Lucas: Attention To Detail

By Adam Lucas

As Carolina went through the team's 34th practice of the season on Monday afternoon, Roy Williams whistled the session to a halt after an error.

"Guys, you can do that against some of these teams," he said. "But you cannot do that against Alabama, Michigan, Iowa State, and the teams you're going to see next week. You just can't do it."

The Tar Heels took advantage of their last game with some cushion on Wednesday night, playing a desultory first half before playing just well enough in the second half to beat Elon, 75-61.

You don't need any further details about the game than this one: Williams called a timeout—a real timeout—just 2:09 into the game. When he tapped his shoulders to signal for the stoppage, a noticeable murmur went through the Smith Center crowd, as if concerned that perhaps the notoriously timeout-stingy Hall of Famer was having an out of body experience.

"It's the earliest one in my history, I'm sure," Williams said after the game. "But it doesn't have a lot of competition either."

The head coach's frustration was the fumbling of a basic Tar Heel secondary break set. That's the kind of attention to detail he's stressed in practice recently. It doesn't appear this Carolina team is going to put up gaudy offensive numbers—it's the first time in the Williams era the Tar Heels haven't broken 80 points at least one time in the first four games of the season—so they have to be even better in some of the finer minutia of the game.

During one practice period on Monday, Williams spent most of the session barking, "Who is going to set the best screen?" as the Tar Heels ran through some offense. Given the offensive struggles, those screens have to be especially firm. Even the attention to the scouting report—Brad Frederick had the scout on Elon—has to be a little tighter. You might get one or two easy baskets every game by knowing the scout cold; right now, the Tar Heels need those one or two easy baskets.

Remember, it's November. Right now things happen like Garrison Brooks missing a dunk and it, of course, leading directly to an Elon three-pointer. Right now Brooks has his defender pinned under the hoop with his arms out, begging for an entry pass that doesn't come even though multiple Tar Heel coaches are on the sideline screaming, "Throw it to him!"

The possession ended instead with a forced midrange jumper.

"Offensively, we can't be so stagnant," said Armando Bacot, who was again one of the bright spots with his second straight double-double, this one a 22-point, 14-rebound performance. "We have to try and get everyone involved. Cole is a great player, but we can't keep relying on him."

Sure, there are signs. This Bacot double-double was much more consistent than his previous one. The Tar Heels were more effective on the offensive glass, posting a season-high 47.3 offensive rebound percentage, meaning they rebounded almost half their own misses (Justin Pierce, especially, is starting to figure out how to crash the boards the way Williams prefers, giving Carolina that secondary offensive rebounder in addition to the traditional big man).

"We practice offensive rebounding every day," Bacot said. "We know we have to get on that offensive glass."

Of course, as Wednesday night proved, just because something is practiced repeatedly doesn't necessarily guarantee that it will translate to the games. The Tar Heels are off Thursday, and then will reconvene for one of the most important practice stretches of the nonconference season. In all likelihood, they'll be able to mix Brandon Robinson back in, and they'll have four days of work before battling a loaded field in the Bahamas.

"The big leagues," Williams said, "are starting right now."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Garrison Brooks

Justin Pierce

Brandon Robinson

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