Lucas: Coaching And Cookies

By Adam Lucas

This week was a reminder that coaching at the major college level is so much more than what we see on gameday.

Carolina beat Notre Dame, 63-59, on Wednesday. We all know what happened in that game—the Tar Heels weren't particularly outstanding. They made only five field goals in the first half. They turned it over too much. The bench wasn't very productive.

It's fair to say that Hubert Davis was somewhat frustrated after the game. His team won the game, but he knew they could be better. As he told them in the locker room after the game, he planned to "get after it" in practice the next day.

That was around 11:30 p.m. The Tar Heels finally got off the plane in Raleigh around 3 a.m. By the time they reassembled at the Smith Center for a 3 p.m. practice 12 hours later, they were greeted with a very different message.

Thursday's workout was relatively light, consisting mostly of shooting drills. But before the physical practice began, Davis gathered the team at midcourt. You have to take yourself back to Thursday's mindset to fully appreciate this. Remember: it hadn't been a particularly impressive win the night before. If anything, the victory probably created more questions than it answered.

But then the Tar Heel head coach began practice by naming something positive each starter had done the night before. Armando Bacot had communicated defensive assignments to his teammates and made sure they were aware of substitutions. Pete Nance had been all over the stat sheet in multiple categories. Leaky Black played 39 minutes because Davis was impressed with his effort and toughness. Everyone earned a sentence or two of praise that had nothing to do with how many points they had scored.

And then they practiced. Despite the incorrect public belief, this isn't a Ted Lasso situation; Davis is capable of coming down hard on his team—he did it as recently as Wednesday. But he does have an uncanny feel for understanding when the buzz has gotten too negative, and when it's time to start building them back up.

Which is partially how Pete Nance played his best game as a Tar Heel on Saturday, scoring 22 points to go with four blocks, some solid defense and a laser assist to Puff Johnson. During the season, Davis' rule is players must come by the basketball office at least once per week. Those talks are usually not about basketball.

Sometimes, in fact, they are about cookies. Davis was eating one this week when Nance stopped by. A discussion of the relative merits of certain cookies ensued. Then Nance dropped a bombshell.

"My favorite cookie is a Lemon Oreo," he said.

"I'm 52 years old, and I've never heard of that," Davis replied.

"You can find it at any grocery store," said Nance.

Davis being Davis, he went by the store that evening. Sure enough, Nance was correct—there were the Lemon Oreos. So Davis grabbed a package of Lemon Oreos.

Before home games, Nance typically takes a pregame nap on the couch in Davis' office. When he arrived on Saturday, a package of Lemon Oreos was waiting for him, courtesy of the head coach.

Then Nance went out and scored 22 points, scoring Carolina's first points of the day on a three-pointer and then hitting three more. By the time he ran off the court after the 71-63 Tar Heel win, the students in the risers were chanting his name: "Pete, Pete, Pete!"

When Nance walked into the locker room, Davis grinned at him. "Tell them what the secret was, Pete," he said.

Nance simply opened his locker and took out the Lemon Oreos. The results were undeniable.

"Well, we're going to the store tonight," said Sean May.

This is the ultimate answer to why Davis constantly says he has to know his players in order to coach them. It's also part of the answer to why you're never going to hear Davis criticize a player in public. He simply doesn't believe in it. With all the pressure on his players, both from outsiders and from those close to them, he doesn't see any value in adding to the chorus of public opining. It doesn't mean he doesn't see the needed areas of improvement. In private and at practice, he will speak to them much more frankly. In public, though, he will be much more positive. "To me, criticizing kids is absolutely disgusting," he told Jones Angell on the Tar Heel Sports Network. That's who Hubert Davis is.

It will be fun to assign most of the credit for the giant win over Virginia to a magical cookie. And that's a great story. But it was also something else. Nance has heard the criticism over the last month, and no one has been harder on him than himself. There have been some somber moments after games when he has struggled. But there he has been every time the next day at practice, the loudest talker on defense, the guy always willing to pick up a teammate. Shot after shot, never missing a day, never skipping a workout to wallow a little.

"It's been tough," he said on the THSN. "I haven't been performing to the team's standards or to my personal standards. It's been really hard on me. But all I know to do is keep my head down and keep working.

"The key is to believe in ourselves, believe in each other and believe in the work. Eventually, water finds its level. You have to believe in the fact that you're giving yourself the best chance to be successful. Keep working and eventually it will come through."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Leaky Black

Puff Johnson

Pete Nance

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