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University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: Maggie Hobson
Lucas: Preseason Practice Observations
September 29, 2021 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Notes and quotes from Carolina's summer workouts and yesterday's initial fall practice.
By Adam Lucas
It's been almost a month, and players are still talking about the first day they saw the on-court fiery side of Hubert Davis.
The new Tar Heel head coach is a teacher. Most of his on-court sessions are high energy and filled with instruction. But don't take that to mean he's an easy grader. Expectations are high, as players discovered during one of Davis' new additions, the "trenches" drill.
That drill is essentially a one-on-one session that begins with the offensive player taking the ball between the free throw line and the top of the key. Remaining players line the lane, so all the action has to occur inside the paint.
It's a highly competitive, energetic drill, and it's much more difficult to score than you might imagine.
On this day, though, the very first Tar Heel scored. The defender and his teammates were a little too casual about allowing a basket, and Davis immediately let them know about it.
Davis never cursed. He has made a promise to himself that since Dean Smith never cursed at him, he won't curse at today's players. Davis still gets emotional about the one language slip-up he's had in his entire Carolina coaching career (head coach and assistant), a mistake for which he apologized to the team immediately after the game in question.
But like Smith—about whom players often said could make his point more incisively without ever using bad language than someone who dropped dozens of curse words—Davis knows how to make his point.
"Him getting on us the way he did felt way worse than using a bunch of bad words," says Armando Bacot. "He had us all shook. We were still talking about it the next day in the locker room. That's the day we learned not to get on his bad side. It was almost like we had disappointed him, and that felt terrible. He has a way of doing it that lets you know you messed up, but also encouraging you at the same time."
Changes: Although 2021-22 practice officially began this week, the Tar Heels have actually been practicing for several weeks. Fall practices are a little longer, but the workouts in previous weeks are close to identical in terms of structure and tone to this week's sessions.
The first two of those summer practices began with detailed explanation of some differences in the way Davis wants to structure this year's offense and defense. The on-court product you see this year will have some differences from a Roy Williams-coached team, including changes to the way Carolina guards the man one pass away, an adjustment to guarding corner three-point shooters, and an offense that spreads the floor.
The Tar Heels remain intent on getting good shots, but there's been an emphasis in practice that the good shot might be an open three-pointer for a good shooter off just one pass.
Notes: Multiple times at practices, Davis has reminded his team they led the Atlantic Coast Conference in turnovers last season (and it wasn't close—Carolina had 424 and the next-worst figure was 360). That's partially due to the Tar Heels' fast pace, but it's also due to some general carelessness. As part of the remedy, any turnover in a full-court drill situation requires the offending team to run an 11-second down and back, starting at the baseline, touching the opposite baseline, and finishing across the free throw line. One probably sounds easy, but they can pile up…Davis abhors any corner-cutting. That includes off-court situations such as being on time for everything, and it also extends to the court. Already this season, the Tar Heels have learned the new coaching staff pays close attention to meeting all start and finish requirements (start behind the baseline, finish past the free throw line) for any running reinforcement. "We're not cheating anything!" Davis told his team at one practice…
Another Davis-ism that's frequently mentioned to his team: "We don't do mediocre. We have to be great in everything we do." The coach knows mistakes will happen, but also believes in preparing to succeed. "If you don't put forth the attention to detail, you have no chance," he said yesterday. "I believe you put yourself in position for greatness to happen. The ball bounces in different ways. You can play a great game and still lose. But you have to put in the effort and practice and process for that to possibly happen. If you don't put in the effort, you have no chance of that happening."…
A big practice change this season is the way the teams are structured. Under Williams, there was a white (starters) team and a blue (reserves) team. The white team typically included the five starters and two or three top reserves, meaning they usually had a substantial talent edge over the blue squad. Davis has more equally split players between both teams, leading to more competition in practice…And there's competition in almost every period of practice. Players don't just shoot free throws; they have a free throw competition in which they're trying to eliminate their partner at the same basket. On Tuesday, players didn't just shoot three-pointers; they tried to complete a drill that required making two straight three-pointers from each of five spots around the arc, then going back around the arc doing the same thing—all in less than a minute and 15 seconds…
Missed layups are another area of emphasis. Every miss requires a down-and-back. The misses accumulate during practice and are combined at the end of the session. Four misses means four down-and-backs after an exhausting practice, a steep penalty…Hard work in the offseason is a theme of every September and October in college basketball. But Tar Heel veterans do seem to believe this was a productive offseason. "Over the summer I was in the gym three times a day," Leaky Black said. "I shot with Jackie (Manuel) at 8 a.m. and made 100 three-pointers before class. Then I'd lift with Jonas (Sahratian) at 12. Then on the court in the afternoon for skill development. That was my schedule every day." Fellow veteran Armando Bacot sees similar commitment. "This is by far the hardest working team I've been on," he said. "The freshmen and the guys who live in Rams (Village) are coming in late at night. The older guys are coming in the morning. Everyone is working extra after practice. We've really worked hard at getting better. I think everyone is going to be a better version of themselves this year."…
Don't mistake Davis' more open offense as a license for players to take every shot they see. The head coach sounded downright Williams-esque on Tuesday when he admonished a Tar Heel, "Two of those three floaters you've taken are bad shots. I don't mind a floater. But those were bad shots and we had no one back."
