University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Help Yourself
February 11, 2012 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Feb. 11, 2012
By Adam Lucas
Since his return to Carolina in the spring of 2003, Roy Williams has offered the same advice to every single substitute who has ever wanted to earn more playing time: "Don't hurt us."
It's a simple philosophy. The head coach puts the five players he thinks give him the best chance to win the game on the floor at tipoff. If a substitute can come in and play to the level of one of those five players, he's making an important contribution.
Let's be honest: that was your best case scenario for Stilman White, Justin Watts and James Michael McAdoo on Saturday against Virginia. Leslie McDonald was out for the season, Dexter Strickland just underwent surgery on Thursday and wasn't even on the bench, and P.J. Hairston was out, battling a sore left foot. The Tar Heels had more two guards in suits than they had in the Julian argyles.
The script against a quality Virginia team seemed pretty simple: play the five starters until they drop, put in a couple of subs, then hustle the starters back in as quickly as possible.
The timing wasn't ideal. The first rotation of subs usually comes near the twelve-minute television timeout, at which time the Cavaliers had built a 16-9 lead. Virginia is 17-0 this season when holding at least a 10-point lead at any time in the game. Fall behind them by too many points and you'll find them bleeding the clock away before you get enough opportunities to close the gap. And this was the time, down seven only seven minutes into the game, that Watts, White and McAdoo had to contribute?
As it turned out, they did much more than just not hurt the team. They helped the team, and by the time the last Tar Heel starter returned to the lineup 2:55 later, the subs had erased the entire deficit, tying the score at 16. During that push, McAdoo had five points, two rebounds and a steal, Watts added an assist, and McAdoo's aggressive drive to the hoop forced Virginia's Mike Scott to commit his second foul, landing him on the bench for the remainder of the half.
"Today may be the best bench minutes we've gotten all year," Kendall Marshall said. "When you're getting that kind of production out of your bench, it can break the other team's back."
"One of the biggest keys to the game was J. Watts, Stilman and James Michael giving us some things off the bench," Williams said. "It doesn't have to be scoring."
But it can be. In the 70-52 win, McAdoo finished with nine points, more than Virginia's entire bench production, and seven rebounds. Watts had a key offensive rebound and put-back with 14 minutes left in the game that pushed Carolina's lead to four points. White chose not to break anyone's ankles in this game, but he did have an impressive second half drive to the hoop that ended with a nifty assist to John Henson for a dunk.
There are multiple ways to see how far White has come since he first tip-toed into the backup point guard role after Strickland's injury in Blacksburg. The Tar Heels were +16 with White on the court Saturday. The rewards are tangible: he received three second-half minutes against the Cavaliers, and while that might not seem like many, it's the exact amount of second-half minutes he'd played in the previous three games combined. For a freshman, confidence from the head coach is granted in small doses. He's not going to be asked to carry the team offensively anytime soon. But inserting him into a two-point game with 13:37 left in the second half, as Williams did Saturday, is a concrete vote of confidence.
"I have to give a lot of credit to Coach (Jerod) Haase," White said. "He's always giving me confidence and telling me to attack. I play better when I force the issue and don't just try to be a caretaker."
There it is again: a mention of someone not among the well-known five starters. Harrison Barnes had 14 points and 11 rebounds, John Henson added 10 and 10, and Tyler Zeller had 25 points and 9 rebounds. But it might be the talk about people like assistant coach Jerod Haase that provide a more enlightening window into the dynamics of the team.
Sure, you know McAdoo has blossomed over the last two weeks. But did you know he credits assistant coach Steve Robinson for setting him on that path?
"I had a heart-to-heart with Coach Rob," McAdoo said. "We talked about the season and I got a lot off my chest. He and the coaching staff have been through so much. They've seen so many James Michaels. They've seen it all. He gave me some goals to focus on. It came down to working harder in practice and knowing the team needs me."
It's amazing what happens when you know you're needed, isn't it?
As his role increases, McAdoo has been putting in extra sessions in the gym. He's usually joined by Watts, who might be the most respected Tar Heel among his teammates. Notoriously media shy, the Durham native almost never talks about himself. A one-sentence quote from him is the equivalent of three paragraphs from Marshall. But Watts has seen something in McAdoo.
"I love going to the gym," Watts says. "It's a time I can clear my mind and I'm in my own little world. James Michael came to me and said he wanted to do it too, that he wanted to get better. I bring him in there with me, and he's become my workout partner."
And what does it tell you, Justin, when a freshman approaches a senior with a request for more practice time?
"It tells me he has a chance to be a very, very good player."
It would be a nice bonus if McAdoo and his fellow reserves were very, very good players right away. But they don't have to be. The Tar Heels have very, very good players in the starting lineup already.
Sometimes, though, it doesn't hurt when they get a little help.
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.
