University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Still Learning
February 15, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 15, 2004
By Adam Lucas
Jesse Holley approached the basket and had a couple of options. Take it to the hoop, maybe. There were only about 60 seconds remaining in the first half, and an athletic two points might fire up the crowd going into halftime.
But the Heels had a numbers advantage. So a pass would be the better play. Now, Holley isn't exactly a wallflower, so what he would have most liked to do is throw a lookaway behind-the-back zip pass with a little extra mustard. It was right about then that he heard the voice of Roy Williams in his head, the same mantra Williams repeats endlessly when the Heels are working on 2-on-1 and 3-on-1 fast breaks in practice: "If you look away and throw it away, I'll put you away."
Holley didn't want to be put away. So twice in a row, on two successive fast breaks, he looked at his target, threw a nice, simple bounce pass, and the Tar Heels got two points.
"I just wanted to make two solid bounce passes, get two buckets, and get back and play defense." That's Jesse Holley talking, but it sounds an awful lot like Roy Williams.
Which makes you think that, maybe, these Tar Heels are still learning. And maybe there's still time for improvement.
Other than the squirmy last few minutes, Sunday's 97-86 win over Maryland almost felt like a vintage Carolina ACC victory. The home game played during the NBA's All-Star Weekend used to be a great game to attend as a fan, because you could always count on at least a handful of Tar Heels in the pros making their way back to Chapel Hill during their weekend of freedom.
Those visits had decreased in recent years, but alums Brendan Haywood, Shammond Williams, and Eric Montross were all in the Smith Center crowd, with Williams seated right behind the scorer's table, where he was able to capably inform the officials in the unlikely event that they made an error. Williams, who is a regular participant in summer pickup games, even went into the Carolina locker room after the game. With a sizable number of lettermen expected to return for next weekend's official reunion for the game against Florida State, it's good to feel a growing underlying air of history at Tar Heel home games. That's how it used to be, and that's how it will be again under Roy Williams.
Now his challenge is to get the Heels back to how they used to be on the court, and he might have made some progress on Sunday. Carolina won the game from the inside out, shooting 54.9 percent from the field and making 50 trips to the free throw line. Sean May got his usual double-double, Jawad Williams reappeared with 23 points (13 from the free throw line), and the Heels defended Maryland's Jamar Smith much better than they did in the first meeting. The Terps shot just 38.5 percent from the field against a combination of man-to-man and point zone defenses.
The end of the game felt exactly how ACC games are supposed to feel at the Smith Center. No last-second heroics, no frenzied comeback, just the crowd on their feet and a Tar Heel (in this case, Melvin Scott) dribbling out the clock.
If you wanted to see an example of improvement, it was best to look for what you didn't see--in the first meeting, Nik Caner-Medley got three short jumpers off a flex cut Maryland has been running for years. Sunday night, he got zero.
The Terps, who must lead the league in poses per made basket, eventually trimmed their deficit to three points thanks to some very shaky ball-handling from the Tar Heel guards, including an uncharacteristic seven turnovers from Raymond Felton. It's those types of stats that will keep Roy Williams agitated over the next few days, as Carolina has Monday and Wednesday off and just a light practice on Tuesday.
But there is documented evidence that his team is starting to hear him. And there may yet be time to cast this team in his mold.
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.
