University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The Island Tempo
September 3, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Sept. 3, 2005
By Adam Lucas
NASSAU, Bahamas--Everything moves more slowly in the Bahamas, from the cab drivers who never exceed 30 miles per hour ("It's a $500 penalty to speed!" the driver explains) to the hotel clerk who stops the check-in process to have a conversation with a friend who dropped by to say hello.
Carolina tried to speed up that tempo on Saturday--with mixed results.
The Tar Heels committed 38 turnovers but, as Roy Williams often says, were more gifted and talented than their opponents and rolled to a 100-66 victory over The Real Deal Shockers.
The game, which was played at the Kendal G.L. Isaacs Gymnasium, was the perfect atmosphere for anyone who finds the Maui Invitational too stressful. The Shockers, clad in canary yellow jerseys with royal blue shorts, sauntered in about 30 minutes before game time and departed after the contest on a makeshift team bus--the back of a pickup truck.
The Tar Heels arrived a little more formally, in a shuttle from the hotel. Reyshawn Terry, Quentin Thomas, Wes Miller, David Noel, and Byron Sanders got the start in a game that was played in four 10-minute quarters with international rules, including the longer three-point line (which didn't prove much of a challenge for Wes Miller, who played some quality minutes at shooting guard and nailed five 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 21 points, several from well beyond the international stripe).
Roy Williams largely made use of wholesale substitutions rather than trying to establish any kind of true pattern this early in the season, which effectively spread the minutes out across the roster other than the 37 minutes logged by Quentin Thomas and the 38 allotted to David Noel.
"I don't know that as a coach you can tell anything from a game like this that will help you immediately as far as tomorrow's game," Williams said. "I know we had 38 turnovers and about 15 others that were deflected that we might have gotten back out of bounds. Over the long haul, what it will tell the kids is how much they have to do to get in shape because they ran out of gas. You have to be able to handle the ball and make decisions at a fast pace when you're tired."
One of those decision-makers was Thomas, who tied for the team low in turnovers (his two were the equal of Bobby Frasor on a fumble-packed stat sheet) and finished with 8 assists and a 4:1 assist/turnover ratio.
"It's the first time we've played together against another team and everyone is still trying to get that chemistry with each other," Thomas said. "We had a lot of turnovers, but I think that's expected in a situation like this."
Four of the freshmen were on campus for the second session of summer school, allowing a brief taste of basketball Tar Heel-style, while the fifth, Michael Copeland, has been through just two practices as a Tar Heel. They haven't even been through a full week of fall semester classes yet, so it wasn't surprising when they looked more like raw high school players in their first taste of exhibition action.
After the starting five staked the Heels to a 20-8 lead in the first five minutes, Carolina made the first substitutions, bringing in Tyler Hansbrough, Danny Green, Damion Grant, and Frasor to play with Terry. That group, with Frasor getting some time at point guard (he also saw action at shooting guard) immediately gave up a 12-0 run.
Perhaps the most telling moment came at the end of the first quarter, when Carolina regained possession with under 15 seconds to play. Roy Williams called a favorite late-clock set, but Frasor didn't hear him and ran a different play. The possession--which looked strikingly like some during Raymond Felton's first year in the Williams system--ended with two David Noel free throws, a positive outcome, but illustrated the chemistry that has to be rebuilt among the head coach and a new infusion of talent.
Williams (it's still hard to remember there is just one Williams on this team after having to distinguish between the trio of Roy, Marvin and Jawad last year) sat stoically on the bench for the entire 12-0 run, realizing his freshmen will have moments like this in the months to come. The only time he bounded off the bench to call a timeout came in the second quarter--after his team had rebuilt a double-figure lead--when he saw the action devolving into playground-style running, jumping, and fumbling.
"I thought the freshmen played great considering how early it is," Noel said. "We have to throw them in the fire. It's not like last year when a guy like Marvin could come off the bench. Some of these guys may have to start for us."
Tomorrow's tipoff is at 12 noon against the Wreckers.
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.
