Carmichael Comments: Louisville Roundup

CARMICHAEL COMMENTS: Inside Carolina Women's Basketball — Edition 11
By: Matt Krause (@MattKrausePxP)

"Kids these days…"

Chances are, if you're a millennial or generation Z who went home for the holidays last month, you might have heard an older family member utter that phrase with some disdain.

As the Carolina Women's Basketball team continues to improve, grow, and blend, learning what the coaching staff expects of them is part of that process. Equally as important, though, is the veteran staff figuring out how to coach the team and its many personalities.

Both the players and staff learned a bit about the other in Carolina's 73-66 setback at the hands of No. 3 Louisville in Thursday's ACC opener. Carolina trailed at the half, 40-23, mired in a funk of poor shooting, a tough stretch on the glass, and foul trouble. A common knock on younger generations is that their attention spans aren't as durable of those possessed by, say, their parents and grandparents. When you're trying to flip the mentality of a basketball team during the course of one game, that attention span actually comes in handy. A few halftime adjustments later, the Tar Heels were back in the game and pushing an undefeated team to the brink.

"This is my opinion about millennials," Carolina Assistant Coach Sylvia Crawley said. "Their world is always changing. So, just making a couple of changes gave them life. We as a staff will learn from this. Sometimes you've got to tweak a few things just for their mental morale."

With a new outlook on the game, Carolina began chipping away and quickly whittled a 19-point lead down to just two. At one point, the Tar Heels even had a chance to take the lead early in the fourth quarter. After shooting 23% in the first half, Carolina shot 62% in the third quarter and "won" the period 24-17.

"I thought in the second half we played outstanding," Crawley said. "Coach (Hatchell) said in the locker room that had we played the first half like we played the second half we would have won by 10 or 11 points."

Though Louisville would pull away on free throws down the stretch, the game provided a glimpse at the challenge of ACC play that awaits the Tar Heels.

"We talk all the time about how at ACC time, you have to elevate your play," Crawley said. "It took us a half to do it, but I think they figured out a way. Louisville's a ranked team in the nation, so there's no doubt in my mind that if we play this well against our next opponent, we will win."

That next opponent is Florida State (more on that one later) in the ACC home opener. While there is no such thing as moral victories at the Division I Power Five level, Carolina's improvement and growth, even in defeat, cannot be overlooked.

"We're close," Crawley said. "We're not quite there, but I'm encouraged by this and I hope our players are too."

More on Thursday's game…

Offensive Philosophy Changes

Sometimes it pays off to keep it simple. A lot of Carolina's offense this season has run through Janelle Bailey, a strong inside force for the Tar Heels. When Bailey scored four quick points Thursday, Louisville adjusted and denied her opportunities as the first half went along. With Bailey out of the mix, the Tar Heels seemed flummoxed, leading to a halftime conversation.

"Second half we made the call to spread it out, four-on-one, and set screens so they couldn't predict where the double would come from," Crawley said.

The move to a more free-flowing offense paid off immediately, as Carolina scored 24 third quarter points, one more than the entire first half.

"The other adjustment we made, and I thought was brilliant by Coach Hatchell, was she moved Paris to the one, we kept Watts at the two, and we put Shayla (Bennett) at the three," Crawley said.

Only one slight problem: Bennett had never played the three at the collegiate level.

"It limited us to only run a couple of sets in the second half," Crawley said. "But those sets were working for us, since it forced us to attack. We attacked the rims and got some fouls."

Since Carolina is such a good free throw shooting team, shooting 85.2% (23-for-27) from the stripe on Thursday, the strategy allowed the Tar Heels to hang around and challenge the Cardinals.

Kea Conversation

"What do you do when you're in a funk?"

It's no secret that Paris Kea's numbers have dipped in 2018-19 from the production of the All-ACC season from a year ago. Kea has battled injuries that not only kept her out of three contests, but hampered her in several others. Even after the Greensboro native returned against Auburn and started against Howard, she wasn't stuffing the stat sheet. After picking up three fouls in the opening 11 minutes of Thursday's game, Kea was spot-welded to the bench and had a chance to reflect and vent to her coaches by asking the question above.

Coach Crawley's response?

"You talk your way out," she explained. "And (Paris) went out there and did that. She was talking trash, she was talking on defense. She led that run in my opinion."

It's more than just opinion: Kea finished with 13 points Thursday, every one of them coming after halftime. The more vocal Kea seemed to have taken a major step back toward her previous self with the second half on Thursday.

Bennett Accepts The Challenge

As part of the change in the alignment of the Tar Heel guards, Carolina's defensive assignments were somewhat up in the air. In the halftime locker room, Shayla Bennett made a declaration.

"Can I guard Durr?"

Durr. As in Asia Durr. ACC Player of the Year. 22.5 points per game and scoring machine.

By the time the final box score was printed on Thursday, Durr had to scratch and claw just to get to double figures, finishing with only 10 points.

Bennett's ambition certainly drew praise from her coaches. "We've been waiting a long time for someone to say 'give her to me, I'll shut her down!'," Crawley said with a laugh. "And I thought Shayla did a great job. We switch on a lot of screens, so whoever was guarding her had energy."

Even though the changes defensively were made out of necessity — and in the words of Coach Crawley, somewhat by accident — they provide some intriguing options for Carolina moving forward.

"I think we're going to look at shuffling some things around now," Crawley said.

Up Next

Carolina will open the ACC home slate on Sunday afternoon by welcoming in the Florida State Seminoles for a 1 p.m. tip in Carmichael Arena. The Tar Heels will be looking for revenge against a Seminoles team that won the two teams' ACC opener last season in Tallahassee. Join us on the Tar Heel Sports Network via 97.9 FM/1360 AM in the Triangle, worldwide on GoHeels.com, the GoHeels app, or TuneIn (search "Tar Heel Sports Network"). The game is available on the ACC Regional Sports Network (RSN) package (Fox Sports South across much of the state of North Carolina), but you can always mute your TV and sync up the hometown radio call.

See you back at Carmichael! Go Heels!