to take one-on-one.
Elsewhere on defense, the Tar Heels have the type of rangy athletes who should be able to insert themselves into passing lanes and create turnovers. Jackie Manuel, Jawad Williams, David Noel, incoming freshman Reyshawn Terry, and even McCants all have the ability to be quality defenders in the new head coach's approach.
Intensity: Roy Williams can fool you. Outsiders hear the folksy accent and see the postgame tears and assume that he's a softy.
The Tar Heels will quickly learn that's not the case.
"Coach Williams' intensity is the same every day," KU guard Keith Langford told the Associated Press during the NCAA Tournament this year. "Every day you step on the court, he is working towards winning a national championship. No day is easier than any other. He is always pushing, pushing, pushing. And he has the attitude that you can't turn it on and off."
As Langford experienced first-hand, when Williams wants to correct an error, he can be extremely intense.
"It's pretty intense [when he is correcting a mistake] because he expects so much from everybody," he said. "But you know at the same time that what happens on the court, stays on the court. He doesn't carry it over. He is always teaching, and that's the most important thing. As long as you don't think it's a personal attack, which it's not, you'll be fine."
This is where it's worth noting that Tar Heel players never had a problem with Matt Doherty being intense with them. It was the fact that it wasn't always done in a constructive fashion that caused problems. That's where Williams differs, and that's why he should be a better fit.
Sky-high expectations: Only moments after Williams was hired, Tar Heel fans were already making reservations for the 2004 Final Four in San Antonio. His impressive winning percentage and Carolina's returning stable of talent ensure that next year should be a solid one. But the Final Four?
It's worth remembering that when Dean Smith retired, he left Bill Guthridge a talented team with a solid veteran presence. When Guthridge retired, he left Matt Doherty a talented team with a solid veteran presence. But when Doherty resigned, he left Roy Williams a talented team with zero seniors and a grand total of zero games of NCAA Tournament experience. Jawad Williams displayed enough stable leadership in 2003 to indicate that he'll likely be the soul of the 2004 squad. That should be enough to push the Tar Heels through the regular season with a stellar record. But it's when they get into situations in the postseason that no one on the roster has ever encountered that they'll truly be tested.
The players, however, aren't buying any talk of diminished expectations.
"I think we could be great," Noel said. "There are a lot of guys saying we've got Final Four potential and can win the national championship the year after next. I don't see why we can't do that this year."
Are we there yet?
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly, click here.
