University of North Carolina Athletics
Pickeral: Getting The Edge Back
March 13, 2014 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers
by Robbi Pickeral, GoHeels.com
CHAPEL HILL --
Anxious, edgy and itchy after a 1-4 league start, the Tar Heels' biggest
question mark in late January was whether they could turn their season around.
After a 12-1 finish that included a dozen-game winning streak, a tie for third
place in the ACC and a No. 4 seed in this week's conference tournament, the key
question now may be whether the 15th-ranked team can get that same
sort of anxiety, edginess and urgency back.
"I think there's always a fear that you get complacent,'' UNC coach Roy
Williams said earlier this week. "You think that you accomplish something and
say, 'whew!' and then you forget to work. There's no question that I think
about that every year. Some years there's even a greater sense of fear than
others. But generally speaking, kids do get more enthused at tournament time,
so hopefully that's what's going to happen here."
Sophomore forward Brice Johnson said losing to Duke 93-81 to finish regular season has made UNC refocus, and that's a good thing.
Ignited by junior forward James Michael McAdoo's leadership and sophomore guard Marcus Paige's propensity for second-half scoring, the Tar Heels re-gained some confidence in late January and early February with double-digit wins over Clemson, Georgia Tech, N.C. State, Maryland and Notre Dame.
But they found themselves having to win ugly (then uglier) down the stretch: They needed overtime heroics from Paige to win at N.C. State in overtime on Feb. 26; got a tougher-than-expected four-point win at Virginia Tech on the road March 1; and scored only nine points in the first 10 minutes of the second half of a two-point victory over Notre Dame on March 3.
With the departure of last year's top outside scorers, Reggie Bullock and P.J. Hairston, this team has had to count on defense, "and we've kind of gotten away from that the last few games,'' wing J.P. Tokoto said. "We've just got to get back into that mentality where no one is going to score on us, [where] we're going to make it hard to score."
Like back at the beginning of the win streak, when they were anxious, edgy and desperate to prevail—or else.
"[We have to] remember how we got that streak started, just the way that we played with that sense of urgency those 12 games that we did win,'' Johnson said. "...We were clicking on all cylinders and doing everything the right way that coach wanted us to do. We just have to remember how we did that and get back to doing that."
Or else, again.
This marks the first season the ACC tournament includes 15 teams and is being played over five days. By earning one of the top four seeds, UNC doesn't compete until Friday, but will need to win three games in three days to win its first league tournament title since 2008.
Williams tends to downplay the importance of winning the conference tournament, pointing out that only one of his Final Four teams Kansas and UNC ever won the league tourney. But building momentum and confidence are key, especially if this team wants to be remembered for more than a 12-game winning streak.
"I'm pretty straightforward with them,'' Williams said. "I'll say, 'Hey, we turned it around, but let's not look back and say the highlight of our season was a two-three-four week period in January and February.'"
