UNC basketball’s ugly stretch of losses starts to recede — thanks to freshman guards
This wasn’t exactly inevitable, but it was certainly predictable. It was merely a matter of time -- and coaching, and experience, and repetition -- before North Carolina’s freshman guards started to look and feel and play comfortable.
Their talent was never in question, and over the first two months of the season it showed up in fits and starts, like flashes from the future of how good they might be at some point. A breakthrough seemed in the cards, and sooner rather than later, North Carolina would prefer, given that there isn’t a whole lot of later left in this abbreviated season.
For two months, as Caleb Love and R.J. Davis and Kerwin Walton tried to manage not only that but with their own individual performances, the Tar Heels struggled along with them, waiting and hoping they would at some point turn a corner. Roy Williams even shuffled the starting lineup after the Tar Heels started 0-2 in the ACC, swapping Walton in and Davis out, not something anyone would have foreseen in October.
Consider that corner turned.
Not only did Love and Walton excel in Saturday’s 86-76 win over N.C. State, evening the season series, but the quality of their play let North Carolina’s big men do their thing, Armando Bacot and Day’Ron Sharpe in particular. When the guards aren’t a black hole -- and there were still too many turnovers, but not at the critical, catastrophic moments -- the rest of the pieces can fall into place.
It was not a moment too soon for Williams, who was tired of waiting.
“I told them at one timeout, we’ve had 60 practices, we’ve had 14 games,” Williams said. “At that time they should no longer be freshmen. We’ve had a ton of games, a ton of practices. They’re still going to screw it up and make mistakes freshmen make. But I love our freshmen. That’s as good a class as I ever brought in in my life.”
The guards even got some game pressure late, with the Wolfpack cutting the UNC lead to six twice in the final four minutes. But Walton immediately responded to one N.C. State thrust with a 3-point parry of his own and Love responded to the other with a drive into traffic that drew a foul.
The three freshmen combined for 12 assists and eight turnovers against the Wolfpack, the latter number inflated by two late and inconsequential Love turnovers. But there were also moments that didn’t show up on the scoresheet, like Love’s defensive harassment that forced N.C. State to start its offense from near half-court at one point, or how limiting Davis’ playing time has improved his shot selection.
It is always a process, one that takes place largely unseen, in practices and conversations, and perhaps a more difficult one in Chapel Hill than some other places because of the rigorous application of Williams’ precepts to the Tar Heels’ offense. There’s no faking it in that system. The teamwork demanded leaves nowhere to hide.
Love talked about time spent watching video, learning how to read the defense, trying to internalize which post entries work in different situations. That’s not something that can happen overnight, especially in North Carolina’s offense. It takes time. It takes work. It takes practice. It takes commitment.
“I think they’re really doing some really nice things,” Williams said. “The tough thing for our freshmen is we expect much more of them. They have the ability. They have to get their brains and their hearts involved, and not just their ability.”
That ugly stretch when North Carolina lost four of six, including the opening salvo of this rivalry in Raleigh, is starting to recede into the past. The Tar Heels have been waiting for their future to arrive. It has never been closer.
This story was originally published January 23, 2021 at 4:43 PM.
