...and this is a direct continuation from Part 1, so if you haven't already, please check that out first for continuity sake.
As prefaced, Part 2 will focus more on personnel, and the coaching thereof. To that end...
- Adapting at PG: As mentioned, we had no traditional Carolina PG, the key defintiion of which is floor-general. Seamlessly flowing from transition to Freelance and/or set plays requires having one. Most recently, with say, Joel at PG we could run Primary/Secondary (with iiterations)/Freelance, and if the shot-clock got under 10? No worries. He made sure we got a good look. With this crew? Nope. So, although Caleb is a bit better than RJ at transition, Hubert moved RJ to primary Point with the twist of compartmentalizing the decisions. We lost extended transition ops but utilized early forced mismatches (with more 2-high sets) and/or set plays that cleared the floor for RJ to shoot or drive with pre-existing passing options, as opposed to getting caught in no-man's land like last season.
- Accountability: As I said in the first Part, Roy turned around and restored Carolina basketball in the 2000s by restoring the principles of his mentor --- even if doing so was temporarily painful --- which included demanding certain things from players in order to see the court. And in turn, that implied the tacit quid pro quo of consistency from the staff as to how playing time was allocated. Again, those key aspects had gone wanting during the Doherty tenure, and restoring them was key to our resurgence into the 2005 Natty. OK then. Unfortunately however, this was ironically the area with which Roy began to struggle toward the end of his own tenure.
What follows are cases-in-point (with the caveat that some folks are likely not gonna like some of it)...
- Kerwin Walton: Now that transfer destinations are confirmed (and this is NOT intended to pick on a great kid, for whom I wish the best), I'll go ahead and say this straight-up --- if Dean E. Smith had the 20-21 season's roster, under no circumstances would Kerwin have EVER started a game... period. That may sound harsh to some, but you just can't be that bad defensively and start for UNC with our system, one in which defense begets transition, which begets half-court offense. Look, I get that Roy was desperate for the ball to go thru the basket that season, but Carolina history is replete with instant-offense bench guys (e.g., John "Instant" Virgil, Ranzino Smith) who weren't good/consistent enough defensively to be starters, and hell, they were friggin Dudley Bradley compared to Walton. To Hubert's credit, he gave Kerwin every chance to become at least a non-liability on that end, but that just didn't happen... AND with the season-long journey to restoration of Carolina 20 defense being so vital (discussed in Part 1), his deficiencies were all the more glaring.
- Team Chemistry: And ya see, the accountability thing works in both directions. Defense --- even for the gifted --- is hard work. And psychologically, if other players see a guy getting rewarded by the coaches despite failing at that PRIME directive, the natural inclination is "why should I bust my ass to beat my guy to a spot?... or carry out my forces?... or get there a step sooner in Help?" You get the picture. And fact is, on the 20-21 team only two guys played defense worth a sh** --- Andrew Platek (all the time) and Leaky (when he wanted to --- more on that coming below). And speaking of Andrew, there is the other side of accountability. To his credit, Roy recruited him and deservedly utilized him nicely as a rotation piece in his freshman season, but then that went south --- not on Andrew's end, but on Roy's. AP literally did everything he was asked to improve and did, including turning himself into a legit D-1 "plus" defender, but nonetheless saw his playing time diminish and become frustratingly inconsistent. Folks rightly talked about Andrew not living up to rep as a shooter. OK fine, but ask any shooter what it does to your confidence when you know you're on a miss-2-in-a-row-and-get-pulled leash?... in fact, ask Kerwin how hard it is to get a shooting rhythm when your PT gets sparse, hmm?
And look, I mention AP simply because he didn't get the consistent rotational playing-time he earned the old-fashioned Dean Smith way, while Kerwin started despite not doing that. And again, that sends the wrong message to a team (plus, it also cost us an early commitment from Jaden Bradley --- a story for another time). In other words, short-cuts can come back to bite ya --- or as The Eagles put it, "every port of refuge has its price". But mostly, this saga leads us into perhaps the most important personnel success thus far under the Hubert Davis regime....
- The Reclamation of Leaky Black: We all know Roy had "favorites". There's nothing inherently wrong with that --- Dean had his "son" Phil, after all --- but that needs to be earned, like say, Marcus Paige. After him though, that got a bit loose under Roy. Just as Leaky's HS coaches did him no favors by letting him dick around on the perimeter, being Roy's last favorite didn't help either. Quite frankly, Leaky under-performed for 3 seasons. He had little interest in utilizing his length on offense and played defense, well, when he wanted to. Yet, he kept getting rewarded with starts. And I can also tell ya that he wasn't always the best teammate, IYKWIM. Entitlement can do that, and it's also not good for team chemistry (which was an issue last season). Welp, Hubert set a new tone early on (and that got noticed by the other players) by telling him he was looking at a greatly reduced role with his previous level of effort. In fact, many expected him to transfer, but to his credit he stuck it out, and the attitude change stuck out early in Fall camp, and Leaky earned back his starting job. I was vocal in critiquing Leaky previoiusly, but I couldn't be prouder of him for manning-up and remaking his game. He loves UNC, got his degree, and was perhaps the biggest single point of improvement on this team.
So... there's Part 2. Again, sorry if any cages were rattled. I'l do one more (next week maybe) focused on Xs-and-Os and prospects moving forward. Have a great weekend!...
