University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Extending The Defense
January 4, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
CLEMSON—The defensive area between the three-point line and the midcourt stripe doesn't get much attention. Every box score tracks points in the paint. A team that defends hard in the backcourt is lauded for its pressure.
And then there's that frontcourt area in front of the three-point line—better known as the area Carolina won the game on Saturday night at Clemson.
The Tigers have not shot the ball very well for most of this season. But against the Tar Heel pressure, which contested every perimeter pass and gradually pushed the Clemson offense 25…then 30…then 35 feet from the rim, the home squad managed just 28.3 percent shooting.
More tellingly, the Tigers—a team that entered the game in the bottom 15 percent in the country in three-point shooting—grew so frustrated that they chucked almost half of their field goal attempts (26 of 53) from three-point distance on the way to a 74-50 Tar Heel win.
“We were able to push them out of the scoring area,” said Justin Jackson, who also finished with a team-high 13 points. “When we make them catch the ball that far from the basket, it keeps them from doing what they want to do to score. And with any team, if you can't get into what you know works, you get really frustrated. And that happened tonight, you could sense a breakdown in them.”
There was actually a moment that the breakdown visibly occurred. Carolina had used the first ten minutes to grind to a 13-7 lead. On the next Clemson possession, Tiger veteran Rod Hall was being defended by Nate Britt. Actually, “defended” doesn't quite do it justice. Hall was being harassed, agitated, and beleaguered by Britt.
Eventually, the Tar Heels thought Britt had worked a five-second call against Hall, but the Clemson bench was able to call a timeout just before the whistle blew. As he dropped the ball and walked to his bench, Hall shoved Britt, not really out of malice, but more out of an apparent sense of being grateful to finally create some space.
That's the kind of ball pressure Britt has regularly brought off the Tar Heel bench this season, and it's the kind that helped take Clemson out of any kind of offensive rhythm.
“We want to pressure the ball and keep them from being able to initiate the offense,” Britt said. “We don't want to allow those first few passes that start the offense. That was the main thing I wanted to focus on tonight, and I think I did a pretty good job of it, and as a team we did a good job of not letting them get good looks at the basket.”
The Tar Heels eventually stretched the defense so far that even post man Isaiah Hicks—who just so happens to have won four of the last six defensive awards as graded by the Carolina coaches—was able to contribute inside that in-between 20 feet of defensive space, as his tough defense forced a Clemson over-and-back turnover in the first half.
Quietly, Carolina is now 15 games into the season and is limiting opponents to 34.8 percent shooting from the field. And, say this quietly because we all know how fragile it can be, (lean in close so we can whisper) but after Clemson went 6-for-26 from the arc, opponents are now hitting just 24.9 percent from the three-point line against the Tar Heels.
That will be tested Monday night against a Notre Dame team that is one of the best-shooting clubs in America. For now, however, the Tar Heels think they've figured out how to protect the rim—and it starts well away from the basket.
“Coach always tells us to take the other team out of what they want to do,” Hicks said. “When we pressure the ball with everyone denying and getting in passing lanes, it takes them out of what they want to do offensively. And from there, everything we do builds off of that.”
