University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Confidence Game
January 28, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 28, 2006
By Adam Lucas
As Saturday's game against Arizona began, Danny Green was sitting on the bench.
No, that's not exactly right. Sitting on the bench implies passiveness. Green wasn't just sitting. He was watching. Studying. Learning.
"I usually sub in for Reyshawn, so I watch what he's doing and what his man likes to do," Green said. "I want to learn his tendencies and think about how to stop him from doing what he wants to do so I can help the team out."
How much is he helping the team out? It would be easy to look at the boxscore, where he had 13 points, 2 blocks, and an assist. But a more telling sign might be the reception he received when he left the court.
There have been times this season when Green has lost his man or failed to move offensively and he's headed to the Carolina bench to find a stonefaced Roy Williams. As a player, that's usually not a good sign.
On Saturday, Green checked out with 6:48 remaining. Williams stood up, walked to the edge of the scorer's table, clapped his hands three strong times, and shook his freshman's hand as he grabbed a seat. He didn't say anything. He didn't have to.
The book on the North Babylon native coming out of high school was that he was a player with a little bit of everything. He could shoot, he could pass, he could rebound, and he could even handle the ball a little bit. He showed all those characteristics at various points through his first two months of college basketball competition.
But the one thing that was missing from his game was the one thing that's most essential to it--confidence.
David Noel recently diagnosed Green with the wisdom of a senior.
"Danny's that type of player from New York who has a lot of confidence in his game," Noel said.
Green also doesn't bother to hide his emotions. So if he's playing well, you know it. And if he's not playing well, you know that too.
"The first month or two he was playing not to do anything wrong," said Bobby Frasor, who played some of the best defense of his Carolina career against Hassan Adams. "He wasn't being a basketball player. Now he's out there playing his game. He's hitting his shots, scoring, and getting to the basket."
Green found that confidence in the most unlikely of places--on a bus somewhere between Chapel Hill and Charlottesville. That's where Roy Williams took a moment to point out to Green the freshman struggles of some of the very best players the Carolina head coach has ever taught.
Paul Pierce struggled. Kirk Hinrich struggled. Not always for extended periods of time, but for at least a game or two at a time.
Remember, today's player knows Pierce and Hinrich only as NBA stars. Pierce was a freshman during the 1995-96 season--that qualifies as just after dinosaurs stopped roaming the earth to Green, who was eight years old that season.
"When you start missing a couple of shots each game, you kind of think twice about taking your shot," Green said. "I wasn't as confident as I should've been. But around the Virginia game, I started to get into a rhythm."
Hmmm, let's see. Player struggling. Head coach talks to player. Suddenly the light turns on.
This is probably not a coincidence.
Williams has a knack for figuring out how to get through to players lesser coaches might bury on the bench. Byron Sanders has turned into a valuable 10- to 15-minute performer for the Tar Heels. And who turned in what might have been the biggest play of the game against Arizona?
Quentin Thomas, who played several solid first-half minutes while Carolina was closing an early Wildcat lead. His steal and dunk ignited the Smith Center crowd and helped turn a 16-9 deficit into a 39-31 halftime advantage.
Thomas, as usual, was one of the last men out of the Tar Heel locker room after the big win. He let Frasor--who suffered a gruesome-looking finger injury in Thursday's practice--and Green handle most of the media attention.
That came easily to Green.
"He's always talking," Noel said with a smile. "In a game, as soon as he hits a shot he's always saying something."
It is, it seems, an easy game when shots are falling. It's a game of baskets and passes and defense, of course. But it's also something else, something the freshman class exhibited en masse Saturday afternoon.
A confidence game.
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.
