University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The First Three Steps
November 24, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 24, 2007
LAS VEGAS--In three steps, most players are just getting started.
In three steps, it's time to catch your breath.
And in three steps, Ty Lawson is past you.
The stat sheet tells what happened on the end of Lawson's drives--a career-high 23 points, five assists, and 9-of-11 shooting from the field in Carolina's 99-82 win over Old Dominion.
But it doesn't tell how most of those points were generated. The lightning-quick Tar Heel point guard simply outran the Monarchs for several of those buckets. On five different occasions in the first 12 minutes of the second half, Carolina zipped down the floor and scored less than 10 seconds after an ODU basket.
Lots of teams try to run after missed shots. The Tar Heels, under Lawson, are able to do it even after the opposing team scores.
That's harder than it sounds. The time of the Old Dominion basket is marked as the ball goes through the net. Figure a couple of seconds for the ball to bounce around, then another second for the ball to be inbounded, and it leaves just seven seconds for the Tar Heels to race up the floor and score.
At practice, assistant coach Steve Robinson constantly emphasizes the first three steps after an opponent scores as the key to converting on the other end.
"You have to beat your guy in the first three steps," says Alex Stepheson, who turned in a solid 6-point, 5-rebound game. "Once you beat him, then you look for the ball. On this team, you know if you run the floor hard you're going to get the ball in position to score."
That's largely because of Lawson's velocity, which has a way of turning turtle-like teams into jackrabbits. Old Dominion didn't want to run with the Tar Heels. The Monarchs had broken 66 points just once in compiling a 3-1 early-season record, and they very determinedly tried to walk the ball up the court after Carolina baskets.
But Lawson wouldn't stand for it. His team wanted to play faster. His coach wanted to play faster. So the sophomore point guard simply played faster. For that reason, the 99 points posted by the Tar Heels were more impressive than either of the previous 100-point efforts turned in against teams that were more willing to run.
"You have to look at the situation," Lawson explained. "If you see a big man running slow, you just wait for him to turn his head, use him as a pick, go by him, and you're on the way. It's mostly about vision."
Some of it, as Lawson said, is intuitive. But converting those types of scoring opportunities is also about film study and hard work. Roy Williams has drilled his point guard pupil on the subtleties of when to push and when to wait for help. Raymond Felton has been the most frequent example cited to Lawson, who says he's now more aware for details like his man crashing the offensive boards--which means Lawson has a better chance to get a step ahead and beat him back down the court.
It's impossible to quantify how demoralizing it is for an opponent to work, prod, and poke the Tar Heel defense for 20 seconds just to find an opening to score. Then, just a few blinks later, Carolina is posting another two points. Eventually, the running becomes too much.
That's the brand of basketball Williams has brought back to Chapel Hill. It went almost unnoticed, but Friday's game came exactly four years and one day after Williams's first game as a head coach. That contest was also against Old Dominion and it also resulted in a Tar Heel victory.
The similarities end there. How long does it take to completely turn around a program? There's no exact formula, but remember that when Williams arrived Carolina fans had just finished embracing the NIT--that's the postseason version, not the preseason edition--with roaring crowds. That was back when the head coach could say, "Ol' Roy ain't that good," and someone might actually believe him.
Since then, there's been a national championship, a pair of ACC regular season titles, and an elusive ACC Tournament championship. Back then, any win--any win at all--felt good. Now, we're back to preferring our victories to be pretty and perfect, and even then we can probably find something wrong if you give us a minute.
In those first weeks and months, Williams was fond of making the distinction between the way players thought they wanted to run and the way he wanted them to run. His way is faster. His way is harder.
And for Williams's 110th victory at Carolina, Lawson showed exactly how effective that tempo can be.
Adam Lucas most recently collaborated on a behind-the-scenes look at Carolina Basketball with Wes Miller. The Road To Blue Heaven is available now. Lucas's other books on Carolina basketball include The Best Game Ever, which chronicles the 1957 national championship season, Going Home Again, which focuses 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.
