University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tar Heel Basketball Notebook
February 4, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Leslie McDonald has had two of his three best scoring games of the season in Carolina's last two outings. The senior, who has had five straight double-digit scoring performances, had never before had even three straight double-digit point outputs in ACC play.
"With each and every game, he's getting more comfortable with it," Roy Williams said on Monday. "In practice sometimes he makes almost every shot he takes. He's going to get better and make more of those shots...With each game, he's getting more comfortable, and that usually means better play."
McDonald's better play has correlated with taking better shots. He's made at least half his shots in two league games, and both of those (4-for-7 against Clemson and 7-for-13 against NC State) have come in the last eight days. It's not his perimeter shooting that has improved--McDonald is 2-for-7 from the three-point line in four of Carolina's last five games and is shooting 13-for-50 (26.0%) from the arc in league games--but his ability to get to the basket and create some other offense when his shot isn't falling.
The Memphis native appears a little heavier than last year, so as he gets more into ideal game shape, you would expect his results would show an upward trend.
"It's taken him a little time, but I want more from him," Williams said. "Particularly in shooting the ball in the basket, because that's a weakness of our team. Leslie has a skill set that has been a weakness for us. When he and Marcus are both making three-point shots, our team is a heck of a lot better."
Scheduling breakdown: For the last couple of seasons, Carolina has caught the tough end of the Atlantic Coast Conference's unbalanced schedule. That misfortune appears to be evening out this year.
The Tar Heels have a home-and-home series with only one of the six teams currently above them in the league standings. That series, of course, is with Duke, which comes to the Smith Center next Wednesday. Other than that, though, the Tar Heels have just a single game against Syracuse, Virginia, Pitt, Clemson and Maryland.
The schedule also appears to have proven fortuitous in the way the home and road games were apportioned. The Tar Heels have already traveled to Syracuse and Virginia, two very tough road games. But their five remaining road foes have a combined ACC record of 18-27, and of those five road opponents, Duke is the only one currently with a winning record in the league.
Scheduling could prove to be especially important this year with an extra day tacked onto the ACC Tournament. The bottom six teams in the league have to play on Wednesday, with the top four teams receiving a double bye all the way to Friday.
Briefly: In addition to all his other contributions, both tangible and intangible, recently, you can add defense to the list for James Michael McAdoo. The Tar Heel junior won the defensive award from the coaches after the NC State game and has won three of the past five postgame defensive awards. "We would like James Michael to be a little more effective, but we cannot say anything negative about how he's playing," Williams said Monday night. "He's playing with a great sense of urgency and he's given us a big lift."...Williams singled out Tyler Hansbrough as the hardest worker of Williams' head coaching career at Carolina, and Luke Davis (who "has taken Joel James under his wing" and is trying to do some extra work with the big man) as likely the hardest worker on this year's team...
Look for another (rare) fast-paced ACC game on Tuesday night. Maryland has had the fastest tempo rating in conference games according to Ken Pomeroy. NC State and Carolina are a narrow 2-3 in that category...Brice Johnson drew praise from Williams for his effort in practice on Monday. "I stopped practice and said, 'Brice Johnson just played the best defensive possession of his entire life,'" Williams said...The head coach had a simple prescription for J.P. Tokoto to avoid the foul trouble that has bothered him over the last week, including fouling out of the NC State game. "Stop reaching," Williams said. "You play defense with your feet, not with your hands. J.P. is not the only one. We're committing more fouls than any team we've had since I've been back here."
Adam Lucas is the editor of CAROLINA.
