University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Notebook
January 28, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
One of the biggest stories of Carolina's recent surge has been the play of the Tar Heel big men. Brice Johnson has four double-doubles in his last six games, while Kennedy Meeks has two double-doubles in Atlantic Coast Conference play and is coming off a solid performance against Syracuse's Rakeem Christmas on Monday night.
Hubert Davis filled in for Roy Williams on the weekly radio show with Jones Angell on Tuesday night and had some interesting insight on the improvements of Carolina's starting post duo.
“One of the things our big guys have improved on is getting great position down low in the paint,” Davis said. “They're sprinting to offense and relentlessly working hard to get the position they want down low. The guards are doing a great job of getting them the ball where they can do something quickly…
“They have really good chemistry. They work really well with the high-low action. Both of them can shoot the ball really well from 15 feet. They have to be guarded or they can knock down that free throw line jump shot. They have a great chemistry on the floor, and one thing they're really improving on is chemistry defensively. They're better more consistently, particular on ball screens, and they're grading out better defensively.”
For Meeks, his improved numbers—he's shooting a team-high 57.8% from the floor and averaging a team-high 8.3 rebounds per game—are somewhat attributable to his hard work in the offseason in the weight room. His limited minutes last year suggested he had the potential to be a productive ACC player; this year he's been more able to show it for more extended periods.
Johnson's change is more cerebral. “At the beginning of the year, he had to adjust to being a starter,” Davis said. “There's a huge difference in being a guy coming off the bench and being a starter. As a starter, you have to be consistent every night in rebounding, defending and scoring. It took Brice a little bit at the beginning of the year to understand his responsibilities, not just in games but also in practices and shootarounds. A month ago, it started to click for him that he could do this and was talented enough to do this.
“At the beginning of his career, he wasn't a guy who would do extra work. We always tell the guys they have to do more than what's required. What will differentiate you is your willingness every day to work on the fundamentals and your craft before and after practice.”
So, what tells Davis that Johnson has made the commitment to compete at that level? On Monday, the day of the Syracuse game, Johnson called him at 10 a.m. and asked to work out. Davis met him at the Smith Center and they turned in a quick 30-minute session before Johnson's 12 noon class. “That's something,” Davis said, “he wouldn't have done before.”
The results were tangible, as Johnson had 17 points (on just six shot attempts) and a team-high 11 rebounds against the Orange.
Briefly: The unusual schedule this week gave Roy Williams the chance to go recruiting on Tuesday, but also gave his team two days off. The Tar Heels were off on Tuesday and Wednesday and will practice Thursday and Friday in Chapel Hill before leaving for Louisville late on Friday night. Those days off are valuable commodities for a squad that has had some well-publicized health issues…Injury issues in the Carolina rotation have forced the Tar Heels to use junior varsity player Spencer Dalton in a couple of recent practices…Good note on J.P. Tokoto's defense on Trevor Cooney. The Syracuse guard got a lot of publicity for his 28 points. But he needed 26 shots to do it, and Davis said, “J.P.'s defense on Cooney in the second half was off the charts," Davis said. "Sometimes he just hit tough shots.” Cooney was 4-for-14 in the final 20 minutes…
On Tuesday night's radio show, Davis was asked an interesting question: what would Dean Smith like best about the 2014-15 Tar Heels? His response: “That the most important thing to each of these kids is the team first. They are not thinking about their individual stats. Coach Smith never let us look at stats. Each day, both individually and as a team, he talked about improvement. Every day you stepped on the floor he wanted you to give your effort to be a better basketball player and a better team. He felt if you committed yourself to becoming a better team, the results would take care of themselves.”…Davis had no update on the status of Theo Pinson.
