University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Mailbag
January 13, 2009 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Jan. 13, 2009
By Adam Lucas
I missed my chance to get an item in this week's mailbag, but I wanted to know why we kept running the halfcourt trap against BC? Tyrese Rice passed out of it successfully almost every time and the Eagles got open shots every time. I kept waiting for Roy to tell the players to stop trapping but it never happened.
Cason Dwyer
Madison, WI
This was a popular question in the wake of the surprising loss to Boston College. There's only one problem: it's fundamentally flawed.
That's not Cason's fault. Without the benefit of reviewing the game on tape, it's easy to think Carolina is running the trap more frequently than they actually are. It's also much easier to diagnose the defense with the benefit of being in the arena and seeing the point guard's defensive call. Let's start at the beginning--the Tar Heels have two basic halfcourt traps in their arsenal. In one version, they trap the ball-handler on the first dribble across midcourt. In another, they trap the first pass across midcourt.
After watching the tape, Boston College had 43 halfcourt offensive possessions (the defense is set, there's no 4-on-3 advantage, etc.) in the first 32 minutes of the game (in the final eight minutes, facing a 14-point deficit, the Carolina defensive approach necessarily changed). Given that information, how many times do you think the Tar Heels trapped?
Just six times, and one of those six was actually three-quarters court pressure that then changed into straight man-to-man in the halfcourt. The result of those six traps: one made three-pointer, two missed jumpers, and three deflections that reset the play. Not the horrendous percentage you might expect, although the one three-pointer was one of the most wide-open shots of the night, so it probably stuck in your mind more than, say, Wayne Ellington sticking a hand in the passing lane and knocking the ball out of bounds.
One side note: two of those six traps came with Bobby Frasor and Marcus Ginyard in the game together. Why? "They get to the right spot," as Roy Williams said on Friday. They're not the most athletic players on the roster, but they know how to play team defense. With Ginyard's availability limited, the guess is that the trapping might diminish. Also, in his previous five seasons, Williams has used the trap more liberally against nonconference teams than against league foes. That's usually because the league opponents are better equipped to beat a trap with better ball-handlers and more accurate shooters. In general, you'll also see more traps at home than on the road, and the trap was used sparingly at Wake Forest.
In many cases, fans misdiagnose Carolina's defense as a halfcourt trap when the opposing offense sets a high pick and the Tar Heel big man--usually Tyler Hansbrough or Deon Thompson--steps out to hedge against the ball-handler. That's not a planned double-team, that's just the way Carolina sometimes defends that particular play. Which leads us into...
I was at the Duke-VT game the other night and I noticed that Duke defensively tends to "switch" through picks rather than fight through them like UNC does defensively. Is there a reason Coach Williams favors this approach over the other? It seems many times, especially at the top of the circle, that opposing teams get off open 3 pointers while we're still fighting through the pick.
SD King
Chapel Hill, NC
"Guard your man and be accountable." If you had to distill Carolina's defensive philosophy to a few words, it would be those words, which were spoken by Williams last week. Under Williams, the Tar Heel philosophy against the ball screen at the top of the key is as follows: big man "shows" or hedges to try and prevent the ball-handler from dribbling unimpeded to the basket. Guard goes through the pick, splitting it between the UNC big man and the screen-setter.
That's how it looks on paper. But in the dynamic nature of a basketball game, there are lots of variables. Sometimes the ball-handler picks up his dribble, which can create a double-team when the Tar Heel big man who is hedging combines with the guard who just worked his way through the screen. Most teams don't have a power forward or center who can step back and hit a three-pointer; the first reaction of the big guy is usually to go to the basket to try and receive a pass, and usually there are plenty of Tar Heel arms in that passing lane. It just so happened that Boston College did, which is how Joe Trapani hit his trifecta. After setting a screen, rather than going to the basket, he stepped back instead of forward and had a wide-open look.
"It's a tough play to defend," says Ty Lawson. "I have to get over the screen and under our big man, and I have to get under him before the point guard gets around him and can go to the basket. But if I do that, it makes our defense a lot stronger because the pick and roll isn't as successful."
Keep in mind that Williams has proven to be flexible on this particular philosophy. Switching on screens was a key part of Carolina's win at Duke last season. And why did they play it that way? Because Blue Devil big man Kyle Singler is effective at pulling a Trapani and stepping back to hit three-pointers after setting a screen.
