University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Out Of Focus
January 14, 2010 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Jan. 14, 2010
By Adam Lucas
CLEMSON, S.C.-- The normal five-for-five Roy Williams substitution goes something like this: he takes off his glasses, the better to see the players he has just removed. He makes a forceful point or two, sometimes punctuating it with a smack of the hardwood. And then he sits back, steaming, on the Tar Heel bench.
It's instructive that Wednesday night's five-for-five looked nothing like that. With 18:02 remaining in the second half, Williams had just watched his group of two seniors, two sophomores and a redshirt junior turn the ball over two straight times against Clemson's fullcourt pressure.
It wasn't a matter of getting caught in a trap or submitting to Demontez Stitt's ball-hawking in the frontcourt. It was a matter of not being able to throw the ball in-bounds. Two times in a row, Deon Thompson lofted the ball over the head of his intended target. Two times in a row, the Tigers grabbed the ball and headed back toward the basket.
At that point, Clemson held a 52-32 lead and the Tar Heels were well on the way to perhaps the most complete shellacking in the Williams era (at least the 2008 Kansas game tightened up at one point). But the head coach was remarkably composed, which perhaps tells you something about how far this team still has to go. He didn't rant. He didn't rave. He did take his glasses off, but only to diagram on the chalkboard more precisely.
Then, with his back to the court--where he'd just inserted a group of five true freshmen--Williams calmly explained the way he wanted his team to inbound the basketball. What was the entirely new play he drew up at that point? What new X's and O's did he scrawl on the board?
"It wasn't anything new at all," Thompson said. "It's the same press Clemson has been running for years and we've been running the same press break for years. He just told us we had to come to the ball and get to the right spots. We had to do a better job of executing."
In other words, the problematic play was something that group had been practicing for four years. After 1:30 of the rookies (during which the freshmen led, 4-2), Williams put the original five back in the game. With a fresh approach that included Ed Davis inbounding the ball instead of Thompson...the Tar Heels promptly turned the ball over in the frontcourt.
It was that kind of night, one that fittingly ended with the team plane being iced in and the entire travel party forced to set off on a five-hour bus ride that departed Littlejohn at midnight. That gave them plenty of time to contemplate the fact that nearing the middle of January, Williams is still teaching as much as he's coaching. "I'm not doing a good job coaching this team, and that's hard for me to say," the emotional head coach said after the game.
The stats show the Tar Heels turned the ball over 26 times. What they don't show is that at least a dozen of those turnovers were completely unforced. Yes, Clemson applies tough defensive pressure. But that only heightens the need to take care of the basketball when that pressure is broken.
"It's a lack of focus," said Dexter Strickland, who was one of only three Tar Heels with a neutral or positive assist/turnover ratio (Ed Davis and Larry Drew II were the others).
In a nearby section of the locker room, Marcus Ginyard was echoing those same comments about a lack of focus. That's been a mantra after several Carolina losses this year. But what does lack of focus really mean? Not what you think, perhaps.
"It's thinking too much," Strickland said. "It's being scared to make a mistake. When you play cautious you're more likely to make a mistake."
Those are wise words for a freshman, especially on a team where it's not only the freshmen who appear to be over-thinking their roles (just six of the 26 turnovers were by freshmen). It's evident, too, that Strickland not only says those words--he believes them. It's apparent in his play.
In his opening weeks as a Tar Heel, he looked tentative and the results reflected it. Since then, including a second-half stretch when his ping-pong play buoyed the Tar Heels to at least a flicker of a comeback, he's consistently been on the attack. His three steals were a team high and with 17 points, he was the only Tar Heel in double figures. At first glance, it appears to be the first time since Jan. 31, 2002, that no Tar Heel starter has scored in double figures.
You assume that eventually it will click for his teammates the same way it clicked for him. Notably, it was Strickland who looked at Drew late in the game and said, "Slow down," because the freshman had the sense that the sophomore was needlessly rushing things. The problem is that in the ACC season, no one has sympathy for a team still trying to find itself. Clemson players and fans were quite obviously thirsty for a win over a program that had beaten them 10 straight times. It will be the same at every other venue the Tar Heels visit this year.
As Oliver Purnell paused to do an ESPN interview and both teams left the floor at halftime, the Tiger PA announcer roared, "Ladies and gentlemen, aren't you glad you came tonight?"
Honestly, no.
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.
