University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tar Heel Basketball Notebook
November 19, 2013 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
After a disappointing Sunday loss to Belmont, Carolina reassembled for practice on Monday afternoon. Only--they didn't actually practice.
Instead, the Tar Heels had a regularly scheduled weights session, and then spent two full hours watching the film of the loss. "It was not a very positive session this afternoon," Roy Williams said Monday evening on his radio show. "We didn't go on the court at all. We went in the weight room and then we went in the locker room and watched tape. Some plays we watched once, some we watched two, three or four times."
Williams said he had made a list of ten things he wanted to address with the team from the Belmont game. Three of those items were positive, and seven were negative. And even the two hours spent with film on Monday afternoon weren't enough. "We're going to finish watching it tomorrow," Williams said of his plans for Tuesday's practice. "It's part of the process and we have to learn from it."
That might sound a little harsh, but the head coach said his players weren't the only ones wondering what they could have done differently against the Bruins. Carolina had the ball with a one-point deficit and 13 seconds remaining. Williams' longstanding philosophy--inherited from Dean Smith--is that when more than seven seconds remain, he prefers not to call a timeout and let his team attack without setting the defense.
But even that decision was up for debate after the Tar Heels failed to get the ball into the hands of Marcus Paige or James Michael McAdoo and settled for a J.P. Tokoto jumper.
"We were so unorganized," Williams said. "As soon as we missed the shot, I was second guessing myself saying, 'Why didn't I call a timeout?' Watching the tape, there were a lot of opportunities we didn't take advantage of."
Sophomore surge: Brice Johnson has been a pleasant early-season surprise, as he's third on the team in scoring (12.0 points per game) and tied for second in rebounding (6.3 boards per game). Johnson's per-40 rebounding figure is also impressive, as he's averaging 13.3 rebounds per 40 minutes, which trails only Kennedy Meeks-who is raking in a stellar 17.9 boards per 40 minutes.
Williams continued to cite one area of Johnson's game that needs to improve in order for the sophomore to earn more playing time. "On the offensive end, he has the ability to score, and he's done some nice things for us," the head coach said. "We have to get him to have the same energy level on the defensive end, too."
Meeks, by the way, has been the most efficient rebounder on the team, but Belmont's perimeter-happy strategy limited his minutes, as Carolina went smaller and more athletic in the second half. That gave Williams the opportunity for a teaching point for Meeks and Joel James.
"I challenged them," Williams said. "I said that in 2006, '07, '08 and '09 I never took Tyler Hansbrough out, because he worked his tail off and got down in a defensive stance and slid his feet and we didn't care who he had to guard...Right now, Kennedy and Joel aren't capable of doing that, so I used it as a challenge for them."
Williams went on to mention Hansbrough's defensive performance against Florida State guard Toney Douglas in Tallahassee in 2009, which has long been one of the coach's favorite defensive sequences during his time in Chapel Hill. One of those Hansbrough stops is here:
Hairston/McDonald update: When asked about how he has shuffled Leslie McDonald and P.J. Hairston into the practice rotation, Williams explained it this way: "Until we started playing games, I mixed P.J. and Leslie up with the first team and second team as I did with everybody," he said. "The week we started playing games, I put them on the blue (reserve) squad and have not had them running with the first team since then."
Williams then continued with a statement that you have to read all the way through to fully understand the context.
"I got on our guys (at practice) today," he said. I don't know when they're coming back. I don't know if they're coming back. I don't know if they're showing up in 2018 or not...It is a tough situation, and the NCAA is trying to do what they think is best, and we're trying to work together with this thing."
The coach's comments should not be interpreted as a specific commentary on the length of the duo's possible absence. The point he was making at the time is that their return is unknown (that "2018" reference he used is a common Williams exaggeration when he doesn't have a specific answer), and the players on the roster for Saturday's game against Richmond have to play with the available personnel and stop wondering when or if they might get Hairston and McDonald back.
It helps to listen to the full audio of Williams' comments:
Adam Lucas is the editor of CAROLINA.
