University of North Carolina Athletics
Gateway to St. Louis: Defense
October 20, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Oct. 20, 2004
This year's Tar Heel Monthly basketball preview includes a five-part "Gateway to St. Louis" series focusing on the five keys for this year's team to reach the 2005 Final Four in St. Louis. One of those stories is reprinted below. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly and receive the basketball preview, click here.
By Adam Lucas
Just days after the conclusion of the 2003-04 North Carolina basketball season, some new decorations went up outside the Tar Heel locker room. Now, as every player leaves the area, they're immediately confronted with a stark white sign featuring Carolina blue lettering: "2003-04 Defensive Leaders." The sign lists the individual winner of the coaches' defensive award for all 30 games last year.
The message is clear: think defense. All the time.
Carolina opponents shot 44.4 percent from the field last season, placing the Tar Heels' field goal percentage defense eighth in a nine-team Atlantic Coast Conference. It was only the second time in Roy Williams's 16-year head coaching career that his team allowed the opposition to shoot better than 40 percent from the field. It's no surprise, then, that he recently singled out defense as his biggest worry about this year's team as they prepare for the season opener in less than a month.
"For the most part, the kids tried last year, but we have to do a better job of it consistently," Williams said. "To have other teams shoot 44 percent against us was mind-boggling to me."
Carolina's deficiencies in on-the-ball defense got the most attention last season, but no one on the roster--even lockdown artist Jackie Manuel--played a perfect season defensively.
On the Perimeter
The image is still disarmingly fresh: Georgia Tech inbounding the ball from the sidelines in the ACC Tournament quarterfinals with seconds to play. Carolina holding an 82-81 advantage, needing only one defensive stop to advance to the next day's semifinals and generate some momentum going into the NCAA Tournament. Jarrett Jack receiving the inbounds pass, sidestepping a pair of Tar Heel defenders, firing a deadeye jumpshot through the net with 1.4 seconds left.
Phil Ford's reaction to the play on the Tar Heel Sports Network summed it up neatly: "Oh noooooo..."
Pressure defense begins at the point, and Carolina was left lamenting their perimeter defense too many times last season. Opponents made 35.2 percent of their three-point attempts, placing the Heels seventh in the league in that category, but even that statistic can't measure the number of times an opposing guard broke down his defender off the dribble, knifed into the lane, and delivered a pinpoint pass for an easy layup. Those are the kinds of plays that led to Williams's familiar foot-stomp more often than any other last year, and they're the kind of plays that need to be eliminated for the Heels to have a chance to advance deep into March.
"Our defense should never be off," Melvin Scott says. "It's an attitude. It's aggressiveness. If you lock somebody down, you're getting the best of them, and that's one of the keys to the game."
But the Heels' defense was off last season, so much so that Roy Williams had to play more zone than he would have liked. Sometimes it worked--like the NC State game in Raleigh--and sometimes it didn't--like the Clemson game at Clemson. But it's not the way he wants to play. He feels it slows the game down, and his penchant for up-tempo basketball has been well chronicled. His feelings are simple: "I can't coach zone and I despise it."
On paper, the Tar Heels have the pieces in place to be effective guarding the perimeter man-to-man. Raymond Felton has deceptive upper body strength. Scott was frequently cited by Williams as the team's best on-the-ball defender last season. Freshman Quentin Thomas has a Derrick Phelps-like wiry build with long arms. Jackie Manuel's prowess at shutting down opposing scorers is well documented, and don't forget about Reyshawn Terry, who has the build to be a similar type of pest to opposing wings.
If that's the case, then what's the problem? If it's all physical, then why aren't the Heels a bunch of Manuel-esque defensive demons?
The answer is simple--defense isn't all physical.
"You can do agility drills, and strength is a part of it," Jawad Williams says. "But the big thing is heart. For example, I'm not as quick as some guys, but I've played against some two guards in pickup back home. I'm not as quick as them, but it's a pride thing. I don't want to me the man to give up the basket. It's just heart."
Getting Help
When an opposing guard gets penetration, it's usually the man he beats that is most easily visible. But in Carolina's defensive system, he's not the only culprit. There is a significant difference between being a good individual defender and being a good team defender. The former has the raw physical skills to stay in front of his man. The latter understands the team principles of defense, knows where his help is coming from, and knows when he's required to provide help.
"If you're a good individual defender, you can stop the guy you're guarding," Manuel says. "But if you're a good team defender, you can stop the guy you're guarding and help out your teammates. That's how I want my defense to be. I can stop my man, but I can also help out someone else and still get back to my man."
Manuel may have had to spend too much time helping out last year. His six times fouling out were more than half the team's total of 11. In theory, that figure should decrease during his senior campaign, because he won't have to spend as much time helping a swivel-headed teammate. Instead, the hope is that some of that responsibility will be assumed by some of Carolina's other defenders.
"For us to be successful, when guys get into the paint, Jawad, Marvin, Byron, Damion, and I have to give some help," Sean May says.
In the Paint
Let's leave it to the silver-tongued May to sum up his play as a sophomore: "Defensively, I was terrible last year. My teammates will tell you that, I will tell you that, and I will own up to it."
The starkest example of that play came on the night of Jan. 14 in College Park, when the previously undistinguished Jamar Smith shot 8-of-14 from the field against the Heels and finished with 22 points. It wasn't just the shots Smith made that made it so painful--it was the ease with which he got position on the blocks.
May is not a natural shot blocker, a gift which doesn't always go hand-in-hand with height. It's more of an instinct, not really something that can be taught. The current Heels got a glimpse of what a shot blocker can do when they had to match up against Brendan Haywood in a handful of summer pickup games. Haywood, whose wingspan combined with a natural nose for the ball makes him a formidable opponent in the paint, left an indelible impression.
"A guy like Brendan helps the team so much just by being there," Manuel says. "He can block shots, get rebounds, start the break. He helps his team push the ball because of his shot blocking and rebounding."
During his two-year stay in Chapel Hill, May hasn't always been able to ignite that type of tempo, frequently because he's too exhausted to do so. Too often, the Tar Heels have simply been outnumbered in the paint, as they were in last year's second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Texas. The Longhorns kept rolling out beefy bodies; Carolina's best counter was the 6-foot-6 David Noel, a competitor who won several games as a freshman with his post defense against bigger players but who couldn't recapture the same magic during a frustrating sophomore campaign.
Reinforcements have arrived. Damion Grant has lost 22 pounds. The seven-footer doesn't have great offensive skills, but could provide a huge lift by simply playing five minutes of defense per game beneath the basket. 6-foot-9 freshman Marvin Williams has the skills to play on the wing, but he has the muscle--at 230 pounds he's already heavier than Jawad Williams--and physical approach necessary to contribute in the post. He's not a center, but he's more than adequate to relieve some of the pressure from May, Jawad Williams, and Noel on the interior.
"I'm comfortable inside and I'm comfortable outside," the rookie says. "It doesn't matter to me. I've talked to Sean, and I want to help out the big guys however I can."
There's a simple way to help: this time next year, he'd like to see his name written a handful of times on that sign outside the Carolina locker room.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. His book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about the book, click here.
