University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Pure Energy
November 26, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 26, 2005
By Adam Lucas
Joe See wasn't ready. Not for this kind of basketball.
See is a senior guard for UC-Santa Barbara. He's played in some big games, so he understands major college hoops. But Friday evening, he didn't quite understand the way Carolina wants to play for 40 minutes.
That's why, with three minutes remaining before halftime, he lollygagged a little when retreating back across midcourt to pick up a loose ball. The Gauchos had been on offense and See was being harassed by Wes Miller, who had entered the game early in the first half and immediately provided a defensive spark. He'd knocked it loose again, and See had to go back across the timeline to pick it up.
But he went back to get it the way most normal guards go get it. Normal guards understand there are some unspoken rules in the game of basketball. A ball like that belongs to the offense. The defense has already done their job by simply knocking it free.
Maybe Carolina's 2005-06 Tar Heels are so young they don't know the unspoken rules. Or maybe they just don't care for them. Because while See was cruising back to pick up the ball, Bobby Frasor was kicking into high gear, swooping in to pick up the ball before See could get a hand on it, and zipping in for a layup.
"It was important for me to go out there and bring a spark," Miller said of his two-steal, one-assist, eight-point performance, probably his best as a Tar Heel. "I wanted to put a little pressure on the ball. We were a little lackadaisical there so when I came into the game I wanted to pick up the energy a little bit. I know when you put pressure on the ball out front it encourages your teammates all over the court. All five of us got together and opened up a little lead."
Roy Williams has a pet saying that he repeats frequently at Tar Heel practices--guard somebody like you don't like to be guarded. It's one of the many ways he breaks very complex concepts down into extremely simple ideas. It's elementary--if you don't like being guarded a certain way, your opponent probably doesn't either. Much of that skill has to do with energy and intensity.
Plenty has been said and written about what the Tar Heels don't have this year. But they've got enough energy and intensity to power a 3-0 start, with three wins that have been progressively more impressive. There will be nights when the opponent has more talent. There are unlikely to be nights when the opponent has more desire. These Tar Heels, who gathered Thursday at 5 p.m. for a holiday meal at the home of their head coach, treat the basketball like the last piece of pumpkin pie at the Thanksgiving table.
The squad draws part of that intensity from freshman post player Tyler Hansbrough, who is completely unfamiliar with the concept of a "loose ball." There is no such thing as a loose ball. There are only balls he hasn't gotten to yet.
In the second half, UCSB's Glenn Turner decided to get physical with the freshman. It got chippier and chippier, with Turner finally extending his arm out completely in a push while the Gauchos were on offense. Hansbrough absorbed the push and never changed expression.
But his teammates knew what was coming.
"Once he goes into his crazy mode, that's it," David Noel said. "That's not a smart thing for anybody to do. When he goes into his crazy mode, he's about to get 12 rebounds in a row, 16 blocks, a couple dunks."
That's not exactly how it went. Instead, Hansbrough went down on offense and immediately drew Turner's third foul. The Tar Heels pounded it back inside to their Missouri Mule and Hansbrough scored and drew Turner's fourth foul. He missed his free throw, but that only gave the Heels the chance to pick up one of their 20 offensive rebounds and drop it back inside to Hansbrough again for yet another bucket.
To sum up the final scorecard on that particular battle: Hansbrough with four straight points. Turner with four fouls and a seat on the bench. The primary Gaucho post men ended the game with a combined 12 fouls.
Hansbrough, who has a remarkable sense of body control for a player with such single-minded intensity, had just two.
"Everybody tells me I'm so physical," Hansbrough said. "I think it's just whenever they get physical with me, I get physical with them. It's not something where I'm like, `Oh, man, I'm going to go get so physical with this guy.' But he came out and got physical with me so I got physical with him."
UC-Santa Barbara should have been grateful for the courtesy. It was one of the only times all evening the Tar Heels allowed them to make the first move.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and 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 Going Home Again, click here.
