University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Home-Grown Game For Drew II
October 7, 2009 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Oct. 7, 2009
TarHeelBlue.com will run a series of Tar Heel basketball features every Wednesday leading up to Late Night with Roy Williams on Oct. 16.
By Adam Lucas
In a college sports world where year-round efforts are expected, going home for the summer can carry a somewhat negative connotation.
That's not the case for Larry Drew II.
Before breaking for the summer, Roy Williams gave him three tasks: gain confidence, improve his jump shot, and continue to improve his strength and conditioning.
With those directions, the Tar Heel point guard spent much of his summer at home in Los Angeles, where he worked out as much as three times per day under the watchful eye of an NBA assistant coach. Of course, that assistant coach just happens to sleep in the room down the hall; Larry Drew is entering his sixth season as an Atlanta Hawks assistant coach. An 11-year pro player, the elder Drew has a reputation among current players--including Tar Heel Marvin Williams--as a shooting guru.
That means he understands there's a difference between being a good shooter in an empty gym and being a good shooter in game conditions. That's why the daily workouts he prepared for Drew II included lots of shooting on the run and more than just catch-and-shoot jumpers.
"He worked on my mechanics a lot with me," Drew II says of his father. "I want to keep my feet underneath me, keep my shoulders straight, and keep my elbow in. Everything we did was designed to take out the hitch in my shot."
He won't be the first Tar Heel point guard to make technical adjustments during his career; Raymond Felton also brought his elbow in under the tutelage of Roy Williams and became one of the most dangerous outside threats on the 2005 national championship team.
Felton largely made those tweaks while spending a summer beneath the familiar Smith Center banners. Drew II's offseason was spent largely on the West Coast. His day usually began with some form of conditioning, which he varied between running flats, hills, sand dunes, or the exhausting Santa Monica Stairs. He also lifted weights, something he never did until his senior year of high school, and has added 15 pounds since first enrolling at Carolina.
In the early afternoon, he'd find a pickup game--UCLA, where most of the current Bruins play, was a frequent location--and then he'd cap his day by hoisting hundreds of jump shots.
It sounds rigorous, but Drew II had been exposed to some of the world's toughest workouts when he was still a middle schooler. In seventh grade, he got the opportunity to work out with Kobe Bryant. The session began at 4 a.m.
"It was intense," Drew II said. "I literally couldn't envision myself working that hard. I've heard stories that he will work out until he passes out, and I believe it. He would work on a move, then a counter to that move, then a counter to the counter. He had to make 10 in a row on everything, and if he didn't he would start over from the beginning. It helped me understand why he is who he is."
Who Drew II is remains a mystery to many Tar Heel fans, who saw him play only sporadically as a freshman. With Ty Lawson having an All-American 2009, backup minutes were extremely limited. But when Lawson missed three postseason games with a toe injury, Drew II compiled a 4:1 overall assist:turnover ratio, dishing out 12 assists against just three turnovers in 50 minutes of game action.
"In the backup role, I wasn't sure when I was getting into the game, and I had to perform right away," Drew said. "That was a learning process for me. Until that point I had always been the main guy. I think I'll be in more of that kind of role this year."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of five books on Carolina basketball, including the upcoming book on the 2009 national title, One Fantastic Ride. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter.
