Lucas: How It Begins

By Adam Lucas

Sometimes head coaches have to scheme and plan and hope to get their message across.

And sometimes it just works out perfectly for them.

Such was the case on Wednesday afternoon at the first practice of the 2018-19 basketball season for North Carolina. The Tar Heels went through a nearly two-hour session on the newly christened Roy Williams Court as they prepare for the season opener on Nov. 6 at Wofford.

The workout began with the Thought for the Day, and as has become tradition at the first practice of the year, the maxim was one of Roy Williams' very favorite sayings: "It's amazing how much can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit."

And yes, there was mention of the last time the 2018 Tar Heels were formally together, a stunning and disappointing loss to Texas A&M in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Williams very pointedly asked this year's group on Wednesday if they felt they'd gotten fuel from that defeat, and how it would make them tougher.

With the Charlotte Hornets in town for training camp, there were a handful of special practice guests, including Mitch Kupchak and Buzz Peterson. They saw a team still trying to get accustomed to the absence of consistently vocal presence Theo Pinson, now on a two-way deal with the Brooklyn Nets. Most of his vocal leadership role was filled by Kenny Williams. "Let's go!" the senior frequently barked during drills. "Run! Knock that down!" Williams also drew one of his trademark charges on freshman Nassir Little during a fullcourt drill.

Last season on the first day, Carolina was mixing in eight newcomers and the opening practice was noticeably basic. This year, with just three freshmen plus transfer Ryan McAdoo, but with a preseason trip to the Bahamas already completed, the pace was more accelerated. Even the freshmen were already familiar with the drills, which gave Williams time to remind them of some of the finer points of each activity.

"When you score," he announced when a group didn't sprint back the way he wants on defense, "that doesn't mean we rest." And when Leaky Black received an inbounds pass in a stationary position, the head coach quickly reminded him, "When you catch that pass, you have to catch it on the run." It's another seemingly minor way to ensure his point guards are always getting the ball up the court as quickly as possible.

Williams consistently talks to his team about details, about putting forth maximum effort on every repetition to ensure productive results. But sometimes a coach can only talk so much, and occasionally one fleeting moment in practice drives home a point more effectively than minute upon minute of lecturing.

Such was the case when the Tar Heels began one of Williams' favorite end-of-practice drills. The challenge is to make 120 baskets in four minutes and 15 seconds. It's a fullcourt drill, with plenty of running, and the shot attempts are from a prescribed mix of paint, midrange and perimeter shots. As with most things in Williams' practice plan, 120 shots is the perfectly calibrated number to ensure it can't be reached without focusing, but it's also not impossible to attain.

And on the first day of the 2018-19 season, the head coach's new team managed to sink…

119.

It was the perfect number for Williams to emphasize the importance of those same details he'd been talking about all afternoon.

"How many layups did we miss?" he asked rhetorically.

"How many times did you not go as hard as you possibly could?" he followed up.

Everyone knew the answers, and knew better answers to the above questions would've resulted in the team easily breezing by 120.

The packed practice concluded with the dreaded conditioning sprints, but the time for learning wasn't complete. When a freshman jumped the start (every tenth of a second matters in these sprints) by trying to anticipate when Williams would blow his whistle to start a repetition, the coach almost—almost—grinned. "You've got to learn, son," he told the player. "I'm not going to blow the whistle if it's not in my mouth."

The Tar Heels have ten more practices before Late Night with Roy Williams on Oct. 12. They will play an exhibition game at the Smith Center against Mount Olive on Nov. 2, then start the regular season with a two-game road trip to Wofford and Elon on Nov. 6 and Nov. 9.

University of North Carolina Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Nassir Little

Ryan McAdoo

Theo Pinson

Kenny Williams

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