University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Run Don't Walk
December 7, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
Roy Williams just likes to run.
This is sometimes said derisively, as if practice consists primarily of him taking the basketballs, rolling them out on the YMCA gym floor, and then putting them back in the bag when his players are too tired to run anymore.
Some would have you believe it takes a real tactician to slow down the game. Slower, the perception sometimes seems to be, is smarter.
You've probably figured this out by now, but that's not always the case. As Carolina showed in racing to a season-high 26 fast break points—nearly double the previous season high—in Sunday night's 98-65 win over what is actually a good Davidson team, playing truly effective running basketball is a combination of multiple aspects of the game.
Before the game, Davidson coach Bob McKillop had listed the various ways Carolina has had success this year—on the offensive glass, shooting from the perimeter, scoring in the paint, and running—and then said, “We haven't decided yet which poison we want to try to take.”
The lethal poison turned out to be the transition offense, which encompassed a little bit of everything he mentioned.
After the game, McKillop assessed exactly what happened: “They overpowered us in transition,” the head coach said.
What most people forget is that it starts on defense. The Tar Heels have occasionally been very good for spurts defensively this year. On Sunday, they limited Davidson—a team ranked in the top 20 in the nation in Ken Pomeroy's offensive efficiency ratings—to just 34.3 percent from the field. Keep in mind, Davidson is the type of team that occasionally gives the Tar Heels trouble. They spread the floor, they shoot the three-pointer, and they take advantage of any defensive miscues.
But Carolina didn't make many of those. Instead, they forced 14 turnovers (against a team that led the nation in lowest turnover ratio coming into the game) and used those turnovers to get out on the break.
“Defense is the biggest part of transition,” Justin Jackson said. “In this game, whenever we got stops we got out in transition. We might not have scored, but we weren't playing against a set defense. Any time we box out and limit them to one shot and go, it opens up a lot more for us.”
Oh yes, the rebounding. Kennedy Meeks got six rebounds in the first three minutes and 50 seconds of the game and had ten rebounds in just 18 minutes of action. Brice Johnson had nine boards in 21 minutes. Joel James had seven in 12 minutes.
Granted, the Tar Heels were working with a decided size advantage in the post, but Davidson also fired 31 three-pointers, which sometimes lead to crazy caroms and long rebounds. Instead, Carolina enjoyed a season-high 52-31 victory on the boards and allowed just six second chance points.
“If we get a rebound and get it out, we are athletic and we can be fast getting the ball out, and we want to score and fast break because that's part of our offense,” Johnson said.
Sure, it's just that easy. Except that it's a little bit of everything. All five players have to communicate on defense, and then everyone has to commit to boxing out. Then comes one of the keys—everyone has to run. Really run. Not the way they ran in high school, but the way Williams constantly barks at them to, “RUN!” in all capital letters.
"Our wings did a great job of running today," said Berry, who was one of three Carolina guards with four assists.
“When our big men get the rebound, if we get out on the wings, a lot of things can happen,” Jackson said. “We thought we were running at the beginning of the season. But the more I run, the more opportunities I have and the team has.”
Also, it's pretty basketball. That doesn't count for anything on the scoreboard or in the polls or in the RPI, but it's the truth. When Carolina is running the floor and threading the needle diagonally across the court, as Marcus Paige did early to Jackson or as Joel Berry did beautifully to Nate Britt near the end of the first half with the ball rarely touching the floor, it's gorgeous, get-out-of-your-seat-and-gasp basketball. Carolina did it off misses and they did it off makes, which is the toughest way to do it, and they did it with finesse and they did it with power.
There are other ways to play. But 98 points is a pretty fun way to spend a Sunday evening, especially when you consider some of the grit-your-teeth games played around the ACC and top 25 in the past couple of years. In all likelihood, that's part of why playing fast doesn't get as much respect. It just seems too fun to be complicated.
Maybe it's not. Maybe it is. Williams is fond of saying he doesn't consider himself a complicated coach. But here is what Jackson says he's learned about playing a running game in the past season and a half, and here is what has Williams in the Naismith Hall of Fame, and here is why many more coaches this year will say they want to stop the transition game and then wonder why they couldn't do it afterwards:
“It works,” Jackson says, and it is just simple enough to be completely explanatory.
