...and sorry about the delay, but with the portal finally putting a coda on the season, here we go in two parts. This Part 1 is about the program itself.
- The Hire: Look, this is not intended as some sort of told-ya-so, but regardless of the season's outcome, Hubert was THE right hire from the get-go. Even as much as I like Wes, Hubert brought something to the table Wes did not --- he played for Dean and is a true believer in what the Maestro created... and particularly coming at the time this vacancy did, that was vitally important for restoration of the program (see more on that below). Moreover, Hubert immediately validated that with his staff hires. Sean is finally on the bench and his work with Bacot showed immediate dividends, Brad gives Hubert a comfortable and familiar sounding-board and Jeff brought renewed focus on fundamentals to coaching Guards (as well as X-and-O savvy) and again, that connection to Dean. Rounding out the support staff with Pat's NBA cred and guys like Jackie and BRob, the concept of the UNC Family (as opposed to "brotherhood"
) is quite real --- and has already paid dividends on the recruiting trail.
- The System (defense): As we know, on defense Roy defaulted to 22 --- high half-court pickup Man, hard gap-denies and hedges --- something Dean himself had used more in the 3-point era. However, with each incremental move-back of the 3-pt line, it made 22 more difficult, as it added an extra step to close-outs --- just enough to make defending the 3 problematic. Recovering from hard-denies-into-help was physically untenable over the long haul. The last perimeter group Roy had that could pull that off was the Berry/Pinson/KW crew --- and even then, Roy mixed in more 21 (gap-Man) to take pressure off our Bigs. But after that bunch was gone?... oh Dear Lord. When Hubert came in we started playing something that even jaded observers like myself and @Tarheel75 were having a hard time ID-ing. I half-jokingly dubbed it 21.5, and it wasn't pretty at first, but it was the right call on the staff's part--- in this incarnation of 22 we learned to selectively pressure gaps while maintaining help-and-recovery accessibility, while not stressing our Bigs --- and by March we got pretty dadgummed good at it.
- The System (offense): Much noise has been made about a "new" offense, but truth is the Carolina system is still the foundation. It's not like this is the first time we've played with a Stretch-4 (Luke, Jawad), e.g.) after all. Yes, Hubert did put more emphasis on not clogging the paint, but still, Mando played like a Carolina 5 and Brady played like a Carolina Stretch. We also played our best basketball when we were moving it inside-out and getting into transition. Truth be told then, the biggest changes were adaptations to our personnel (and roster limitations). I'll talk more about players in Part 2 (coming soon), but for immediate purposes the most tangible differences were in base half-court sets. As I'll dive into deeper in Part 2, suffice to say that decision-making was not a strength of our current Guard crop. The staff thus made the call to relieve them of a good bit of that responsibility --- compartmentalizing their options, if you will --- and inviting/forcing mismatches with mucho high screen action (we absolutely stole dook's lunch-money with that... twice). Lord knows we lived on the edge of the shot-clock way too often, but as I'll discuss next time, it was the best course for this group (good shooters/no floor-general/little depth).
- Accountabilty: Roy Williams thankfully restored the Carolina way after Matt Doherty forsook what he had been taught, and there are not enough good words to honor that. That process involved not just reinstalling the Carolina system, but also expectations and accountability (in both directions). The transformation of the group that brought home the 2005 Natty was immediate case-in-point. However, over his last few years, Roy's seat-of-the-pants predilections gradually superseded what brung him a bit too often (and I think he realized that). Anyway, in Part 2 I'll talk about the development and handling of this season's crop of players --- and this is where the most important changes happened that enabled this exciting season to play out as it did...
- The Hire: Look, this is not intended as some sort of told-ya-so, but regardless of the season's outcome, Hubert was THE right hire from the get-go. Even as much as I like Wes, Hubert brought something to the table Wes did not --- he played for Dean and is a true believer in what the Maestro created... and particularly coming at the time this vacancy did, that was vitally important for restoration of the program (see more on that below). Moreover, Hubert immediately validated that with his staff hires. Sean is finally on the bench and his work with Bacot showed immediate dividends, Brad gives Hubert a comfortable and familiar sounding-board and Jeff brought renewed focus on fundamentals to coaching Guards (as well as X-and-O savvy) and again, that connection to Dean. Rounding out the support staff with Pat's NBA cred and guys like Jackie and BRob, the concept of the UNC Family (as opposed to "brotherhood"
) is quite real --- and has already paid dividends on the recruiting trail.- The System (defense): As we know, on defense Roy defaulted to 22 --- high half-court pickup Man, hard gap-denies and hedges --- something Dean himself had used more in the 3-point era. However, with each incremental move-back of the 3-pt line, it made 22 more difficult, as it added an extra step to close-outs --- just enough to make defending the 3 problematic. Recovering from hard-denies-into-help was physically untenable over the long haul. The last perimeter group Roy had that could pull that off was the Berry/Pinson/KW crew --- and even then, Roy mixed in more 21 (gap-Man) to take pressure off our Bigs. But after that bunch was gone?... oh Dear Lord
. When Hubert came in we started playing something that even jaded observers like myself and @Tarheel75 were having a hard time ID-ing. I half-jokingly dubbed it 21.5, and it wasn't pretty at first, but it was the right call on the staff's part--- in this incarnation of 22 we learned to selectively pressure gaps while maintaining help-and-recovery accessibility, while not stressing our Bigs --- and by March we got pretty dadgummed good at it.- The System (offense): Much noise has been made about a "new" offense, but truth is the Carolina system is still the foundation. It's not like this is the first time we've played with a Stretch-4 (Luke, Jawad), e.g.) after all. Yes, Hubert did put more emphasis on not clogging the paint, but still, Mando played like a Carolina 5 and Brady played like a Carolina Stretch. We also played our best basketball when we were moving it inside-out and getting into transition. Truth be told then, the biggest changes were adaptations to our personnel (and roster limitations). I'll talk more about players in Part 2 (coming soon), but for immediate purposes the most tangible differences were in base half-court sets. As I'll dive into deeper in Part 2, suffice to say that decision-making was not a strength of our current Guard crop. The staff thus made the call to relieve them of a good bit of that responsibility --- compartmentalizing their options, if you will --- and inviting/forcing mismatches with mucho high screen action (we absolutely stole dook's lunch-money with that... twice). Lord knows we lived on the edge of the shot-clock way too often, but as I'll discuss next time, it was the best course for this group (good shooters/no floor-general/little depth).
- Accountabilty: Roy Williams thankfully restored the Carolina way after Matt Doherty forsook what he had been taught, and there are not enough good words to honor that. That process involved not just reinstalling the Carolina system, but also expectations and accountability (in both directions). The transformation of the group that brought home the 2005 Natty was immediate case-in-point. However, over his last few years, Roy's seat-of-the-pants predilections gradually superseded what brung him a bit too often (and I think he realized that). Anyway, in Part 2 I'll talk about the development and handling of this season's crop of players --- and this is where the most important changes happened that enabled this exciting season to play out as it did...
