University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Relaxed Drew II Returns
October 1, 2010 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Oct. 1, 2010
By Adam Lucas
Larry Drew II knows exactly what it's like to arrive at North Carolina and find a junior point guard already occupying a key role in the rotation.
During Drew's freshman season, junior Ty Lawson was the incumbent starter and designated tempo-setter.
"The summer before my freshman year, I was going at Ty almost every day," Drew says with a grin. "I remember guys asking Ty, `Are you going to let him go at you like that? He's just a freshman. Aren't you going to respond?'"
Drew sits back in his chair as he remembers the story, with two years of experience now providing the context.
"I was standing right there when they asked him that. And Ty looked at me and he looked at them, and he said, `I'm not chirping right now because when practice starts, all this is going to change.'
"Back then, I didn't understand what that meant. I thought things would be the same when practice started as they were in the summer."
So, Larry the old wise man, are they the same?
"Oh, no," he says. "Every freshman who comes in here is on a cloud. They're eager to play and they want to prove themselves. And once the season starts, they realize what a big transition it's going to be from high school. It's the job of the older players--like me, Justin, and Will--who have been through it to embrace them and help them with that transition. For whatever reason, it felt like we were out of sync last year. No one wants to go through that again. To avoid that, we have to help each other no matter what."
This is a remarkably mature sentiment to come from the junior, who has seemed more relaxed and confident during the first month of the fall semester. One of those freshmen, Kendall Marshall, plays the same position as Drew. If Marshall's freshman transition is smoothed, it's likely to have an impact on the minutes played by the California native, who doesn't seem particularly concerned by this fact.
Drew II prepared for his junior season during a summer that included a trip home to work out with his father, new Atlanta Hawks head coach Larry Drew. As Drew II says, having a father in the upper echelon of the NBA should be "an unfair advantage." The ultimate verdict on his choice will be rendered by his play as a junior. Last summer, he returned home to Los Angeles to focus on his shooting mechanics. The results were positive: his three-point percentage went from 23.1% as a freshman to a respectable 35.2% as a junior.
He continued the shooting focus this summer, but added a defensive element. Drew II's defense was not stellar last year, a point that was reinforced to him by the coaching staff. This summer, while watching film with his father, the young point guard admits part of the defensive problems may have been effort-based.
"I have a tendency to relax sometimes, especially when my man doesn't have the ball," he says. "That's one of the easiest mistakes to make, and it's one of the easiest to correct. In a game you might not realize you're doing it, but when you go back and look at the film I definitely can see it. And once you see it, you can fix it."
Fixing it involved substantial conditioning work, with more repetitions of the Santa Monica Stairs to try and strengthen his legs.
"I wanted to get my legs stronger," Drew II said. "To play defense, you have to be able to sit in a stance and move laterally. Other than that, it's all heart. It's one thing to keep your man from scoring when he has the ball. It's another thing to keep him from getting into scoring position when he doesn't have the ball."
Despite his summer efforts, Drew II isn't oblivious to the consternation about the Carolina point guard position going into the 2011 season. Part of it, he acknowledges, is justified--he needs to play at a higher level as a junior. In some ways, though, the situation feels familiar.
"When I was a senior in high school, we played in the city championship game," he says. "Everyone was freaking out. Even my mom seemed more nervous than I was. I said, `Calm down, relax. I'll take care of this.'
"We won the game and I played well. I'm at that point again right now. To anyone who is freaking out, I'd tell them to relax. I'm here for a reason. We saw the mistakes we made last year. We've been working on them. Everyone gets to a point where you work on your game enough that you feel confident that you can take care of any situation. We're going to keep working. And the more we work, the better we'll get."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of six books on Carolina basketball, including the official chronicle of the first 100 years of Tar Heel hoops, A Century of Excellence, which is available now. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter.
