University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: UNC Basketball Notebook
February 17, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
Roy Williams doesn't know how tomorrow night's game at Duke will end. But he knows how he wants it to start: better than Carolina's past two games.
The Tar Heels were down 7-2 in the first two minutes at Boston College, and then trailed 8-0 in the first two minutes at Pittsburgh on the way to an eventual 10-0 deficit. A start like that would be deadly at Cameron Indoor Stadium, where in Duke's last home game the Blue Devils blitzed Notre Dame early and often on the way to a 50-24 halftime lead.
"That's two games in a row we've been in a daze the first six or eight minutes," Roy Williams said on Monday night during his radio show with Jones Angell. "I've never felt like I've lost a game in the first four or five minutes, but the way we played gave them confidence."
Tokoto's flow: After playing exceptionally well during most of the first half of the season, J.P. Tokoto has had some occasional struggles lately. The junior had back-to-back six-turnover games against Syracuse and at Louisville. He has committed just one turnover in the three games since then, but that's partly because he simply hasn't seemed as active. Tokoto took just three shots against Virginia, missing them all, and was a combined 3-for-12 in the road games at BC and Pitt.
Nate Britt replaced Tokoto in the starting lineup during the last two games, and then Joel Berry II replaced Britt with the second-half starters at Pitt.
"This weekend he took eight shots in the Pittsburgh game, and that's not a bad number, but two of his makes were on offensive rebounds for baskets. Both of them were in the last three or four minutes. We've got to get him back into the flow. He has not turned it over the last couple of games like the 12 in two games, because those were killers, and I'm sure he's trying to find the right way and so are we."
One way Tokoto can get back into a rhythm: recommit defensively. Somewhat surprisingly, he has won just one defensive award from the coaches this year (the win at NC State).
Berry's back: If there was anything encouraging about the game at Pitt, it might have been the play of Berry, who made just two of six field goals but was aggressive enough to earn four trips to the free throw line and handed out six assists against zero turnovers in 28 minutes. Those 28 minutes were by far the most action of his Carolina career.
Berry won the team's defensive award at Boston College and was one of only two players to qualify for the award (which requires that a player have double the number of good plays as opposed to bad plays upon review by the coaches), along with Marcus Paige, at Pitt. Berry will be important against Duke because of his occasional ability to defend dribble penetration. "At times, Joel does a better job of staying in front of the basketball," Williams said. "The consistency is not there. I'm hoping he will get it before the end of this season."
Briefly: Williams said Paige continues to be bothered by plantar fasciitis. "It probably bothered him more this Sunday than the Sunday after the Boston College game," Williams said. "We have to hold him out of some things in practice, which we have done for three weeks."...Williams singled out Maryland's Mark Turgeon and ex-Georgetown coach John Thompson as being among the individuals who contacted him with the most heartfelt messages in the wake of Dean Smith's passing...
Since leading Louisville 36-25 at halftime on Jan. 31, Carolina has been outscored 285-251 in seven halves and allowed Pitt to shoot 66 percent from the field, Virginia to shoot 52 percent, and even Boston College to shoot 44.6 percent. Williams doesn't believe that the second-half struggles against the Cardinals have had a hangover effect, however. "It shook them," he said. "You don't expect that to happen. But I don't think that has stayed with them because in this league you have to expect people are going to come back."
