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"Lack of Effort?"

Bret Dougherty keeps hearing a drum that beats "lack of effort" to describe the Tar Heels, but he thinks the currents swirling around this year's Carolina basketball team may in fact have little to do with those three words.

February 27, 2004

Florida St., Clemson, and UVA....road games that the Carolina Family did not expect to drop when previewing this season's schedule.

Talk once swirled with comments such as "the best starting five ever". But those comments began turning to shots of blame after the strange debacle that occurred at Kentucky early in January, and since that game, blame has sprayed in different directions during arguments surrounding the state of Carolina Basketball.

The targets of blame have ranged from the ever-popular depth problem, to Rashad McCants' aloofness; to Sean May's lack of toughness, to the latest hot topic, Raymond Felton's court awareness. Yet, there are three words that continue to hover over each argument as the buzzwords labelling this year's Carolina team..."lack of effort".

Since Coach Williams conceded to Sports Illustrated, "with almost all of my teams, I've coached mostly execution, but with this team, I've had to coach effort." the three words have been pasted upon the team, and the players have had to absorb much of the blame for their lack of execution.

However, after analyzing UNC's consistent losses of leads during the last four games and the devastating loss against Virginia on Tuesday night, many Carolina observers feel that there may be engine leaks here that the "lack of effort" tape just does not encompass.

Carolina's late-game swoons have been plagued with lapses of composure and focus, and wild turnovers, all of which seem to occur at the most inopportune times for the Heels. The absence of a dependable, solid half-court offensive system has been a glaring weakness for this UNC team, and Carolina's scoring difficulties brought by solid execution can be gut-wrenching.

In the past, UNC basketball observers could bank upon a solid half-court offense that would consist of easy back-door passes for alley-oops, created by cuts and screens. Those moments have been replaced by episodes of watching players bump into each other or stand still during key moments of "tight" time -- which has left a lot of Carolina fans who expected 20 wins out of this season asking 'what is wrong with this team?'

But the answer to that question may not be answered by the words "lack of effort "; it may be that the system is just not in place....yet.

After a whirlwind summer of recruiting and his tour with USA Basketball, Coach Williams had only 36 days to work with this year's team before the beginning of the season in mid-November. That's not a lot of face time to install a whole new system and even more importantly, to establish relationships with the members of his team.

The implementation of half-court offenses, press-breakers, trapping defenses, and motion offenses takes time to develop, and the teams with solid half-court offenses do well not only in NBA and NCAA Playoff time, but also during 'crunch time' situations when easy buckets are at a premium.

Many Carolina observers have not taken well to the fast-breaking running style that was instituted by Matt Doherty, and they are wary of the fast-breaking style that typified the Carolina team. While looking at the Heels squander opportunities in late game situations and shuddering about what may happen at crunch time when tournament season around, Carolina fans are wondering where are the half-court sets that were once the staples of Carolina Basketball play in late game situations?

They point to the offensive sets of the Sacramento Kings, the bursting success of the New Jersey Nets, and the meteoric rise of Herb Sendek's NC State offense as examples that basic cuts and screens of a half-court offense such as the "Princeton Offense" are still in alive and thriving well today, despite the counterargument that these programs took several years to install their offenses.

Past Carolina players like Brian Reese, who was back in Chapel Hill for the recent UNC Basketball Alumni Weekend, agree. Reese explains: "You're seeing the evolution of what's going to be built in the long run, but what you don't know, is that it almost takes until your third year to start 'getting' the system. In my case, I really didn't get where I was supposed to be on the floor until the beginning of my 3rd year. These guys haven't had that long of time in here."

For coaches and insiders, the play and attitude of a team can be symbolized by the play of the team's point guard: so goes the flow of the floor general, so goes the flow of the team, the logic goes...... In Carolina's world, that floor general is, of course, Raymond Felton.

Felton's play has been emblematic of the team's season of late. He is the best and most talented point guard that Roy Williams has coached -- and that point guard list includes Adonis Jordan, Kevin Pritchard, Aaron Miles, and yes...current Atlanta Hawk, Jacque Vaughn. However, sporadic play has plagued the Latta sophomore for stretches of time throughout this season.

Felton's last four games, taken as a group, typify that play. At UVA, his final line of 16 points with 4-7 from the 3 point line, 6 assists, and only 2 turnovers fit well with his 17 Point, 10 Rebound, and 7 assist performance in a key win over Florida State. Yet, those gems are offset by his 7 turnover, 3 point night vs. Maryland and his 8 points on 3-9 FG/FGM and 4 turnover performance against Georgia Tech.

The up and down play from Felton, coupled with Carolina's poor ball control in tight situations, has resulted in what appears as a lack of focus and team-composure at times. Many insiders feel these problems will disappear when Felton learns how to blend his speed with the tempo of the rest of the team.

Those same insiders feel that when the call for half-court play has been given, at times Felton has disappeared. The question has been raised of whether or not the disappearance is due to the confusion that surrounds the team when a half-court situation arises. Despite the questions, Felton has solidly answered many of the critics with solid defensive play and patented slashes to the basket. Also, Felton has left absolutely no question surrounding his toughness on the court.

Felton has responded very well against the best floor leaders in the land, playing smash-mouth defense against top-level point guards such as Dee Brown, Will Bynum, and Ben Gordon. He also has logged long minutes of time while staying out of foul trouble for most of the year.

Looking at Felton as the the most obvious symbol of the team, you can't say the phrase "lack of effort" describe his play well. It also really does not give a great description of the other members on this UNC team. Sean May, who is leading the league in rebounding, has been forced to play way out of position at center. Jawad Williams has toughed his way through a broken nose and a concussion. The unbelievable jump in aggressiveness of Jackie Manuel's play over the past year doesn't fit with those words either.

When searching for the essence of this year's Carolina team, the "lack of effort" label will remain tough to scrape off. But words that may describe this unit better are "lack of time spent together".

Off the Glass,

BD

Bret Dougherty is a UNC-Chapel Hill alum and current graduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill. Bret is a co-host of WXYC SportsRap (9 PM Sundays on FM 89.3 & www.wxyc.org). He also has a SoulGroove music show on Tuesday mornings from 6-8 AM on WXYC. You may check in at his information page at www.unc.edu/~bretd..

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