As prefaced, Part 2 will focus more on personnel, and the coaching thereof. To that end...
- Adapting at PG: As mentioned, we had no traditional Carolina PG, the key defintiion of which is floor-general. Seamlessly flowing from transition to Freelance and/or set plays requires having one. Most recently, with say, Joel at PG we could run Primary/Secondary (with iiterations)/Freelance, and if the shot-clock got under 10? No worries. He made sure we got a good look. With this crew? Nope. So, although Caleb is a bit better than RJ at transition, Hubert moved RJ to primary Point with the twist of compartmentalizing the decisions. We lost extended transition ops but utilized early forced mismatches (with more 2-high sets) and/or set plays that cleared the floor for RJ to shoot or drive with pre-existing passing options, as opposed to getting caught in no-man's land like last season.
- Accountability: As I said in the first Part, Roy turned around and restored Carolina basketball in the 2000s by restoring the principles of his mentor --- even if doing so was temporarily painful --- which included demanding certain things from players in order to see the court. And in turn, that implied the tacit quid pro quo of consistency from the staff as to how playing time was allocated. Again, those key aspects had gone wanting during the Doherty tenure, and restoring them was key to our resurgence into the 2005 Natty. OK then. Unfortunately however, this was ironically the area with which Roy began to struggle toward the end of his own tenure.
What follows are cases-in-point (with the caveat that some folks are likely not gonna like some of it)...
- Kerwin Walton: Now that transfer destinations are confirmed (and this is NOT intended to pick on a great kid, for whom I wish the best), I'll go ahead and say this straight-up --- if Dean E. Smith had the 20-21 season's roster, under no circumstances would Kerwin have EVER started a game... period. That may sound harsh to some, but you just can't be that bad defensively and start for UNC with our system, one in which defense begets transition, which begets half-court offense. Look, I get that Roy was desperate for the ball to go thru the basket that season, but Carolina history is replete with instant-offense bench guys (e.g., John "Instant" Virgil, Ranzino Smith) who weren't good/consistent enough defensively to be starters, and hell, they were friggin Dudley Bradley compared to Walton. To Hubert's credit, he gave Kerwin every chance to become at least a non-liability on that end, but that just didn't happen... AND with the season-long journey to restoration of Carolina 20 defense being so vital (discussed in Part 1), his deficiencies were all the more glaring.
- Team Chemistry: And ya see, the accountability thing works in both directions. Defense --- even for the gifted --- is hard work. And psychologically, if other players see a guy getting rewarded by the coaches despite failing at that PRIME directive, the natural inclination is "why should I bust my ass to beat my guy to a spot?... or carry out my forces?... or get there a step sooner in Help?" You get the picture. And fact is, on the 20-21 team only two guys played defense worth a sh** --- Andrew Platek (all the time) and Leaky (when he wanted to --- more on that coming below). And speaking of Andrew, there is the other side of accountability. To his credit, Roy recruited him and deservedly utilized him nicely as a rotation piece in his freshman season, but then that went south --- not on Andrew's end, but on Roy's. AP literally did everything he was asked to improve and did, including turning himself into a legit D-1 "plus" defender, but nonetheless saw his playing time diminish and become frustratingly inconsistent. Folks rightly talked about Andrew not living up to rep as a shooter. OK fine, but ask any shooter what it does to your confidence when you know you're on a miss-2-in-a-row-and-get-pulled leash?... in fact, ask Kerwin how hard it is to get a shooting rhythm when your PT gets sparse, hmm?
And look, I mention AP simply because he didn't get the consistent rotational playing-time he earned the old-fashioned Dean Smith way, while Kerwin started despite not doing that. And again, that sends the wrong message to a team (plus, it also cost us an early commitment from Jaden Bradley --- a story for another time). In other words, short-cuts can come back to bite ya --- or as The Eagles put it, "every port of refuge has its price". But mostly, this saga leads us into perhaps the most important personnel success thus far under the Hubert Davis regime....
- The Reclamation of Leaky Black: We all know Roy had "favorites". There's nothing inherently wrong with that --- Dean had his "son" Phil, after all --- but that needs to be earned, like say, Marcus Paige. After him though, that got a bit loose under Roy. Just as Leaky's HS coaches did him no favors by letting him dick around on the perimeter, being Roy's last favorite didn't help either. Quite frankly, Leaky under-performed for 3 seasons. He had little interest in utilizing his length on offense and played defense, well, when he wanted to. Yet, he kept getting rewarded with starts. And I can also tell ya that he wasn't always the best teammate, IYKWIM. Entitlement can do that, and it's also not good for team chemistry (which was an issue last season). Welp, Hubert set a new tone early on (and that got noticed by the other players) by telling him he was looking at a greatly reduced role with his previous level of effort. In fact, many expected him to transfer, but to his credit he stuck it out, and the attitude change stuck out early in Fall camp, and Leaky earned back his starting job. I was vocal in critiquing Leaky previoiusly, but I couldn't be prouder of him for manning-up and remaking his game. He loves UNC, got his degree, and was perhaps the biggest single point of improvement on this team.
So... there's Part 2. Again, sorry if any cages were rattled. I'l do one more (next week maybe) focused on Xs-and-Os and prospects moving forward. Have a great weekend!...
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