University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: Hicks Biding His Time
December 27, 2013 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
by Turner Walston, GoHeels.com
CHAPEL HILL — Isaiah Hicks was the Associated Press Player of the Year in North Carolina last season. Last spring, he scored 34 points, hauled in a record 30 rebounds and blocked seven shots to lead Oxford's J.F. Webb to the 3-A state title and was named a McDonald's All-America. But now, Hicks is averaging 1.5 points in fewer than eight minutes off the bench. In a freshman class with immediate contributors Nate Britt and Kennedy Meeks, Hicks might be seen as a bit of a slow starter. But he's OK with that, and so is his head coach.
“Isaiah is not as comfortable as he wants to be or as I want him to be, there's no question,” Roy Williams said after Carolina's win over UNCG, when Hicks had five points and two rebounds in 13 minutes. “ . . . Isaiah is going to be a really good player. I love him to death. He can't be a better kid. He's going to be a really good player. What'd he do, miss one free throw, three for four? But he's coming.”
To watch Hicks now, 11 games into his Tar Heel career, is to see a young man still looking for his fit. He's 6'8 and a lean 220 pounds, and at the beginning of the year was trying to work in a crowded post rotation. Recently, he's been moved to playing exclusively the small forward position, which allows him to set up on the wing and see the game from the outside in. “Coach recently changed me from being a four to the three, so that made it easier for me so I can get in the rhythm of the plays and get more comfortable now, get more confidence,” he said after Carolina's loss to Texas.
In that game, Hicks had two points, a pair of rebounds and a block in 11 minutes. His lone score came midway through the first half. He received the ball about 15 feet from the basket. Unchallenged by the Longhorn defender, Hicks hesitated before putting the ball up and through the net. It was a good, open shot, the kind an experienced and confident player will take without that momentary hesitation. “I was like, 'We have better shooters on the team that can shoot, so let's get them the ball.' I saw that they were playing a box and one, they just left me open so that's when I decided to just shoot.”
And that's been the story of Hicks' freshman season — so far. He recognizes that he's a freshman on a talented team, and he's being deferential to that other talent. Hicks is capable of scoring, but right now he doesn't feel the need to do so. “All I'm trying to do is help our shooters get open, setting screens, contribute the best I can,” he said. Hicks is not yet hunting his own shot; he's setting screens for shooters like Marcus Paige or Leslie McDonald. “Our shooting is better off when a shooter shoots,” he said.
In this era of college basketball, it can be frustrating when a highly-touted freshman isn't coming in and making an immediate, game-changing impact. Often a team will change their entire offense to revolve around a first-year player. But in Hicks' case, the fact is that Carolina doesn't have to do that. At the three, the Tar Heels have an emerging J.P. Tokoto, who had the best game of his career last week against Davidson. They have James Michael McAdoo demanding attention facing the basket. They have Meeks and Brice Johnson on the block. And they have one of the best scoring guards in the country in Paige. At this moment, Isaiah Hicks is capable off the bench filling whatever need the team requires. “Like Coach Rob says, when I get in the game, energy. That's what I do,” he said. “Run, play defense the best I can, set screens, do everything I can do the best of my ability.”
Don't get him wrong: Hicks wants to be on the floor. When he sees youth-laden teams like Texas and Kentucky up close, he knows that freshmen can be big-time players. That serves as motivation. “That just makes me look at how I've got to work to get ready to play, just keep working on my game,” he said.
Hicks' teammates know that there's a standout player just waiting to break out wearing that no. 22 jersey. “He's getting opportunities, he's just got to convert,” Meeks said. “You can tell he's kind of getting down on himself but I try to encourage him as much as I can and tell him to play the way he always plays just play with a sense of urgency and just try to get as much done as he can while he's in there.”
That's what Hicks is doing, for now. But Meeks and Williams both have a feeling that Isaiah Hicks is going to be a special player at North Carolina. And most importantly, Hicks himself believes it. “I know my time will come, so there's no need to go out there and force something and do something to the team that we don't need,” he said. “We're all a team, so I've only got to worry about me doing what I've got to do to help the team.”
