Lucas: Turn Up The Volume

By Adam Lucas

Walking out of the Smith Center over the first five days of Carolina basketball practice leaves a viewer with multiple impressions. There's the consistent improvement of Garrison Brooks, of course. There's the depth and talent of the freshman class. There's the work done by Leaky Black to become a more consistent offensive threat (hear more about it in Black's interview in today's Carolina Insider podcast).

But there's one overwhelming takeaway from watching these early days of the 2020-21 Tar Heels: the volume.

The first five practices have been extremely competitive. Every contested drill has been intense. Every big shot has been greeted with a roar. When Andrew Platek hit a three-pointer to end a secondary break drill and give his team a win on Monday, he was greeted with a chest bump from RJ Davis near midcourt.

After last year's disappointing season, any kind of victory should be appreciated. But the vibe at this year's practices is something different. It feels like something has changed, like the freshman class has helped flip a switch in their teammates.

Perhaps this should have been expected after some of the pickup games that preceded practice. On one particularly memorable day, Armando Bacot teamed with four freshmen in a best-of-seven series against five upperclassmen. The veterans quickly took a three games to zero lead.

The youngsters then proceeded to win four games in a row, gaining confidence—and swagger—with every victory.

"It makes you better as a player to compete each and every day," says Davis, who has quickly showed his fearlessness and has no hesitation about driving at any player on the court, even his intimidating classmate Day'Ron Sharpe. "There are no days off here, either mentally or physically."

And very few days off from practice now that the Nov. 25 game start date is just over a month away. The level of competitiveness makes for very entertaining pickup games. But it also creates a much more vibrant practice atmosphere, one in which no one—veterans included—can take anything for granted.

On Saturday, freshman point guard Caleb Love sprinted the ball ahead during a full-court drill. Even with the defense hustling back, he still found Sharpe ahead of everyone for an easy basket.

It's not that Sharpe is overwhelmingly fast; he might not line up and beat someone in a foot race. But the consistency of his effort, and the fact that he always seems to be playing hard, creates opportunities when his opponents try to grab a breather.
Roy Williams stopped practice after the Love-to-Sharpe connection.

"We were 14-19 last season," the head coach said, "and we never got anything like that."

Remember, it's only October. This is still a very young team—also on Saturday, Williams had to explain the program's longstanding plus point system for post-practice running. There will be days when they look and play young.

But the energy provided by the seven-player freshman class has already paid some dividends. On Monday, Walker Miller bodied up Brooks during a full-court drill, with his good post defense prompting some barking from his Blue teammates.

But never count out the senior leader. Seconds later, Brooks stole a pass near midcourt, dribbled to the rim, sidestepped a defender, and threw down a two-handed dunk.

That type of competition in practice, with every pass contested and the outcome of every drill uncertain, is how a team improves.

Brooks may have won that particular drill. But even a couple weeks later, Sharpe doesn't mind twisting the knife about the upset earlier this month from the freshmen. "The older guys couldn't stop us," he says. "The young guys have energy. We just play hard. All the young guys are very competitive."

He is told that the older players might inform him that you don't get a banner for a pickup game victory. The Greenville native looks up in the Smith Center rafters. "The older guys were up 3-0 in a best of seven and couldn't beat us," he says. "I don't know, they might give us a banner for that."

To be continued at the next practice.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

Garrison Brooks

RJ Davis

Caleb Love

Walker Miller

Andrew Platek

Day'Ron Sharpe

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