University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: Defense Keys March Push
March 16, 2016 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
By Adam Lucas
When Roy Williams addressed his team in the Smith Center players' lounge after the NCAA Tournament selection show on Sunday evening, he invoked the name of the mighty 2009 squad as a possible comparison for this year's group.
That year's team, which blitzed its way to a national title with the smallest victory in the tournament coming by 12 points, was one of the most potent offensive clubs in Williams' tenure in Chapel Hill. Four of the five starters—Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington, Tyler Hansbrough and Danny Green—are still on NBA rosters, and two reserves (Tyler Zeller and Ed Davis) are also in the pros.
But it wasn't their offensive firepower that Williams cited to this year's team. It was the way they played defensively in the months of March and April. Like this year's squad, the 2009 team occasionally looked disinterested defensively during the regular season. Come postseason, however, they completely committed to defense, and the results were impressive. Williams and the Tar Heel coaching staff even gave them a couple tweaks for specific opponents during the tournament run—Carolina made adjustments to their usual defensive principles for games against Gonzaga and Oklahoma—that they executed flawlessly.
That's the type of innovation that is often required during what is hoped to be a six-game run against a series of opponents with various styles and strengths. It's a positive indicator, then, that the Tar Heels played three teams with three different styles in three days in the ACC Tournament run, and played what Williams called their best three-game stretch of defense of the entire season.
“I think Coach's message that no championship team has ever won without being great defensively hit home with our team more so than anything else we've talked about this year,” said Marcus Paige. “Winning championships has been a goal of ours since day one, and we think it's a realistic goal. For that reason, it has everyone's focus locked in on defense.”
It showed in Washington. Carolina scored just 61 points in the championship win over Virginia, the second-fewest the Tar Heels have ever scored in the program's 18 ACC championship wins. But stingy defense held the Cavaliers to just 57 points, the fewest the Wahoos have scored all year. After finishing in the national top-10 in offensive efficiency, the Cavs shot only 36.5 percent from the field on Saturday night.
For the weekend, UNC opponents averaged just 58.3 points per game and shot only 37.1 percent from the floor. The cumulative 175 points allowed were easily the fewest allowed by the Tar Heels in any of the program's eight ACC Tournament championships since the institution of the shot clock.
“We've been moving our feet better,” said Brice Johnson, who was announced as a first-team All-American by the USBWA on Monday, which means his jersey will be honored in the Smith Center rafters. “That's something we've been trying to do a better job of all year. In the ACC Tournament we did a better job of moving our feet and playing defense without fouling, and that's the way we're going to have to play for the rest of this year.”
Of course, the Tar Heel defense is key for more than just preventing the opponent from putting the ball in the basket. The Carolina offense thrives in transition, and getting fast break points is essential for the UNC tempo. The Tar Heels squeezed out six fast break points against Virginia, a team absolutely committed to shutting off the break, got 16 points off turnovers in the rout of Notre Dame, and scored 15 points off turnovers and a dozen fast break points in the quarterfinal win over Pitt.
Recent Williams-coached teams have been vulnerable to opponents that want to slow the tempo and decrease the number of possessions in a game. Although Williams has warned his club not to be reckless, they know part of the solution to taking control of games like that is making opponents uncomfortable defensively.
“It does feel like the defensive turnaround somewhat happened suddenly,” Paige said. “We had done well in flashes in the win at Cameron and a couple games before that, but it was most noticeable in the ACC Tournament. In terms of complete defensive play, that's the best we've played all year. Once we got comfortable in the Pitt game and got our legs under us, it was a complete turning point for us.”
