Lucas: Davis Drilling Defense

By Adam Lucas

Hubert Davis cultivated a long and successful NBA career by lighting up professional scoreboards with three-point marksmanship.

During his first preseason as Carolina's head coach, he's occasionally kept score using a different method.

There's been plenty of attention given to the differences a Davis-coached team may show offensively. Less discussed are his defensive principles, which have been a key emphasis, especially since the Tar Heels returned from last weekend's scrimmage at Florida.

Multiple drills over the past week—including Monday's extremely intense session in advance of Tuesday's day off due to election day—have kept score not by baskets made, but by defensive stops achieved.

In other words, teams don't get two points for a basket or three points for a made shot beyond the arc. They get one point for each defensive stop. That leads to situations such as what occurred on Monday, when Davis was unhappy with one squad's effort early in a 0-0 game and turned to the scorer's table and barked, "Put them at -1."

For the sake of reference, it is very difficult to figure out how to denote a negative number on the Smith Center scoreboards.

"We want to raise our game defensively," R.J. Davis says. "We want to be a lockdown team and take pride in guarding our man. We want to have a defensive mindset and a dog mentality."

Of course, wanting to and achieving it are two different things. You shouldn't expect Carolina to immediately be a team of Jackie Manuels or Derrick Phelpses on Friday when they take the court for this season's lone public exhibition game against Elizabeth City State at 7:30 p.m. (as a reminder to season ticketholders, that game is on the season ticket package, and if you're not a season ticketholder, tickets are available). But they're trying to make progress.

That's created an intense practice environment over the last seven days. Hubert Davis rotates the way he splits teams for head-to-head drills. Sometimes, it's a more traditional white team (projected as the individuals in the rotation) against a more traditional blue team (mostly reserves). But for many of the defensive drills, teams have been split more evenly, with projected members of the rotation on each squad.

That can lead to some very entertaining matchups, such as Caleb Love guarding R.J. Davis or Dawson Garcia matched up on Armando Bacot. Just as you'd hope, one side hasn't dominated those more even matchups, meaning there is plenty of competition and plenty of fighting for spots. And yes, the defensive emphasis also includes the Carolina big men, as any failure to box out that leads to an offensive rebound is an automatic point subtracted from the score.

"Defensively, we felt we could improve a lot after Florida," says Brady Manek. "In a couple of drills, we've been trading buckets. That's why we're focusing on stops and on blocking out. We're doing great on offense, and I feel like we're getting better defensively."

Some of Davis' principles will be different than the way the Tar Heels have played in recent years. Carolina is committed to preventing middle drives, both because that's an easy way for the offense to score and because they also often lead to help situations, which create kick-outs for open three-pointers. Expect the Tar Heels to fill the gaps on the perimeter rather than denying one pass away. And a few other wrinkles will become evident as the season unfolds.

A core component of Davis' defensive strategy involves communication. Not just any communication, but—as he has repeatedly emphasized—communication that is early, loud, clear and constant.

"A team that talks on defense and plays together, rotates well," Manek says. "Right now we're really focused on getting those rotations through shell work. We still need to fine tune the harder parts of it, the baseline drives, the slot drives. We're getting there and we're getting better."

It all starts with a commitment to defending on every possession. Hubert Davis has relayed multiple stories to his team of situations from his college and pro career when lackadaisical attention to defensive detail had dire consequences. One of his most recent nuggets involved the 2001 NBA playoffs, and a transition defense breakdown that allowed the Utah Jazz to beat Davis' Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 of the series. The head coach knew every play of the decisive sequence in excruciating detail, making it clear that a teammate taking one possession off can be a lifetime memory for the entire team.

Davis has made it clear he wants every night a team faces the Tar Heels to be an "off night" for the opponent. That expectation extends to practices. One of the loudest celebrations in the last week came when RJ Davis drew a game-sealing charge on an attempted drive.

That's a step in the right direction, but the Tar Heels haven't satisfied their head coach just yet. Davis sent a clear message to his team on Monday that the beginning of the season is imminent. "Next week we have two games that count," he barked. "Y'all better get on my page. I'm ready."

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

RJ Davis

Dawson Garcia

Caleb Love

Brady Manek

Related Videos