Lucas: Bus Stop

By Adam Lucas

WINSTON-SALEM—Sometimes the bus knows best.

Carolina has experienced virtually every kind of mishap this season. The Tar Heels have had injuries. They've had unlucky bounces.

And then there's the bus. When the Tar Heels rolled up to Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Tuesday night, the players prepared to disembark first, as is the custom. Only one problem: the door wouldn't open.

Several minutes later, it eventually cooperated, but it turned out the bus had the right idea, because Carolina struggled through a 74-57 defeat to Wake Forest.

As the players and coaches agreed, it wasn't just the score that was disappointing. Roy Williams hinted at some of the frustration that led to a lengthy postgame team conversation. "I've got to get guys to do a better job of what I ask them to do," the head coach said. "And they've got to do a better job of the little things."

Those little things were a focal point of Monday's practice, when both Williams and assistant coach Steve Robinson emphasized the need for the Tar Heels to have better attention to detail. But the number of times that Williams reclined on the bench with an exasperated expression on Tuesday remained high, and you get the sense that the message he's delivering isn't always being executed. For example, Wake Forest's Andrien White was a scouting report focal point for his shooting prowess; he drilled three first half three-pointers on the way to Wake building an 18-point halftime advantage.

Parental guidance is suggested for some of the following player quotes. It's entirely possible they might frustrate you even more than the outcome of the game.

"We didn't listen to the scouting report," said Cole Anthony, who tied with Christian Keeling for the team scoring lead with 15 points. "The stuff the coaches told us, we didn't pay attention and didn't follow through on it."

"There were a couple plays we ran through in the scouting report, and we didn't guard those correctly either," said Walker Miller, who played 15 minutes. "We didn't come prepared mentally."

The disconnect is jarring. Remember that Williams has never had a losing season. Never in his over 30-year head coaching career has he had this much difficulty in getting his message across (it's also fair to point out he may have never had this year's collection of injuries). We're in mid-February and the Tar Heels still don't seem to be consistently playing with a singular purpose for 40 minutes.

That lack of focus has led to some uneven performances. Against Atlantic Coast Conference opponents ranked in the top 51 of Ken Pomeroy's rankings, Carolina has an average margin of defeat of just 5.7 points. Against league foes ranked from 75-100 in those same rankings, the Tar Heels are 0-6 with an average defeat of 9.5 points.

"That was embarrassing," Christian Keeling said after the loss to Wake. "It wasn't representative of North Carolina basketball. It was disrespectful to the history and tradition here and the former players who played here. It was embarrassing."

Keeling, who has found a niche in the Tar Heel offense hitting midrange jumpers, didn't spare himself in his postgame assessment. Another point of emphasis on the scouting report was keeping Wake Forest—a team that gets a higher percentage of its points from the free throw line than any team in the conference—off the line. But Keeling twice sent Wake shooters to the charity stripe, including one instance that turned into a four-point play.

"The coaches emphasized not to foul, and I had two horrible fouls in the game," he said. "That's the kind of simple stuff and little things that we have to do better. Those two stupid fouls I had cost us seven or eight points."

Keeling is being unduly hard on himself, of course. For much of the night his offensive play and Garrison Brooks' toughness were the lone bright spots for the visitors.

At 10-14, it's becoming virtually impossible to imagine a postseason future that doesn't somehow include winning the ACC Tournament. But it's also true that performances like Tuesday night negate those types of long-term goals. At this point, the revised goal is that Carolina just needs to show up consistently.

"We have to pay attention to little details," Keeling said. "We have to be more mentally tough. We have to be more mentally involved in the game. And we have to give effort every night."

Players Mentioned

Cole Anthony

Garrison Brooks

Christian Keeling

Walker Miller

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