University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The Learning Process
January 4, 2010 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Jan. 4, 2010
By Adam Lucas
CHARLESTON, S.C.--It's a lot of fun to win on the road. More fun than winning at home, probably. By now, the seventh year of the Roy Williams era, you know the catchphrases. Take their brownies. Listen to them go quiet. Watch them leave.
Here's what isn't much fun: learning how to win on the road. All we remember now is Carolina's 21-2 true road record over the past two seasons. The Tar Heels hadn't lost back-to-back road games since the end of the 2007 regular season. What we've repressed is what happened before that. The 2007 team was 6-4 on the road. The 2004 team--which the 2010 squad seems determined to emulate--was 4-7.
This wasn't the first time in the Williams era that a desperation last-second heave has forced overtime on the road, allowing the home team to ride momentum to an upset victory. It happened almost identically on Jan. 22, 2004, in Tallahassee. At some point, it'll happen again. That's the truth about playing road games. Williams likes playing them, likes taking his teams to places other programs won't go. Carolina was the first ACC team to play at the College of Charleston.
You play that game so when the same thing happens later this season at Clemson or Wake Forest everyone knows what to do. The final ten minutes felt like an ACC road game. The Tar Heels held their biggest lead of the game to that point, 55-52, with just a quarter of the game left. As Bobby Cremins correctly said afterward, "It looked like one of those typical, `Great effort but Carolina is going to win by 12,'" kind of games. Cremins knows. He's seen it before.
But this Carolina team hasn't seen it before. Credit them for pushing the lead out to 11 with 4:02 left. What happened after that, though, will be the topic most discussed over the next week.
Still up seven with 3:24 left in regulation, Williams called a timeout specifically to get Larry Drew II in the game on offense. The goal at that point? "He wanted us to pound it inside and get the big men in foul trouble," Drew said.
Drew did that successfully. It was noticeable because it was one of the rare times there didn't seem to be some miscommunication between the Tar Heels on the floor and on the bench. This is not a fluid team yet, either offensively or defensively. It's not that they are overthinking. It's that they're thinking. Nothing happens without a second glance at the bench, a pause to consider what should happen next. It's not second nature yet, and a veteran team like College of Charleston (two seniors and two juniors in the starting lineup) knows how to take advantage.
In the end game, the Cougars executed and Carolina didn't. The short list of problematic decisions looks like this:
College of Charleston had the ball down three with under 20 seconds to play. Carolina had only four team fouls, meaning they had two to give. On the sideline, Williams was screaming for someone to foul before the Cougars could release a shot. But Deon Thompson switched onto the quicker Andrew Goudelock, and perhaps preoccupied with maintaining his defensive focus, the foul was never given. What happened? Goudelock tossed in a high-arching game-tying three-pointer, of course.
"I knew (how many team fouls Carolina had)," Drew said. "We should've fouled him. Coach said he was screaming to foul him. It's really hard to hear people. We don't really work on late game situations."
Drew said the bit about late game situations three different times, so we'll come back to that. First, let's continue the list. With two minutes to play in overtime, coming off a timeout and with plenty of time to set up the inbounds defense, Jeremy Simmons somehow got wide open for a dunk and a four-point Cougar lead. On the next possession, Charleston's Willis Hall made another layup. Two of the most critical possessions of the game, and the Cougars are shooting point-blank shots.
With 30 seconds to play and Carolina down by one and finally in the bonus defensively, Hall--a 63.6% free throw shooter--got the ball in front of the Charleston bench. But the Tar Heels didn't foul him, and instead Charleston ran ten more seconds off the clock before finally Donavan Monroe--an 84.6% free throw shooter--was fouled. What happened? Monroe made both shots, of course.
On the ensuing possession, needing three instead of two, Dexter Strickland took the ball straight to the basket. What happened? He missed, and eventually Charleston claimed the three-point win.
Now, what of Drew's comment about late-game situations? It's indicative of something, but maybe not what you think. The sophomore is correct that this year's practices have been lighter on those scenarios. But it's not because the coaches are too busy admiring the shiny national championship trophy in the basketball office. It's because late-game execution is an advanced concept, and some of the basic concepts have been slower to come around than in past years. That's what happens with young teams. Sometimes, they don't get it when you want them to get it. You can pound them and beg them and plead with them, but you can't make it happen any faster.
"We've talked," Drew said. "Sometime with this team we have to stop talking and start playing."
All of his teammates were already outside in the chilly Charleston air, lugging their travel bags and boarding the bus. Just Drew was left alone in the locker room, a frustrated college student trying to make sense of his advanced classes.
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.
