University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Final Evidence
March 22, 2005 | Men's Basketball
March 22, 2005
By Adam Lucas
Usually, Roy Williams faces a room of disbelievers.
That's what has happened this year when he's tried to persuade media members of the value of Rashad McCants on defense. "Really," Williams will say, "Rashad is a much better defensive player this year."
But they do not believe. They know better. After all, this is the player whose defensive effort was cited for his removal from the starting lineup as a freshman. It's the player who drew Williams's wrath on occasion early last season for defensive lapses. It's Rashad McCants. We know the book on McCants, right? He's a scorer, not a defender.
But now Williams has empirical evidence. Just look at the papers, the raw stat sheets from Carolina's last month of action.
Four games without McCants: opponents shoot 45.4 percent from the floor and 46.3% from the three-point line.
29 games with McCants: opponents shoot 39.5 percent from the floor and 32.4 percent from the three-point line.
Maybe it's just a coincidence, one of those fluky four-game trends that would have happened with or without Carolina's junior guard. Maybe it was simply friendly bounces on the rim or hot shooters.
Or maybe it had a little something to do with the absence of McCants.
"We were missing his intensity," Jackie Manuel said. "We were missing the way he gets in the passing lane, the way he makes things happen."
He's exactly right--Carolina averaged 6.25 steals per game without McCants and 9.5 with him. It's not that McCants is a great lockdown one-on-one defender (that's Manuel). It's not that he draws the assignment on the other team's best scorer (Manuel and David Noel). It's not that he's the designated energy guy on defense (Raymond Felton).
It's that he's a little bit of all of those things. With him, Carolina has a good mix of players capable of guarding a variety of opponents. Without him, the rotation shortens, the options become more limited, and the opposing shots become a little more open. The flexibility the Tar Heels enjoyed for much of the season was suddenly lost.
"Rashad can do so many things," Marvin Williams said. "He can guard a point guard to a small forward and maybe even a power forward because he's so big."
"I bring length and a lot of quickness to the table," McCants said. "It's harder for guards with offensive ability to shoot over me."
His return didn't immediately fix all the problems; the Tar Heels still allowed Clemson to shoot 48 percent from the floor in the quarterfinals of the ACC Tournament. But after Will Bynum scored 35 in the semifinals (aided partly by a hobbled Manuel), Roy Williams spent the next few days emphasizing the basics.
"What happened was that we weren't reinforcing it all the time anymore," Manuel said. "You tend to lose a little bit when you don't do something for a while. When you're winning, sometimes you can forget the little things that got you there. When you go back to it, it picks back up."
NOTES: Jawad Williams has a hip injury. But you'll never get him to admit it. Carolina's senior forward declined to elaborate on the hip flexor that limited him this weekend against Oakland and Iowa State, although his teammates were unanimous that it played a role in his 1-point, 4-rebound performance against the Cyclones. For Williams, it's a matter of looking ahead to better performances this weekend. "I believe I will (play better)," he said. "After the game I had the other day, you can't go anywhere but up."...Carolina's other injury concern is Jackie Manuel's sore arch, which is improving. "I feel like it's getting better," Manuel said. "Last week was maybe the worst week for me. In the Iowa State game it was sore but it was feeling a little better. And today it feels good, so hopefully that's a good sign."...The Tar Heels will leave for Syracuse Wednesday night. They have an open practice at the Carrier Dome Thursday (their only practice of the day) and will hold a shootaround on Friday morning...Steve Robinson has the scouting assignment on Villanova.
