University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Elder Stings Heels
February 11, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 11, 2004
By Adam Lucas
ATLANTA--Maybe one day Carolina will win one of these one-on-one shooting duels.
You know the type. One player gets hot, begins throwing in shots from all over the court. Then player on opposing team gets hot, and the two begin to trade baskets like they're participating in one of those old-school Jordan vs. Bird video games.
That's what happened Tuesday night, as B.J. Elder went into the locker room at halftime as a mere mortal (2-of-6 shooting, 2-of-4 on three-pointers, 6 points, 1 rebound) and apparently emerged as an honorary member of the Barry family, those pesky brothers who seemed to torture Carolina for the Jackets throughout the 1990s. Elder made 7-of-10 shots in the second half, 5 of his 8 three-point attempts, and finished with a scalding hot 30 points. If there's any good news, it's that it could've been worse--he scored 36 against Clemson earlier this year.
At one point Roy Williams even went to a rarely-used diamond-and-one defense to try and slow Elder, but by then it was too late. By the time he hit a spinning two-pointer from the wing while barely looking at the basket that gave Tech a 70-61 lead, it seemed clear that it was going to be his night.
"He was hot," said Rashad McCants, who guarded him for much of the evening. "At some points I had a hand in his face and he was still hitting them."
Rather than countering with a full team effort, as usually has to be done to beat any kind of superb offensive performance, Carolina could respond only with a career-high performance from Rashad McCants, who was dominant at the beginning and at the end of the second half, notching an incredible 28 points in that stanza.
But historically when the Tar Heels get into this type of one-on-one scoring battles, it's not a good sign. Carolina's offense under Dean Smith, Bill Guthridge, and now Roy Williams is structured so that no one player should regularly dominate the scoring. The Heels usually have more talented players than the opposition, and the goal is to get them all to contribute something to the offense.
With rare exceptions (like great years from Hubert Davis and Joseph Forte), when one player--especially one player who plays on the perimeter--dominates the scoring, the results usually aren't great. Even when Shammond Williams went nuclear in Atlanta in 1998, scoring 42, it took the Heels double-overtime to capture a 107-100 victory.
Tuesday night, the contributions were limited to McCants in the second half and Melvin Scott in the first, when he scored all of his 10 points. The Heels' primary post players, Jawad Williams and Sean May, went a combined 6-of-19 from the field while watching Tech's previously undistinguished Luke Schenscher nearly miss a double-double with nine points and 11 rebounds.
It's become fairly simple: when the post men struggle, the half-court offense is simply not very good. Roy Williams has said over and over again that he wants to get the ball inside, but when that isn't turning into points, things get bogged down quickly. This team can score points in bunches when the opposition is missing shots and turning the ball over. But when they're hitting from the field (Tech shot 63.6 percent in the second half) and forcing Carolina to play against a set defense, offensive rhythm is hard to find.
Even with all the struggles for everyone except McCants, the Heels still had a chance to make it interesting. Down 70-63 with five minutes to play, Raymond Felton missed a layup that would have cut it to five. On the next Tar Heel possession, Scott was hacked with impunity from an officiating crew that it's doubtful either coach was particularly pleased with, and seconds later Roy Williams picked up his ninth technical foul in 16 years as a head coach. Will Bynum hit two free throws, Isma'il Muhammad rammed through a vicious one-handed dunk follow, the Thrillerdome came unglued, and the game was essentially over.
Also over is any chance of Carolina having a cushion for NCAA Tournament selection. At any point this season, a winning streak would have punched their ticket for the field of 64. Instead, with the continual up-and-down performances, they've played themselves into a corner where the three remaining home games are absolute must-wins. With this team's refusal to string together solid efforts and the unusual feeling that any game is a potential loss, that's a perilous position to be in with six league games left.
"Some games we look great and it looks like nobody can beat us," Sean May said. "Tonight we looked like just another team...We need a winning streak desperately. It's time to be desperate. We can't keep letting them slip away."
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.
