University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Trust The Process
January 21, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
Forrest Reynolds and John Bumgarner tell the stories like they're recounting Chapel Hill legends.
Marcus Paige, you see, has the same post-practice shooting routine every day. As Carolina basketball managers, they have a front row seat for his regular marksmanship displays.
Here's what you have to know: we don't realize how good at basketball Tar Heel players really are. I know that sounds silly, but it's true. They make it look easy in games, so we discount the difficulty of their achievements. You wonder how they miss a six-footer, but you don't see the opponent with a forearm in their chest and another defender raising his arms to create an even tougher angle. The worst Tar Heel basketball player of the Roy Williams era would dominate you on the court, no matter how many times you yell at your TV, "How could you miss that?"
Take away the defense and put them in an empty gym, and they're even more remarkable. That's where Paige comes in. He has two different post-practice shooting routines. This is after practice, after some others have already gone home, after he's been through 90 minutes or more with Roy Williams.
After every day of his Tar Heel career, Paige shoots. The “easy workout” is five three-pointers from five different spots on the floor. Doesn't sound too difficult, right?
Except that he has to make five in a row at each spot.
This takes him virtually no time at all. That's why it's the "easy workout."
The longer workout, the one he's done most often during his illustrious career, is to take a dozen shots from seven different spots around the three-point line. He has to make 10-of-12 three-pointers from each spot before he can move to the next one.
That's 83 percent.
From seven different spots.
It takes him a mere matter of minutes. To try and relate, I took a dozen three-pointers after Wednesday night's 83-68 win over Wake Forest. I decided I would stay until I hit 10 of them from one spot.
Let's put it this way: I took a break to come write this story, or else you'd be reading this with your morning waffles. Your weekend morning waffles.
Reynolds and Bumgarner see this virtually every day. Not too long ago, Paige decided to see how many free throws he could make in a row. He made 65. It was only that low because Williams summoned him to the locker room. When you make so many free throws in a row that the head coach gets tired of waiting, that's a good sign.
Paige's exploits have stopped being amazing to his most frequent shooting partners, and it is why they—along with virtually everyone else associated with Tar Heel basketball—seem so unconcerned about Paige's recent shooting slump, which has now stretched into its third game.
Teammates were unanimously unconcerned about Paige. Only Williams jokingly said he would try incense and chants to break Paige's slump, but Williams gets paid to worry. He worries when players aren't making shots. He worries when players are making shots. It's his job, and he knows Paige made just 1-for-8 against Wake, which means he is now three for his last 25 and zero for his last 11 from the three-point line.
I recite these numbers not to embarrass Paige, but more because they are so incredibly un-Paige like. It's as if Tyler Hansbrough has suddenly started missing shots in the paint or Brice Johnson has stopped screaming after dunks. It's a good thing he went and read to elementary school kids on Wednesday afternoon (yes, he did) just so you know this is the exact same Marcus Paige we've always known.
Marcus Paige reading to our Raptors! Thanks #DukeEnergy for providing this amazing #GuestReader pic.twitter.com/IVOFDEq1Wy
— Rashkis Library (@rashkislibrary) January 20, 2016
Paige's current claim to fame is that he is possibly the only 3-for-25 player in history who makes you believe every time he releases it that this will be the shot that swishes cleanly through and snaps the slump.
Teammates know. If this was a case of a senior getting complacent, or a veteran starting to wonder about his pro potential, or a player spending a little too much time on Franklin Street, there would be some rumblings. That's not the case. Every day, Paige sets the tone in practice. And every day, he stays after practice to do even more.
“The dude is one of the best players in the country,” said Theo Pinson. “We don't have to tell him anything. He's going to make his shot. He puts in the work. We want him to shoot the ball. When he shoots the ball, everybody is like, 'It looks good.'”
Here's the thing: it's a little difficult to get worked up about a guy who already has his jersey in the rafters and scored 30 in an ACC game two weeks ago. If Marcus Paige is Roy Williams' biggest worry, then life is pretty good...and it is fairly lovely here at the top of the ACC, with a 6-0 league mark and a dangerous trip to Virginia Tech looming.
“I'm going to make shots,” Paige said matter-of-factly after the Wake game.
You can see some of the frustration on Paige's face when he's playing, and he's not as aggressive offensively as he would be if he was hot. But that's also the type of player he's been for four straight years—doing whatever it takes to help his team win. Some players would try to shoot themselves out of a rough patch. Paige just keeps playing, getting four steals against the Deacs and barking at his teammates for a defensive lapse in a 20-point game late in the second half, then shaking his head when Wake got another easy layup.
He's still pushing—but he's pushing his team, not himself. He'll go home tonight and he'll think about it and he'll see the ball rolling off the rim yet again. But he'll sleep better with the Tar Heels 16-2 than he did the past couple of years when he was scoring by the bushel but his team was unpredictable.
Paige will come back to practice later this week, do every drill at top speed, and then hang around with Reynolds, Bumgarner and rest of the hardworking Carolina managers to shoot extra shots. He won't take more than usual. He won't take fewer than usual. Most likely, he'll do the hard workout, not the easy one. It'll take 10-of-12 makes from seven different three-point spots for him to feel he's earned the right to go home.
It won't take him long.
