University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Change The Game
November 28, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
PARADISE ISLAND—In a happy Carolina locker room after the Thanksgiving 78-56 win over UCLA, Tar Heel players were doing the usual postgame assessment. This play was key. That call was bad. That particular individual from the other team was better than expected.
Through all the commotion came the voice of Theo Pinson.
“Hey,” he said, “I can't believe they only had me for one steal.”
That was the kind of night it was for the Tar Heels. No talk about who scored the most points or who got a certain amount of shots. Instead, the first commentary from an individual about the stat sheet had to do with…steals.
Pinson, who also had a game-high seven rebounds in just 16 minutes of action, was right about his line in the box score. One steal in no way seemed an adequate way of quantifying his impact on the game, when he had his hands on multiple deflections and was a constant disruptive presence for the UCLA offense.
“My parents always told me that when I go in a game, I should try to change the game,” Pinson said. “That's what I try to do. I want to play hard and play with effort and energy every time I'm in there and try to affect the game in some way.”
The freshman played 16 minutes and had company among the game-changing Tar Heels who didn't necessarily light up the box score. Sophomore Isaiah Hicks received his first career start a night after putting up 10 points and five rebounds against Butler. Combined, they were the perfect representation of a team that was largely listless on Wednesday, but suddenly showed up spitting nails on Thursday.
Hicks found out about the switch during Thursday's walk-through. In typical Roy Williams fashion, the head coach didn't announce the change. He simply called out the five players on the White team during practice for a specific drill, Hicks heard his name, and figured it out from there.
“I knew I had to come out and play with energy,” Hicks said, and there's that word again. “I wanted to come out playing aggressively, go set some screens, get on the offensive boards, and work hard.”
It's reaching the point where every game you see another little glimmer of what Hicks might become. He's consistently one of the first players off the floor in pursuit of a loose ball or rebound. On one first half Carolina possession, he tried to tip an offensive rebound of an errant Marcus Paige three-pointer, then dove on the hardwood to try and secure a loose ball.
But there are the tangible moves, too. On the first UNC possession of the second half, he made a very difficult catch in the paint on a pass from Nate Britt, and was able to maintain control of his body to convert the basket through a couple of defenders. That's a play he never could have made a year ago, and maybe even six months ago.
The fun part is that they're still learning, which is why this Carolina team is still a work in progress. Pinson botched what should have been a 3-on-1 scoring opportunity in the second half. Hicks wasn't active enough on a second half defensive possession, prompting Williams to grab a clipboard and diagram exactly what he wanted as soon as Hicks left the game.
They're still getting it. But learning during a 22-point rout of a ranked team is a pretty good way to do it.
The Carolina locker room, as you would expect, was a happy place. Through a rowdy bunch of laughing and the usual unfiltered postgame assessments one college team makes about another squad, suddenly the voice of assistant coach Steve Robinson sounded through the room.
“Does anybody know what time the championship game is tomorrow?” he asked the happy room.
“It's at 4:30,” came the answer from several Tar Heels.
“Yeah,” Robinson said. “That's what time we should be playing.”
The laughter went silent. After a moment came the reply, “Coach Rob, thanks for bringing down the mood.”
He never cracked a smile. “I'm not bringing down the mood,” he said. “I'm just making sure you remember.”
