University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Learning As They Go
November 8, 2008 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Nov. 8, 2008
By Adam Lucas
On the scale of 2008-09 Tar Heel basketball learning experiences, Saturday night's 102-62 win over UNC-Pembroke will rank somewhere near the bottom.
Roy Williams said as much after the game. "That was good for us," he said. "Last week against Vanderbilt was really good for us."
He was speaking of last weekend's closed scrimmage against the Commodores, a game that was not open to the public due to NCAA restrictions. But what the head coach didn't mention was that he also might have learned even more about his team on Friday, the day before the exhibition against Pembroke, than he did in the actual game.
Sure, against the Braves he learned Danny Green and Wayne Ellington aren't bothered by the new 20-foot, 9-inch three-point line (both players knocked down three three-pointers). He learned Bobby Frasor still makes teams better, even if he's not showing up on the stat sheet. And he learned Carolina is a better team with Tyler Hansbrough and Marcus Ginyard.
These, as you might have noticed, are not exactly world-shaking revelations. That's why Williams sounded a little like a PGA golfer who'd just completed a mildly challenging Putt-Putt course.
But what he knew quietly was that he might have learned more about his team on Friday than he did on Saturday.
It was at Friday's practice when the nation's top-ranked team encountered the first bit of 2008-09 adversity.
"It was a bad practice," said Deon Thompson. "It was probably the worst...well, it was up there with the worst practices we've had since I've been here. Guys weren't rotating, guys weren't getting in the right spots. We just seemed tired."
As you might have heard, Roy Williams does not believe in having to coach effort. And a tired team on November 7 sounds suspiciously like a team that is not putting forth the correct amount of effort.
The predictable results ensued.
"Coach Williams was not happy," said Frasor. "It didn't seem like guys were caring when they made mistakes, and Coach saw that and he was ticked off by it. So we did a lot of running. He got us conditioned."
See, the Tar Heels never had that ticked-off moment against Pembroke. Sure, they trailed early in the first half, but no one in the crowd of 18,793--yes, 18,793 to watch an exhibition game--ever truly believed the game's outcome was in doubt.
When Roy Williams gets agitated in practice, the outcome of that practice is very much in doubt. He's made a point this season of reminding fans to enjoy the journey, to focus less on April and more on right now.
It's worth remembering that the journey is not all highlight reels and 40-point wins. Sometimes, it includes an empty gym on a Friday afternoon when no one is watching, the head coach is irate, and two of the team's key players are watching from the sideline.
"You can tell a lot about a person when things aren't going right," Frasor said. "One thing I noticed right away was the way Wayne stood out. He dug in and he kept grinding."
That's Wayne Ellington, who has frequently been described as smooth but rarely described as a grinder. It's also the Ellington who seemed to ratchet his defensive intensity up a notch against Pembroke in the second half when the Tar Heels made their game-breaking run.
"This is a big year and we all know it," Ellington said. "We should be making strides. We should be at a certain point right now and I feel like Coach feels the same way. Friday, we didn't practice as hard as we should have or do what we should be doing. Coach got on us, and I know he wants us to respond by showing we're tough enough. As the more experienced player, I wanted to step up and lead by example.
"We've been through that before but our freshmen haven't. They have to learn that he doesn't want them to give in. He always talks about that time in a game when you have to execute a play or get a stop. And we have to show we're capable of that in practice."
That sounds like an early-season moment to note. And it sounds like a learning experience.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
