University of North Carolina Athletics
Pickeral: Holiday Fun & Rest
December 23, 2013 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers
by Robbi Pickeral, GoHeels.com
CHAPEL HILL — After a stretch last week that included the return of senior Leslie McDonald, a close loss against Texas, the news that teammate P.J. Hairston would not be reinstated, a 5 a.m. practice and an overtime win against Davidson, North Carolina guard Marcus Paige had no doubt Saturday what he wanted most for Christmas: a nap.
Several naps.
"I was exhausted tonight,'' said the sophomore, who scored 11 points in overtime to help top the Wildcats. "We had a long week—emotionally, physically, a lot of running. It was a war against Texas, it was a war tonight. So I'm very excited to see my family, see my dog, and just rest for a couple days."
UNC coach Roy Williams planned the schedule to give the Tar Heels a relatively holiday long break; after Saturday's win, the players were free to travel to their various homes and will return to campus for practice Thursday (the night of the 26th).
Most were grinning after the game, in anticipation of various holiday happenings:
• For junior forward James Michael McAdoo, the break means a trip home to Norfolk, Va., where he said he most looked forward to spending time with his 1½-year-old nephew (although it's a toss-up as to which one would be more excited to see what is under the tree on Christmas morning).
"I still have that kid in me that's looking forward to seeing my gifts,'' McAdoo said, laughing. "But it's definitely going to be cool to see him, that that smile on his face. Be an uncle."
• Sophomore J.P. Tokoto, meanwhile, was excited to go home and be a big brother. The only time he's seen his 10-, 9-, and 6-year-old siblings since the summer, he said, was during the team's pre-Thanksgiving tournament in Connecticut, and he expects Christmas morning in Wisconsin to be "crazy."
"I don't need an alarm,'' said Tokoto, who recorded career-highs in points (22), rebounds (11), blocks (four) and steals (5) against Davidson. "They wait until, like 8 [a.m.]. They watch cartoons until they're like, 'We can't do this anymore,' and they come and jump on everybody. ... They come in my room, jump on me, go jump on mom and dad. It's a lot of fun."
• Freshman forward Kennedy Meeks has worked diligently to lose about 40 pounds since he arrived on campus over the summer. He was thrilled about the prospect of spending time with family, but one key goal over his break, he said, is not to cheat on his diet and exercise regimen.
"I've still got to work out," said Meeks, whose family lives in Charlotte. "Can't get lazy. That's the most important part of it. ... Just eat right. If I do that I'm good."
• And then there's Paige, who expected food and family in Iowa to be interspersed with that aforementioned rest.
"We usually go up to my grandmother's house [for the holidays],'' he said. " It's nice to get some home-cooked food and spend some time with my family, especially since my sister [who plays basketball at Wisconsin] is going to have the same break as I am. I'm excited about that."
ADJUSTING AT THE LINE: McAdoo heard the cheers when he buried his first two free throws on Saturday night.
And when a reporter mentioned that he had posted a much better outing from the line (9-for-14) against the Wildcats that he did against Texas (5-for-15), he smiled and said "Thank you."
After all, he worked on it.
McAdoo said he shot more than 600 free throws between Wednesday's loss and Saturday's win, making a mechanical adjustment at the suggestion of assistant coach Hubert Davis that helped. He wouldn't go into all of the details of the switch, but said he had been doing "something I don't do on my jump shot that all of a sudden when I get to the free throw line, I do."
Making that adjustment, then practicing it, he said, "was huge."
In all, UNC finished 34-for-47 (72.3 percent) from the line against Davidson.
MARKED MAN: Paige said he was surprised at the beginning of the season about how much attention defenses were throwing at him. But not anymore.
"I was like, 'Why are teams box-and-one-ing me? Why are they paying so much attention to me?'" he said. "But now it's becoming something we're expecting, and we're working on game-planning against [it], so we're not surprised by it."
Davidson was the latest team to throw a box-and-one at the guard; previously, that strategy had worked for UAB and Texas.
"They were physical, and they were fighting me through screens, and rather than have one guy chase me through screens, they would switch off through any screen,'' Paige said. "So if the guy was box-and-one-ing me and a ran off a screen, the next guy would just pick me up. So it was harder to get open. It was a great gameplan, and it was pretty successful in slowing me down. But then I was able to get to the free throw line...."
And all 17 of his points came after halftime, including eight from the free throw line.
Turner Walson contributed to this notebook.