It's been almost a month, and players are still talking about the first day they saw the on-court fiery side of Hubert Davis.
The new Tar Heel head coach is a teacher. Most of his on-court sessions are high energy and filled with instruction. But don't take that to mean he's an easy grader. Expectations are high, as players discovered during one of Davis' new additions, the "trenches" drill.
That drill is essentially a one-on-one session that begins with the offensive player taking the ball between the free throw line and the top of the key. Remaining players line the lane, so all the action has to occur inside the paint.
It's a highly competitive, energetic drill, and it's much more difficult to score than you might imagine.
On this day, though, the very first Tar Heel scored. The defender and his teammates were a little too casual about allowing a basket, and Davis immediately let them know about it.
Davis never cursed. He has made a promise to himself that since Dean Smith never cursed at him, he won't curse at today's players. Davis still gets emotional about the one language slip-up he's had in his entire Carolina coaching career (head coach and assistant), a mistake for which he apologized to the team immediately after the game in question.
But like Smith—about whom players often said could make his point more incisively without ever using bad language than someone who dropped dozens of curse words—Davis knows how to make his point.
"Him getting on us the way he did felt way worse than using a bunch of bad words," says Armando Bacot. "He had us all shook. We were still talking about it the next day in the locker room. That's the day we learned not to get on his bad side. It was almost like we had disappointed him, and that felt terrible. He has a way of doing it that lets you know you messed up, but also encouraging you at the same time."
Changes: Although 2021-22 practice officially began this week, the Tar Heels have actually been practicing for several weeks. Fall practices are a little longer, but the workouts in previous weeks are close to identical in terms of structure and tone to this week's sessions.
The first two of those summer practices began with detailed explanation of some differences in the way Davis wants to structure this year's offense and defense. The on-court product you see this year will have some differences from a Roy Williams-coached team, including changes to the way Carolina guards the man one pass away, an adjustment to guarding corner three-point shooters, and an offense that spreads the floor.
The Tar Heels remain intent on getting good shots, but there's been an emphasis in practice that the good shot might be an open three-pointer for a good shooter off just one pass.
Notes: Multiple times at practices, Davis has reminded his team they led the Atlantic Coast Conference in turnovers last season (and it wasn't close—Carolina had 424 and the next-worst figure was 360). That's partially due to the Tar Heels' fast pace, but it's also due to some general carelessness. As part of the remedy, any turnover in a full-court drill situation requires the offending team to run an 11-second down and back, starting at the baseline, touching the opposite baseline, and finishing across the free throw line. One probably sounds easy, but they can pile up…Davis abhors any corner-cutting. That includes off-court situations such as being on time for everything, and it also extends to the court. Already this season, the Tar Heels have learned the new coaching staff pays close attention to meeting all start and finish requirements (start behind the baseline, finish past the free throw line) for any running reinforcement. "We're not cheating anything!" Davis told his team at one practice…
Another Davis-ism that's frequently mentioned to his team: "We don't do mediocre. We have to be great in everything we do." The coach knows mistakes will happen, but also believes in preparing to succeed. "If you don't put forth the attention to detail, you have no chance," he said yesterday. "I believe you put yourself in position for greatness to happen. The ball bounces in different ways. You can play a great game and still lose. But you have to put in the effort and practice and process for that to possibly happen. If you don't put in the effort, you have no chance of that happening."…
A big practice change this season is the way the teams are structured. Under Williams, there was a white (starters) team and a blue (reserves) team. The white team typically included the five starters and two or three top reserves, meaning they usually had a substantial talent edge over the blue squad. Davis has more equally split players between both teams, leading to more competition in practice…And there's competition in almost every period of practice. Players don't just shoot free throws; they have a free throw competition in which they're trying to eliminate their partner at the same basket. On Tuesday, players didn't just shoot three-pointers; they tried to complete a drill that required making two straight three-pointers from each of five spots around the arc, then going back around the arc doing the same thing—all in less than a minute and 15 seconds…
Missed layups are another area of emphasis. Every miss requires a down-and-back. The misses accumulate during practice and are combined at the end of the session. Four misses means four down-and-backs after an exhausting practice, a steep penalty…Hard work in the offseason is a theme of every September and October in college basketball. But Tar Heel veterans do seem to believe this was a productive offseason. "Over the summer I was in the gym three times a day," Leaky Black said. "I shot with Jackie (Manuel) at 8 a.m. and made 100 three-pointers before class. Then I'd lift with Jonas (Sahratian) at 12. Then on the court in the afternoon for skill development. That was my schedule every day." Fellow veteran Armando Bacot sees similar commitment. "This is by far the hardest working team I've been on," he said. "The freshmen and the guys who live in Rams (Village) are coming in late at night. The older guys are coming in the morning. Everyone is working extra after practice. We've really worked hard at getting better. I think everyone is going to be a better version of themselves this year."…
Don't mistake Davis' more open offense as a license for players to take every shot they see. The head coach sounded downright Williams-esque on Tuesday when he admonished a Tar Heel, "Two of those three floaters you've taken are bad shots. I don't mind a floater. But those were bad shots and we had no one back."
Players Mentioned
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