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University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: Maggie Hobson
Lucas: Start The Clock
September 25, 2023 | Men's Basketball, Featured Writers, Adam Lucas
Carolina began in-season practice for the 2023-24 season on Monday morning.
By Adam Lucas
It was, most definitely, a highlight reel play. Which was exactly the point Hubert Davis was trying to make.
The 2023-24 Tar Heels went through their first in-season practice of the 2023-24 season on Monday morning. During one period late in practice, one group got an uncontested two-on-zero run-out. They converted it in high style, throwing the ball off the backboard to allow a teammate to slam it home.
Davis immediately stopped practice and gathered the team at midcourt. "That's not what we practice for," he told them.
"We practice for those," he said while pointing to the national championship banners that hang at one end of the Smith Center.
"We practice for those," he said while pointing to the ACC championship banners that line a sideline.
"And we practice for those," he said while pointing to the individual honored and retired player jerseys in the opposite end zone.
"We do not," he said while grabbing and pointing to his cell phone, "practice for these."
The two players involved immediately took ownership of the situation, receiving the message and slapping five to move on. It would have been a completely acceptable play in pickup games. But Monday was for real, and the pickup type of play is over. It was still two points. But it was a high-risk two points, with plenty of room for error. How often do you practice throwing the ball off the backboard to a teammate? What if it caroms off the rim and leads to a turnover and fast break going the other way? This isn't yet the 1998 team, which could score in bunches and on which Ed Cota famously against Duke threw the ball off the glass to Vince Carter...who missed the dunk. After last year's disappointing results, the Tar Heels haven't yet earned the leeway to go for style instead of substance, especially if they're trying a play that even Cota and Carter couldn't convert in a game.
"My favorite team is the Pittsburgh Steelers," Davis said after practice. "I love Coach Mike Tomlin, and one thing he always says is, 'Make routine plays routinely.' That's all we need to do. And that was not a routine play."
The Tar Heel head coach took an unusual step to ensure his players understand the standard demanded of them this season: he gave them a written test. Monday was actually the second time it had been issued. The first was over the summer, and the current team was not uniformly successful in identifying the core principles of Carolina's overall program on and off the court, plus four key offensive and defensive principles.
The primary principles: Davis wants his team to be hard-working, tough, competitive, disciplined and unselfish.
On offense: Be a running team, attack and dominate the offensive glass, be unselfish with passes and screens and dominate points in the paint.
On defense: Be great guarding the ball, box out and be the top team in the country in defensive rebound percentage, talk and trust and be good communicators, and protect the paint.
Davis raised the stakes for Monday's test administration. "I told them that if they didn't get it, they didn't practice," he said. "If they got one wrong, they weren't going to practice. We can't practice and get better unless everyone knows the standard, and I'm not budging on it. Why would we waste time trying to get where we want to go if everyone doesn't know what they're fighting for and how to get there? Now I feel comfortable that everyone is on the same page."
Monday was a practice that looked like everyone was on the same page—with the caveat that first practices are almost always that way. Still, it was noticeable how vocal the Tar Heels were in every drill, especially the newcomer trio of Harrison Ingram, Cormac Ryan and Paxson Wojcik. Jae'Lyn Withers had a couple of eye-popping athletic plays, including soaring for a blocked shot that might have been a goaltend but was still an impressive physical play, and then a dunk in game action on which he cocked the ball behind his head and slammed it through one-handed.
The returnees made an impact, too. RJ Davis drew a charge on Wojcik that drew perhaps the biggest cheer of the day. Seth Trimble dropped a beautiful bounce pass to James Okonkwo through traffic that led to an easy basket.
The most fun sequence might have come during a full-court drill when Ingram dove on the floor at one end to secure a loose ball, then started a fast break. It looked like Davis had a layup, but then Zayden High went above the rim to swat it away.
The energy—as with all first practices—was palpable, led by the Carolina head coach, who will be practicing with the exact same enthusiasm in February that he utilized on Monday. Still, it was fun to watch the Tar Heels start the break, the White team pushing it up the court, the Blue team getting back on defense…and then a figure in all navy racing up the sideline with them. For just a second, it looked like there were three teams on the court, and then it became clear the all-navy representative was Hubert Davis, demonstrating exactly how hard he wanted to push the tempo.
It was the type of energy that Davis expects his team to sustain throughout the season. NCAA rules have changed in recent years, making this "first day" of practice really a continuation of existing workouts. Carolina, for example, had two practices with the full team just last week. Today is no longer the first day you get to see the entire team on the court together for the first time.
But it still feels a little different. "The clock is now on," Hubert Davis said. "There are 42 practices until it's real."
