University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Meeks Finds Bounce
November 19, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
Most of the discussion of Kennedy Meeks' Summer of Svelte in 2014 focused on how he lost approximately 50 pounds since arriving on campus, and what it might mean for his future as a dunk contest competitor.
(Answer: he can windmill now, a fact about which he is very proud.)
There was less talk about what kind of difference the weight loss might mean on the actual basketball court. Through two games, however, it's starting to appear the answer might be substantial.
Meeks spent most of his freshman season hearing Roy Williams urge him to be more explosive around the basket. It wasn't unusual to attend a practice and hear the head coach barking, “Score that!” any time Meeks got the ball around the rim.
But the 300-pound Meeks wasn't always able to jump with leaner defenders. Instead, he'd pump fake…then maybe pump fake again…then maybe throw in another pump fake.
In the first two games of his sophomore season, however, he's shown a willingness to receive the ball in the post and go straight up to the basket, and he's shooting nearly 60 percent (58.8%) from the field—even with a couple missed layups against North Carolina Central that he was still ruing days after the fact—because of it. It's pretty simple: it's easier to get 270 pounds into the air than it was to lift 300 pounds.
“Coach has been preaching to be more explosive every day in practice to all the big men,” Meeks says. “He wants us to be more aggressive with the ball. I'm not 300 pounds anymore.”
The ability to go straight to the basket without allowing defenders to gather themselves will make Meeks a more efficient player. He attempted just 87 free throws in 34 games last season, barely over 2.5 per game. That's a low average in Williams' post-centric offense.
So far as a sophomore, Meeks is attempting 8.5 free throws per game, and making them at a fairly respectable 64.7% clip. The big man has a good touch and might even improve on that percentage as the season progresses, because some of his misses last year—when he shot 58.6% from the line—appeared to be a lapse in concentration or, sometimes, due to fatigue. It's not particularly exciting to watch a big man parade to the free throw line, but it is efficient, and as Williams often notes, it has the added benefit of getting the opponent's posts in foul trouble.
The Tar Heels want Meeks involved in all parts of the offense because he brings multiple assets to the game. He has good savvy and understands the right play. Defensively, he showed impressive lift in a blocked shot against Robert Morris, and although he's not yet James Michael McAdoo, who virtually trademarked the play, he has a couple of perimeter steals that led to breakaway dunks already this year.
On offense, he's one of Carolina's most efficient scorers, but he also has terrific hands that make him an inviting target in the post, and he's a good passer.
“Kennedy and Sean May are probably the two best passing big guys in our 12 years here,” Williams said this week. “And he has great hands. He's like Sean in that he's going to turn a lot of bad passes into assists.”
Along with Brice Johnson, Meeks gives the Tar Heels two efficient post scoring threats, usually a scenario in which Williams-coached teams thrive. Johnson—who has spent as much time trying to gain weight as Meeks has spent losing it—has noticed a change in his teammate.
“He still tiptoes every once in a while, but he's a lot more explosive,” Johnson says. “He's really grown the last year as an under the basket player. He's becoming a more explosive player and he just has to keep progressing. He will keep working on it.”
