University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Quest For Consistency
November 21, 2009 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Nov. 21, 2009
By Adam Lucas
NEW YORK--It's not entirely correct to say that Syracuse plays a zone.
Saying the Orangemen "play a zone" implies they occasionally do something else. Maybe a possession of man-to-man, maybe some halfcourt trap.
They don't do that. They live the zone every day. Not just gameday, but every practice day. In Friday night's win over Carolina, it showed. They do exactly what they do, and at this point in the season they do what they do better than Carolina does what they do.
The Tar Heel youth was evident. Facing the Orangemen is an advanced placement basketball course, because they combine their defense with athleticism and height. The conventional wisdom--flash someone to the high post, try to get some dribble penetration--doesn't work, because they're too active and they're too rangy. Just when you think you've figured it out, they add a wrinkle like double-teaming on the wing.
"They are really active, and when you're on the wing you have to be able to read it," said David Wear. "And they're so athletic. That's what makes it tough to play against."
With a practice day or two, it's entirely possible that Roy Williams could have coached up his pupils about how to attack the Orange. "I'd like to play them again tomorrow night," the head coach said. "And they might beat us again, and then I'd like to play them again the next night." That's the likely way his team will have to learn. They're going to take some beatings, but it's what they learn from those beatings that will be most productive.
It's evident that Williams is still experimenting with his team. When Marcus Ginyard went out four minutes into the second half with an injury, Carolina's five in the game included John Henson, Dexter Strickland, Justin Watts, Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller. That's a quintet that hasn't seen much floor time together, and it showed. A 47-40 deficit quickly turned into 57-40.
The challenge for Williams is that he's still waiting for consistency from members of his expanded rotation--so he can pare down that dozen to a reliable nine or ten. Will Graves started with a momentum-boosting pair of three-pointers, but then struggled with his shot the rest of the night. Larry Drew II connected with Ed Davis on a beautiful set play at the end of the first half, but then failed to race the ball up the floor early in the second half (Carolina had just two fast break points, due partly to Syracuse's commitment to getting back on defense) and was benched for Strickland.
Normally, those yips would work themselves out in practice. The accelerated schedule means it's happening in games instead, which can lead to Jekyll-and-Hyde nights like Friday, when the Tar Heels played a solid first half...only to follow it up on the wrong end of a 22-1 run to start the second half.
It's not going to be the players who jump the highest or run the fastest who eventually cement places in the Carolina rotation. It's going to be the ones who are the first to locate a shred of consistency, who enable Williams to know exactly what kind of production he gets when he puts them on the floor. They'll follow the lead of Ginyard. On most every night, you know he's going to defend. He'll probably get to the offensive glass. He'll make the extra pass. This year, he'll even score a little. That a reasonable expectation for the Tar Heel senior--and it's comfortable.
Among the youngsters, the leaders in that race may be--surprise--the Wear twins. David got quality minutes in the second half of Thursday's squeaker over Ohio State, and both brothers played well against Syracuse. It's OK if you didn't notice them, because other than David's three-pointer (or the occasional laser-beam pass that's too hard for its intended target) they weren't especially flashy. But they go to the right place and they understand the game. It wasn't a coincidence that the Wears were in the game with Davis, Drew and Ginyard when Carolina made a push to cut the Syracuse lead in half.
Consider this breakdown of his team's struggles--and how the struggles were turned around--by David Wear: "When a team is making every shot they're taking, we can't make silly turnovers to fuel their run. When we're in the game, no matter who we're in there with, we have to get a good flow going. Everyone has to touch the ball, and it needs to flow inside out. We want to be aggressive, attack the glass and get the ball on the baseline to attack the zone. When we got on that run in the second half, we were attacking the zone, working the ball around, getting good ball movement and getting the ball inside."
That's straight out of chapter one of the Roy Williams Basketball Handbook. The fact that Wear gets it this early in the season means he has a great chance to play meaningful minutes not just in November, but in March.
"That's obviously the best team we've played this year," a somber Wear said. "We'll get something out of it. What happened tonight will be good preparation for the next couple months."
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 just-released book on the 2009 national title, One Fantastic Ride. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter.