By the way, the Tar Heels tried a new strategy on the high ball screen against Wake Forest, as the guard defending the play went underneath the screen. The results? Mixed, at best, as Jeff Teague scored 34 points.
"We tried a different way of defending it," Lawson said. "It's tougher, because you have more traffic to get through. No matter how we defend it, we've got to step up on the defensive end."
In the loss to Boston College All-ACC/All-American candidate Ty Lawson played 31 minutes compared to BC's star guard Tyrese Rice's 36 minutes. Carolina's back up point guard Larry Drew played nine minutes and turned it over three times (compared to four for Lawson). It seems that Carolina would have benefited having Lawson in the game for as long as Rice. In the 2005 NCAA Championship Season how many minutes per game did Raymond Felton average in ACC play and ACC/NCAA Tournament play?
Shane Todd
Athens,GA
Felton averaged 31.7 minutes per game during the '05 title season. That number increased to 33.0 minutes in the NCAA Tournament and 33.1 minutes in ACC play.
So far, Lawson is averaging 26.2 minutes, but that number is deflated by the volume of blowout victories early in the year. It's not unreasonable to expect his end-of-season minutes to be roughly in line with Felton's. But Larry Drew isn't going to disappear. He's getting extremely valuable repetitions in practice having to defend Lawson, but he also needs game minutes. There will come a time this season when Lawson is either injured or in foul trouble--remember, fouls limited Felton against Villanova in the '05 NCAA Tournament, and Melvin Scott played a critical role--and Drew will be important. Some teams spend late February and early March whining about a lack of depth, which is often because they didn't play that depth in January when they had the chance. Williams has never followed that philosophy. To have depth, you have to play it.
As a side note, Drew and Ed Davis had encouraging performances at Wake on Sunday. In a very hostile environment, neither looked rattled. Drew made a couple questionable decisions immediately upon entering the game and then responded with solid play. Davis provides something the Tar Heels don't get from any of the rest of the post rotation--a defensive presence in the paint that changes shots--and is a rebounding machine.
Brownlow's Down Low
When UNC won the opening tip-off last night at the Dean Dome (against Boston College), I immediately had a really bad feeling about the game. Perhaps it is just me, but it seems like the other teams have won the opening tip and the games have turned into a UNC rout. I am curious to know the statistics of win/losses versus getting the opening tip-off.
Lee Johnson
Apex, NC
Lauren writes:
We Carolina fans are obviously far too superstitious. But it did seem like Carolina had not won many jump balls at the Smith Center. In fact, until the Boston College game, Carolina had won just one tip in the Dean Dome and three outside of it. Carolina has won the last three opening tips of the game and has obviously lost two of the last three.Of the 16 opening tips this season, Carolina has won eight and is 6-2 in those games. Problem solved - let the other team win the tip! Not so fast, though. There are definitely some stinkers in that mix of won tips, even in victory (Valparaiso stands out) but there are some great games in that mix. Michigan State, Chaminade and Notre Dame, three of Carolina's best offensive games of the season, all came after Carolina won the tip.
It doesn't matter how you start, of course - it's how you finish. But wouldn't it be nice if all of Carolina's opponents could finish the way that they start against the Tar Heels while winning the tip. The eight tip-winners have shot a combined 1-of-9 from the floor (0-of-3 from beyond the arc) and turned it over once. The latest Carolina has scored when losing the tip is the 18:53 mark, a little over a minute into the game.
Carolina hasn't fared much better when winning the tip, hitting 2-of-6 shots, and hitting 1-of-2 foul shots and turning it over once, but has scored within a minute of the game starting six of eight times. But one thing that two of Carolina's bad performances that it won the tip on - Valpo and Boston College - have in common is that it took Carolina a long time to get its first field goal in those games, 2:26 and 1:40, respectively.
It would take a really long time to go back through every single tip-winner and loser over the years, but this season, Carolina has outscored opponents when losing the tip by 26.1 points versus 20.4 points when winning it, even with the two losses. Carolina has had five 100-point games, three coming when it won the tip. Carolina's lowest point total came when it won the tip but its second, third, fourth and fifth-lowest came when losing it.
The moral of the story here is that Carolina needs to get out to a good start, especially right now. I'll take the chance with Carolina getting a chance to find its rhythm and gain confidence early.
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of four books on Carolina basketball.
