UNC Basketball: Roy Williams adapting to modern game with UNC’s death lineup

Tar Heels’ “death lineup” made its long-awaited debut and rewarded fans with a solid performance.

When Steve Kerr became the head coach of the Golden State Warriors in 2014, he implemented a revolutionary lineup. The pairing of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes, and Draymond Green became known as the death lineup.

Essentially, an extreme take on small ball, the death lineup pairs five players capable of playing beyond the perimeter. Kerr experienced great success with this lineup and it reached a new level of domination when Barnes was replaced with Kevin Durant.

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Since then, lineups like this have been used across all forms of basketball; an adaptation to the modern game.

Roy Williams and the Tar Heels are one of the last to follow suit.

Williams has always coached teams to great success by playing inside-out with dominant big men.

The Tar Heels made back-to-back championship appearances while relying upon the likes of Brice Johnson, Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks.

UNC started the season with questions at center and many wondered if they could attain the success of years past. Through the first 16 games of the season, the answer was no.

The Heels were 12-4 and had dropped two straight conference games with their offense being the primary culprit. Clearly, a change needed to be made, but few thought Williams would step out of his comfort zone.

Then the Hall-of-Fame coach did what he rarely does in making a midseason lineup change. Against Boston College, Williams replaced Garrison Brooks in the starting lineup with Cameron Johnson.

Williams followed the trend made popular by a coach 15 years his junior to the delight of the North Carolina fan base.

Joel Berry and Kenny Williams now play the part of the Splash Brothers in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Theo Pinson plays the role of facilitator and lock-down defender in Andre Iguodala. To round-up the lineup is UNC’s version of Kevin Durant and Draymond Green in Cameron Johnson and Luke Maye.

The lineup includes four players who shoot over 33% from three-point range and an average height of 6-foot-5. The tallest players being Cameron Johnson and Luke Maye at 6-foot-9.

The starters delivered in their debut, combining for 77 points and 42 rebounds against the Eagles. Even though the team played small, UNC recorded a season-high 23 offensive boards. All was well for the Heels as they beat a solid team by 30 points at home.

Luke Maye was the biggest beneficiary as he had the best game of his career in front of a home audience. The junior big man scored 32 points to go along with 18 rebounds while shooting 4-of-5 from beyond the arc.

UNC’s death lineup lived up to the hype in its first start together, while collecting a much-needed win. The new set of starters has injected life into an otherwise stagnant offense.

Hopefully, Roy continues to roll with this lineup in the Tar Heels’ next game at Notre Dame.

Next: Two Tar Heels named to Wooden Award Midseason Top 25

The future has arrived in Chapel Hill. And if they can match their performance against Boston College, expect big things for the remainder of the season.