University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Breaking The Rules
December 21, 2011 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Dec. 21, 2011
By Adam Lucas
You can't have a story about a Carolina game against a Rick Barnes-coached team and have the primary storyline be about high-flying offensive highlights. You just can't.
It is a violation of the as-yet unwritten Carolina Basketball Rulebook. You know that book. It's the one that contains Rule 7: You can't show highlights of Ed Cota without showing at least one lob pass to Vince Carter. There's Rule 8: You must claim to have been present for 8 points in 17 seconds. And Rule 9: Roy Williams hates cool (and court stickers).
Anyone who has seen any of the Barnes-Tar Heel history must know that when he enters the Smith Center, it can't be about artistry. That's not just true for his Clemson years. In the previous two meetings, Texas has pushed Carolina around. They've been the tougher team.
Not this time. So this is not about the offensive highlights or the dunks, even though those were nice (let's be honest--those were really nice, especially the first half thunder jams from Dexter Strickland and P.J. Hairston). But this is about what led to those dunks. Take Hairston's, for example. It started because Hairston closed out under control on defense, preventing a Julien Lewis three-pointer. Then two different Tar Heels helped on Lewis's dribble penetration, including John Henson stretching to challenge Lewis's foul-line jumper.
That shot missed--of course it did, because Henson challenges a shot the same way an eclipse challenges the sun--and led to one of Tyler Zeller's game-high 11 rebounds, which led to Kendall Marshall getting the outlet pass, which led to Hairston's...well, you know. But this isn't about that.
This is about the defense that preceded the dunk. "This was probably our best defensive game of the season," Marshall said.
His head coach agreed.
"We were more attentive to detail and much more active defensively than we have been," Williams said.
It showed during a first half that was a defensive clinic, as the Tar Heels limited Texas to 9-for-36 shooting, a season-low 23 points, and held Longhorn starting guards Myck Kabongo and J'Covan Brown to a combined two assists and seven turnovers. It was the first window into what Williams has been saying since October, that this could be a very capable defensive squad.
Those details Williams mentioned--the Tar Heels were there on the catch virtually every time. They were conscious of help side defense. They didn't just run blindly into screens, but anticipated them and navigated around them.
The defensive ringleader, as usual, was Strickland. He'd received simple orders on the scouting report regarding Brown, who is Texas's heartbeat: limit his touches. "He can't score without the ball, so we wanted to limit his touches," said Strickland, who also went out of his way to compliment the defense of his teammates. "I wanted to get into him and pressure him, and we knew he was best coming off screens, so we wanted to limit that."
That's why the Longhorn offense never seemed to flow. They wanted to run everything through Brown, and Brown couldn't find any openings.
With their offensive leader struggling, that type of defense is what led to one of the most entertaining stretches of the game. Yes, Hairston dunked it, but the transition opportunity began on the defensive end. Yes, Henson made a Marshallesque (Since the UNC point guard now has more assists than any Tar Heel in history through 50 games, he's officially an adjective) one-handed touch pass to Reggie Bullock on the break, but the play began when Marshall stonewalled Sterling Gibbs on attempted dribble penetration.
Opponents have occasionally used the dribble to create easier scoring chances. That wasn't the case on Wednesday, as Texas managed just 13-for-31 on shots in the paint. It was the perfect convergence of team defense--the Tar Heel guards controlled the perimeter, and even when they were beaten, the posts were lurking to shut off any easy scoring chances.
"Everything started on defense," Strickland said. "I got a dunk from a defensive play. P.J. got a dunk from a defensive play. If we take care of the defense, the offense takes care of itself."
It was almost--is this allowed?--pretty. It can't be pretty. It has to be gritty. "When we play defense," Zeller said, "we're a pretty tough team."
That's more like it. Tough, grimy, grubby, the way it's supposed to be against this opponent.
But it sure was fun to watch.
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 and Facebook.
