University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tar Heels Plan Breakneck Pace
October 31, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Oct. 31, 2006
By Adam Lucas
Danny Green's eyes get wide when he is told that his head coach has suggested the 2006-07 edition of the North Carolina Tar Heels might be able to average 90 points per game.
"Really?" he says with a slightly raised eyebrow.
That's what Roy Williams said this summer. Are you surprised?
"Well..."
No kidding, Danny. After all, 90 points per game is a mark that's only been reached twice in Carolina history--and that's a history that includes plenty of fast-paced, high-scoring teams. Even Williams, who would have probably considered the Los Angeles Lakers' brand of Showtime to be a little too slow for his taste, has only coached two teams to a 90-plus average. Bolstered by Drew Gooden, Nick Collison, and Kirk Hinrich, the 2001-02 Kansas Jayhawks averaged 90.9 points per game. Williams's 1989-90 Jayhawk squad, which finished 30-5 and included ten players averaging at least 11 minutes per game, averaged 92.1 points per game. But that's just two teams in a nearly 20-year head coaching career.
So it's perfectly understandable if Green doesn't want to step out on a creaking limb that way. Ninety just isn't very realistic...uh, right?
"Not just 90," Green says. "I think we could average more than 90 if we play the way we're capable of playing."
That's the kind of offensive optimism that surrounds the upcoming Tar Heels as they open exhibition play Wednesday night against St. Aug's (tickets are still available; if you won't be in attendance, you can watch every play from anywhere in the world on Carolina All-Access). The all-time Carolina scoring record is 91.3 points per game, set by the 1986-87 squad. That team featured Kenny Smith, J.R. Reid, Jeff Lebo, and Joe Wolf, went 14-0 in the ACC, and might have been one of the two best Tar Heel teams that didn't win a national title.
This year's team doesn't want to just contest that mark. They want to shatter it. Early season returns--including an intrasquad scrimmage Sunday that saw the two teams combine to nearly break 125 points in one regulation half, which means either potent offensive firepower or lots of work to do on defense--have been encouraging (to be a part of what could be a record-breaking season, order your single-game tickets on Saturday).
When Williams broke 90 with the 2002 Jayhawks, he did it largely with a core of upperclassman stars--Gooden, Collison, and Hinrich were all juniors, plus senior Jeff Boschee--surrounded by a point guard content primarily to distribute the ball to the other powerful offensive threats. Only seven players on that team averaged double-digit minutes.
This year's Tar Heels have a much different composition. Seven players return who averaged double-digit minutes last season. Williams will have to mix them with a six-man freshman class that includes at least three players, and possibly four, who could contend for at least 10 minutes per game.
If he so chooses, Williams could come at opponents not with a rotation, but with waves. Consider a lineup of Quentin Thomas, Wayne Ellington, Danny Green, Deon Thompson, and Alex Stepheson...and then consider that that's a group that could easily be Carolina's second or third team.
"I like having more depth," says Williams. "Of course that means we are counting on freshmen to come through and sometimes they don't. But I am hopeful that they will. I am hopeful that we will play an even faster pace than we've played the last two years. With depth you need to play faster. If you play a 60-possession game and a guy plays half the game, he plays 30 possessions. But if you play 100 possessions and a guy plays half the game then he plays 50 possessions."
The theory is that many of those 100 possessions will end with easy baskets. Even the best offensive team can't average 90 points per game if they spend 40 minutes in a halfcourt offense. As usual, Williams wants his defense to feed into an uptempo transition game that creates easy layups or quick secondary break opportunities.
Carolina's defensive package was limited last season because of a lack of depth and inexperience across the depth chart. Traps were sprinkled in sparingly, primarily to create momentum or a change of tempo during home games. Full court pressure was reserved only for end-of-game desperation situations.
That won't be the case this season.
"The best way to create the tempo we want to play is by forcing turnovers," Wes Miller says. "We want to get up in the passing lanes on defense, pressure the ball, and extend our pressure. That gives us opportunities to run and get easy buckets at the other end of the floor. That's how Coach wants to play--get turnovers and make layups. We want to play that way this year more than ever."
Miller, Ellington, and Bobby Frasor may quietly hold the key to averaging 90 points. When Williams did it with Kansas, he had two viable post threats plus a deadeye duo of perimeter marksmen. The Jayhawks were almost impossible to defend--collapse on the inside, give up a three-pointer. Stretch the defense, and risk defending Gooden or Collison man-to-man. KU piled up 11 games with at least 100 possessions and averaged 94 possessions per game--easily more than any team in the Williams era at UNC.
The Tar Heels' season ended early last year largely because their outside touch vanished. They shot 15-for-48 from beyond the three-point line in two NCAA games, freeing defenses to collapse on Tyler Hansbrough inside. That's likely to be the early-season strategy for defending Carolina again this year, at least until the Heels prove they can shoot down that defensive strategy from the perimeter.
"We have a lot of offensive threats on this team," Green says. "And not just a lot of threats, but a lot of threats in every aspect of the game. There are always three or four guys on the floor who have the ability to do more than one thing."
The one thing they'll all be able to do is put the ball in the basket. And they might just do it a record-breaking pace.
Adam Lucas's third book on Carolina basketball, The Best Game Ever, chronicles the 1957 national championship season and is available now. His previous books include Going Home Again, focusing on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.
