University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Game Changer
November 15, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
The first Carolina regular season basketball game of the year means the first opportunity to hear the Tar Heel freshmen speak to the media. Roy Williams has been bragging on his rookie trio during preseason, especially about their savvy, and it didn't take Theo Pinson long to prove his head coach correct.
Asked about Carolina's season-opening 76-60 victory, the Greensboro native had multiple choices. He could've discussed the 10 points and nine rebounds from Kennedy Meeks, or maybe the team-high 12 points from Brice Johnson, or possibly the solid debut from classmate Justin Jackson, who finished with nine points and five rebounds. Along with Pinson, Jackson became the tenth and eleventh freshmen under Roy Williams to start the first game of their college careers.
Instead, Pinson chose absolutely none of those. Here, therefore, for the first time in his Tar Heel career, is Theo's Key To The Game:
“Nate (Britt) changed the whole game,” Pinson said. “He almost got that five-second count and that basically turned the whole game around.”
The play in question is not going to show up on many highlight reels, except for perhaps the one shown in the Carolina locker room. After a Johnson free throw that gave the Tar Heels a 37-22 edge, Britt began defending Nimrod Hilliard in the backcourt, a healthy 85 feet from the rim. He hawked him all the way to the timeline, and then Hilliard pretty clearly expected a little breather once he crossed the stripe.
Instead, the sophomore—who after going 1-for-2 from the three-point line is unofficially the only player in Tar Heel history to make a three-pointer both right-handed and left-handed during his career—increased the pressure. Helped by good denials from Meeks, J.P. Tokoto and Pinson, Britt eventually pinned Hilliard against the midcourt line, forced him to pick up his dribble, and then caused him to burn a timeout.
“That basically turned the whole game around,” Pinson said.
So impressive was Britt's defensive effort that he was the only player whose defensive play was singled out by Williams after the game. “Nate Britt did a nice job trying to put pressure on the guard,” the head coach said, which qualifies as lavish early-season praise.
“That's a great compliment,” Britt said. “That's something Coach and the rest of the coaching staff have been emphasizing with me is putting pressure on the ball…It gets everyone hype. When we almost got that five second call and he had to call a timeout, all five guys on the floor were hype, and you could see the energy start to pick up. It's a trickle down effect to the rest of the team. Everyone starts to get in their man a little more and be more aggressive on defense.”
Britt shares time in the backcourt with Marcus Paige, whom Williams recently referred to as one of the best defensive point guards he's ever coached. Britt has just as much physical ability as Paige—perhaps more, as Britt regularly whipped his teammates during preseason conditioning drills—but is still learning how to see the big picture defensively.
In high school, he was usually just assigned a man and stayed with him all over the court. It's not that simple in Chapel Hill.
“It was about halfway through ACC play last year when I got it,” Britt said. “It's constant repetition of the shell drill and knowing our defensive principles. Once the whole team does it, it's going to be really hard for teams to score on us. With our quickness and athleticism, once everyone gets a really good understanding of the big picture and anticipating the next pass, we'll be a hard team to score on.”
Pinson, who had a team-high two steals, appears to be headed to being a big part of this year's evolution. He'll likely give his starting role back to Tokoto on Sunday night against Robert Morris, but his energy and defensive potential off the bench will be a valuable weapon.
For at least a moment on Friday night, Pinson had to stop and marvel at what he was doing. As a commit, he attended more games in the Smith Center last season than many season ticket holders, always stopping by the locker room afterward to talk with his future teammates. Friday night, they were his teammates.
“When I was warming up tonight, I thought, 'I've been sitting over there for the longest time watching them warm up,'” Pinson said. “Now I get the chance to go out there and play. I was so ready to get started and get over that hump of playing my first college game. That's over with. Now, it's basketball.”
