Lucas: Individual Time

By Adam Lucas

As you would absolutely expect, Luke Maye uttered the following phrase during Tuesday's media session at the Smith Center: "It's not about me. It's about the team."

This is vintage Maye, the quintessential teammate. But here we are on June 12, and it's worth remembering that no less an authority than Dean Smith used to say that he emphasized doing what's best for the team during the season, and what's best for the individual during the offseason.

The two ideas can coexist. Starting in October, there will be plenty of time to worry about Carolina's point guard situation and the center position. As Roy Williams said on Tuesday, and will say again dozens of times between now and the season opener at Elon, "The two question marks are point guard and big guy. Somebody has to come through at those two spots. If they do, we have a chance to be really, really good. If they don't, we'll have to fight."

Listening to Williams tell it, it's just that simple. But as much as we'd all like the season to hurry up and get here, the only score being kept this week at the Smith Center is by the attendees of the Roy Williams Basketball Camp.

That means there's plenty of opportunities for individuals to make some offseason progress. That's what Maye did even during a trip with the Kenan-Flagler Business School to South Africa, as he found time to work out "eight or nine" times by his estimation.

But his much more publicized individual sessions came with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Atlanta Hawks and Charlotte Hornets, the three teams Maye worked out for while eligible for NBA Draft consideration.

It was in similar workouts in the summer of 2016 that Justin Jackson received advice he deemed as essential to his breakout ACC Player of the Year campaign as a junior. Maye collected some of the same feedback.

"The biggest thing I took away is the mindset I can have coming back to school," Maye said. "The things I can work on and the things they're looking for. Making sure every play matters and being in the right place at the right time defensively. I have to create my own shot and make plays."

That advice will be the perfect fuel for Maye, who has been a workaholic since arriving on campus as a freshman. He has a few offseason goals—get better at finishing around the rim, develop a more consistent free throw stroke, and become more consistent offensively—and his history suggests he'll figure out a way to achieve them.

"You know he's going to put in the time," Williams said. "And if you put in the time and sweat, you get better. He's intelligent, and he knows where he can improve."

Along with Kenny Williams and Cameron Johnson, Maye is one of three known quantities Williams cited on Tuesday. It's encouraging, then, that one of the players who has received the best reports this summer is Sterling Manley.

The head coach won't get the chance to see much of the progress made by the sophomore big man until the Tar Heels practice four times during the month of July, but former and current players have had good reviews of Manley's offseason work, as have strength and conditioning coach Jonas Sahratian and athletic trainer Doug Halverson. And Williams noted that even during some of the coach's 8 a.m. thrice-weekly workouts, Manley was already in the gym.

"Sterling got some maturity at the end of last season looking back on the season and wondering if he could've done more," Williams said. "That has been his biggest improvement. He's never been a bad worker. But if you want to be a great player, you have to pay the price."

The three-player incoming freshman class, which has big expectations, will soon be introduced to the level of work Williams requires when they arrive for the second session of summer school. It will help that they will immediately be exposed to a group of seniors who lead Carolina not just on the stat sheet, but during that important summer improvement period also.

"If you ask everybody on our team who the three hardest workers are, they're going to say Luke, Kenny and Cam," Williams said. "That's a pretty good position to be in."

University of North Carolina Athletics

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