University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Notebook
November 18, 2014 | Men's Basketball
By Adam Lucas
Marcus Paige is shooting 50 percent from the three-point line through two games, which everyone essentially expected coming into the 2014-15 season.
But the rest of his teammates are shooting a combined 2-for-19 from beyond the arc...which is also something that concerned everyone coming into the season.
During his radio show with Jones Angell on Monday night on the Tar Heel Sports Network, Roy Williams was frank about Carolina's early outside shooting. "You're not going to shoot 6-for-27 and be successful against quality competition," he said.
The head coach named J.P. Tokoto and Nate Britt as possible sources for better perimeter shooting, but also says he believes in the three-man freshman class as outside shooters. So far, the trio of Justin Jackson, Joel Berry II and Theo Pinson are 1-for-11 from three, but Jackson, especially, has showed a nice stroke in practices.
"We'll shoot better as the season goes along," Williams said. "The freshmen, in particular, are going to get better."
Berry, who is 1-for-6 from the three-point line and 3-for-8 overall from the field, might benefit the most from getting in a few games and feeling more comfortable. "He's going to get better and better," Williams said of the Orlando product. "He was feeling freshman-itis maybe a little more than the other two guys."
Importance of rebounding: Carolina isn't suddenly going to turn into the 2009 team--which featured a bevy of dangerous perimeter scorers--overnight. But Williams believes they may not have to in order to be successful.
"We need to shoot the ball better," he said. "If not, we need to be the best rebounding team in college basketball. If we do that, things can be a whole lot of fun."
The head coach said on Sunday night that the 2015 Tar Heels could be the best offensive rebounding team he's ever coached. It's still early for stats to carry much weight, but Carolina's offensive rebounding percentage of 49.3 percent currently ranks ninth in the country. That's without getting much production in that category from Tokoto and Pinson (they have a combined two offensive rebounds in two games), two players Williams thinks are essential to the team's success on the boards.
Tokoto's passing earns raves: Tokoto finished with ten assists and one turnover against Robert Morris on Sunday, a terrific performance. But Williams indicated it could have been even better. "The way we keep them," Williams said, "he had 15 assists."
"The way we keep them" is a nice throwback to the Dean Smith era. Smith believed a player deserved an assist if he fed a player in great scoring position, even if that player missed the shot or was fouled. After all, the passer did his job. So Tokoto's 15 assists takes into account only whether he made the right play that should've led to a basket, not whether the recipient actually put the ball into the hoop.
Notes: Nate Britt continues to have a solid start to the season defensively. He won the defensive award after the coaches graded the tape of the Robert Morris game. "If you take away the times Nate reached," Williams said, "he did a great job."...TV information for Saturday's game against Davidson was announced late and might not be on some early schedules. The game will be carried on Time Warner Cable's Sports Channel Carolinas, which is digital channel 323 in the Triangle...Jackson earned a positive defensive grade on Sunday, which can sometimes be a rarity for a rookie this early in the season.
