UNC Hoops: The Tar Heels Lesson Plan
By Matt Hamm
The Tar Heels were humiliated by the Seminoles on Saturday. Defeated by 33 points, 90-57, by an un-ranked, ACC foe. Sometimes you need a loss like this to grow as a team. Sometimes, even Tar Heels lose their focus, forget what it’s all about to represent the University of North Carolina. But one must learn it’s lesson. I’m sure Roy is going to show the team some tough love in today’s practice. I’m also sure you could hear a pin drop on the way home to Chapel Hill. But it’s time to stop all the sulking, learn our lesson and move on. It’s time for our first Tar Heel lesson plan of the season!
Lesson 1: You have to defend EVERYBODY! Deividas Dulky averaging an amazing 6.2 points and 1.1 assists per game this season, Dulky absolutely torched UNC on Saturday. Going off for 32 points on 12-14 shooting including 8-10 from three point range. I understand giving up a couple to the seemingly harmless senior. But come on, the guy gets hot, get on him, don’t leave him open, but the Heels did, again and again. Dulky made UNC pay for it’s lack of hustle and refusal to pay him respect. Deividas got hot early in the first half, plenty of time for UNC to make an adjustment, but they didn’t seem interested in defense on Saturday.
"“Every little kid has a dream when you’re playing on a big stage like I did today,” Dulkys said. “I guess today was my day.”"
Lesson 2: UNC needs a more consistent rotation. It’s time for Heels coach Roy Williams to settle on a rotation already. It’s obvious, this team is having trouble playing on the road. They fall into defensive, sleep like, lapses. They need routine, they need stability, they need to know their roles, it’s time. The lineup does more shuffling than it needs to do because it’s backup point guard is also its starting shooting guard. Reggie Bullock is playing defense at a comparable level to Dexter Strickland right now, and should be inserted into the lineup. The minutes don’t have to change much, but UNC needs a fresh Strickland coming into the game when it chooses to rest Kendall Marshall. Stabilizing the lineup, and minimizing the constant shuffling, that has become the Roy Williams early season way, can’t come soon enough.
Take a break now Tar Heel fans, the rest of our lesson is after the jump
Lesson 3: Roy needs to figure out how to get this teams attention. To me it was obvious Roy was desperate and didn’t have an answer against FSU. The constant shuffling of the lineup with no sort of rhythm to it just sporadic, neck jerk decisions. He was yelling on the sideline alright, but he yells when the team is killing Elon by 40 points instead of 80. The point here, Roy did not, in any way, shape, or form, grab this teams attention during Saturday’s massacre. So that begs the question, what should Roy have done? To be honest, I don’t really know either, I was shocked also, but I’m not the coach of the Tar Heels now am I?
If I were coach, I would have at the very least, tried a couple of things. Such as, pulling my seniors aside, all of them, whether it’s Tyler Zeller, Justin Watts or some walk on. Huddling up, looking into their eyes and saying, I need you boys to go out on that court and show these kids what Carolina pride is all about. I’m not telling you to comeback from a 30 point deficit, I’m telling you to hustle, dive on the floor, protect the basketball and take good shots. Make this thing respectable, show some emotion out there, support one another, gets us back on track. Or how about at the very least calling a few timeouts and freaking the heck out at your team? Especially after Mr.Dulky dumps another three down your throat.
"“Princeton’s defense must be a hell of a lot better than ours,” Williams said. “They can hold them to 10 points in a half and we give up 8,000.”"
Lesson 4: Turn this into a positive, don’t let it happen again, move forward and dominate. Even great teams get crushed sometimes. I can remember back in 96, the Chicago Bulls, during the Michael Jordan days, went 72-10, got blown out by the Miami Heat one game. The Bulls looked like crap and even Jordan had a sub-par game. It happens, everyone involved (myself included) is best serve to put the loss in perspective, learn from it and move on. The key is learning from it as a team. Some of my proudest moments with my family is looking back on the adversity we have got through as a family. A team is no different than a family, I can remember this same team knocking off the “unstoppable” Tar Heel team of 09 in the ACC Tourney, everything turned out fine just then, no reason it won’t this time around.
Check back later with us at Keeping It Heel, Monica drops a bomb you won’t expect and I give you the final and most important lesson plan for the Tar Heels. Plus a look at a very special Tar Heel recruit.
Keep It Heel!