The ACC will release the 2023-24 men's and women's basketball schedules tomorrow evening on the ACC Network. Check back on GoHeels.com at 8 p.m. Tuesday for details and analysis.
It was, most definitely, a highlight reel play. Which was exactly the point Hubert Davis was trying to make.
The 2023-24 Tar Heels went through their first in-season practice of the 2023-24 season on Monday morning. During one period late in practice, one group got an uncontested two-on-zero run-out. They converted it in high style, throwing the ball off the backboard to allow a teammate to slam it home.
Davis immediately stopped practice and gathered the team at midcourt. "That's not what we practice for," he told them.
"We practice for those," he said while pointing to the national championship banners that hang at one end of the Smith Center.
"We practice for those," he said while pointing to the ACC championship banners that line a sideline.
"And we practice for those," he said while pointing to the individual honored and retired player jerseys in the opposite end zone.
"We do not," he said while grabbing and pointing to his cell phone, "practice for these."
The two players involved immediately took ownership of the situation, receiving the message and slapping five to move on. It would have been a completely acceptable play in pickup games. But Monday was for real, and the pickup type of play is over. It was still two points. But it was a high-risk two points, with plenty of room for error. How often do you practice throwing the ball off the backboard to a teammate? What if it caroms off the rim and leads to a turnover and fast break going the other way? This isn't yet the 1998 team, which could score in bunches and on which Ed Cota famously against Duke threw the ball off the glass to Vince Carter...who missed the dunk. After last year's disappointing results, the Tar Heels haven't yet earned the leeway to go for style instead of substance, especially if they're trying a play that even Cota and Carter couldn't convert in a game.
"My favorite team is the Pittsburgh Steelers," Davis said after practice. "I love Coach Mike Tomlin, and one thing he always says is, 'Make routine plays routinely.' That's all we need to do. And that was not a routine play."
The Tar Heel head coach took an unusual step to ensure his players understand the standard demanded of them this season: he gave them a written test. Monday was actually the second time it had been issued. The first was over the summer, and the current team was not uniformly successful in identifying the core principles of Carolina's overall program on and off the court, plus four key offensive and defensive principles.
The primary principles: Davis wants his team to be hard-working, tough, competitive, disciplined and unselfish.
On offense: Be a running team, attack and dominate the offensive glass, be unselfish with passes and screens and dominate points in the paint.
On defense: Be great guarding the ball, box out and be the top team in the country in defensive rebound percentage, talk and trust and be good communicators, and protect the paint.
Davis raised the stakes for Monday's test administration. "I told them that if they didn't get it, they didn't practice," he said. "If they got one wrong, they weren't going to practice. We can't practice and get better unless everyone knows the standard, and I'm not budging on it. Why would we waste time trying to get where we want to go if everyone doesn't know what they're fighting for and how to get there? Now I feel comfortable that everyone is on the same page."
Monday was a practice that looked like everyone was on the same page—with the caveat that first practices are almost always that way. Still, it was noticeable how vocal the Tar Heels were in every drill, especially the newcomer trio of Harrison Ingram, Cormac Ryan and Paxson Wojcik. Jae'Lyn Withers had a couple of eye-popping athletic plays, including soaring for a blocked shot that might have been a goaltend but was still an impressive physical play, and then a dunk in game action on which he cocked the ball behind his head and slammed it through one-handed.
The returnees made an impact, too. RJ Davis drew a charge on Wojcik that drew perhaps the biggest cheer of the day. Seth Trimble dropped a beautiful bounce pass to James Okonkwo through traffic that led to an easy basket.
The most fun sequence might have come during a full-court drill when Ingram dove on the floor at one end to secure a loose ball, then started a fast break. It looked like Davis had a layup, but then Zayden High went above the rim to swat it away.
The energy—as with all first practices—was palpable, led by the Carolina head coach, who will be practicing with the exact same enthusiasm in February that he utilized on Monday. Still, it was fun to watch the Tar Heels start the break, the White team pushing it up the court, the Blue team getting back on defense…and then a figure in all navy racing up the sideline with them. For just a second, it looked like there were three teams on the court, and then it became clear the all-navy representative was Hubert Davis, demonstrating exactly how hard he wanted to push the tempo.
It was the type of energy that Davis expects his team to sustain throughout the season. NCAA rules have changed in recent years, making this "first day" of practice really a continuation of existing workouts. Carolina, for example, had two practices with the full team just last week. Today is no longer the first day you get to see the entire team on the court together for the first time.
But it still feels a little different. "The clock is now on," Hubert Davis said. "There are 42 practices until it's real."
The ACC will release the 2023-24 men's and women's basketball schedules tomorrow evening on the ACC Network. Check back on GoHeels.com at 8 p.m. Tuesday for details and analysis.
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