University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Tar Heel Basketball Notebook
March 11, 2014 | Men's Basketball
By Adam Lucas and Ben Brown
It hasn't reached epidemic status yet, but James Michael McAdoo has encountered more foul trouble in the second half of the season. The Tar Heel junior finished the Duke game with four fouls, and picked up his fourth less than a minute into the second half. McAdoo has fouled out of three of the last 12 games and has been limited by foul trouble in at least two other games, averaging 3.1 fouls per contest. That's after fouling out just once (and averaging 2.4 fouls per game) in Carolina's first 19 games.
Of course, part of Carolina's second-half surge has been fueled by McAdoo's emotion and aggressiveness around the rim, which is naturally going to lead to more contact and more fouls. But Roy Williams also needs McAdoo on the court, and wants to make sure he's playing. The junior has been the victim of some specious calls this year, but he has occasionally compounded the problem by failing to adjust his play to match his foul status.
"His fourth foul wasn't the referee's fault," Williams said Monday night on his radio show with Jones Angell as he addressed McAdoo's foul issues at Cameron Indoor Stadium. "It was his fault. In the game of basketball, you're going to get some good calls and some bad calls and you've got to play with that. It was unfortunate for us that he was out for such a long period of time because he does have the size, speed and quickness that gives us the best matchup for Jabari (Parker)."
It will be interesting to see how McAdoo is officiated in the NCAA Tournament, when Carolina sees non-ACC officials that aren't accustomed to his unique style of play. Tyler Zeller comes to mind as another Tar Heel who most recently saw plenty of physical play in the league and sometimes found different whistles in the postseason.
Duke lessons: With a long week to get ready for Friday's ACC Tournament quarterfinal and classes out of session for spring break, the Tar Heels have a slightly unusual schedule this week. With that in mind, Williams got creative with Monday's first team gathering following the Duke game.
"We tried something different," he said. "We told the guys to write down the two things that you learned from the Duke game. They put them on 5-by-7 cards and gave it to me and then I went around the room after they turned it in and told them what I thought they should have learned from it."
Carolina is scheduled for a run-and-shoot practice today that will also include some Duke film clips. Then they will hold regular practices on Wednesday and Thursday before departing for Greensboro on Thursday afternoon.
Briefly: Williams thinks it's a two-man race for ACC Player of the Year, which will be announced this afternoon. "I think Marcus (Paige) will be considered and will get some great consideration from several people, but I think it's going to come down to T.J. (Warren) and Jabari," the head coach said. "And I have no problem with that. They've played great all year long."...Paige has been a second-half demon this year, but Williams won't try to push him to play that way for an entire game. "The fact of the matter is he's a point guard, he thinks of getting everybody involved, he studies the game and he becomes more focused, determined and competitive as the game goes along," Williams said. "That seems to be doing pretty well for him...Right now, Marcus is trying to get everybody the ball, which I like. He is studying the game, which I like. And as it comes closer to crunch time he gets even more competitive, which I like."...
The start of March always brings with it the discussion about whether teams on a long winning streak "need" a loss to get refocused before the postseason. Carolina just had a 12-game winning streak snapped, of course, and the head coach believes it can be beneficial for the team if they use the defeat the right way. "It's human nature, and not just the kids, that everybody is going to bounce back and work harder and do more after a loss than a win," Williams said.
Adam Lucas is the editor of CAROLINA.
