Yeah it’s a crappy deal but that is basically how it rolls in Chapel Hill and presumptive starting PG Larry Drew is aware of that:
Larry Drew is not Ty Lawson. Nor should he try to be.
But if ACC championships are to be won and deep NCAA tournament runs made this season, Drew will have to be swift and intelligent in the open floor, and confident enough to take over games when the situation presents itself.
“There’s no doubt I’m ready to take on a leading role,” Drew said last month. “But at the same time, I can’t try to be a hero.”
These aren’t uncharted waters. Four years ago, freshman Bobby Frasor succeeded Raymond Felton at the point for a UNC team defending the national title. And Frasor contributed admirably to a team that exceeded everyone’s expectations.
But remember what those expectations were. UNC wasn’t ranked when that season began and was picked by the media to finish sixth in the ACC. This year’s Tar Heels should open the season Nov. 9 against Florida International as a top 10 power and will likely be pegged as the conference favorite.
The 2005-06 team may have finished second in the ACC and earned a No. 3 seed for the NCAA tournament. But they also lost eight times and didn’t see the second weekend of the Big Dance.
Can anyone honestly say a similar season this winter will be celebrated the way that one was?
The dynamics for this season are drastically different from 2006 because UNC returns more to the table and has a bit more in the recruiting class as well. The expectation levels in 2006 were what you expect for a team returning David Noel, Wes Miller, Quentin Thomas and a freshman class which had one bona fide start in Tyler Hansbrough. Couple that with the fact no one and I mean no one though Hansbrough was going to end up with a retired jersey in his career at UNC. The Heels were not ranked and rightfully so, there was nothing to rank. This time around it is different. This time I think you can credibly say UNC has a chance to defend. There are plenty of pieces in place already with a great deal riding on the incoming players to fill out the perimeter game along with Marcus Ginyard and Will Graves. The other piece to the puzzle is Larry Drew who will be thrust into the role of starting PG which is the single most important position on the court in college basketball. UNC has won two national titles in this decade and had two Cousy Award winners running the point. To say Drew has his work cut out for him would be an understatement. Drew will bypass the frying pan and jump directly into the fire from day one.
The good news is, he already understands what Quentin Thomas took his whole career at UNC to figure out. You are not the other guy. Drew knows he is not Ty Lawson and understands he needs to run the offense according to his talents and not try to emulate a point guard that might be one of the best to ever play that position at UNC. Drew also knows he has to play within himself instead of trying to do too much too soon which could hurt the team. While Drew cannot mimic Lawson’s speed, he certainly should try to mimic Lawson’s penchant for taking care of the basketball. The worst thing Drew can do is play sloppy. If he can be efficient with the basketball, pick his spots for his own scoring and facilitate the offense while keeping a handle on the basketball, UNC should be in great shape. Otherwise, it will get dicey in a fairly expedient manner. Yes, it is a tough deal for Drew to be thrust into a position like this with tremendous pressure to deliver but then again this is UNC. Drew knew when he signed the LOI this would be the case, now it is his turn to prove his mettle.
And if this is not enough of a fix for those of you in basketball withdrawal be sure to check out the season preview on Tar Heel Blue where there is a lot of discussion about leadership and how Tyler Zeller is better off having played at the end of last season which is ironic coming from Roy since he opposed the idea.
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The article is spot on. Drew is not a freshman, he shouldn’t have the jitters and knows exactly what is expected of him. Roy should and probably has brought out the tape of how Q played when inserted and tried to play too fast. Q finally figured out that he to was not Lawson either, and played great for us.
It should be a fun year to watch.
Roy profiles each player on IC: http://northcarolina.scout.com/2/908128.html
Of note, he mentions “point guard” for Marcus Ginyard, Leslie McDonald and Dexter Strickland in addition to Larry Drew. So it appears Roy has learned that a team can’t have enough guys capable of bring the ball down the court.
Also, interesting is that Roy says Henson will be THREE all season long.
Roy recruited Henson as a three. In fact it was my understanding that Roy discussed Henson playing the three all throughout the recruitment process. He is too thin to play four or five and too tall for the SG. Watching him at the three is going to be a lot of fun.
LD needs to be King Rice. Get the ball where it needs to go, score enough to keep the defense honest, and limit turnovers. I honestly think he’ll be fine. We’ve been spoiled a bit with Tywon and Raymond this decade. LD will be lots better than Bobby was, and we have enough talent around him for us to make another FF run.
Drew didn’t exactly stink it up in the ACC tourney… he and Ed Davis had a nice game going on feeding into the low post, and that will be bread and butter all season. I’m not worried about him. If he gets to run the team from day 1, he’ll be totally different than coming in cold after playing spare change minutes to relieve Lawson.
I do not blame the coach for having several point guard options – both incoming freshmen are, well, freshmen, and I would not be surprised to see Ginyard as a “safety valve” at PG, someone who is experienced enough to get the ball frontcourt if the freshmen get the yips against a pressing team or something.
There’s no doubt that you need a great point guard to make the run but you need a great supporting cast as well. You can look to Ed Cota as well as Lawson and Felton if you want to go deep on talent, focus on experience or look at really well defined roles on a team.
I like what Drew was doing last year and I would agree he did well in the ACC tourney, hard to say after that given that he was hurt. Having him run the team and the leadership coming from the experienced players is a good balance as well and in my opinion reduces the burden a little bit. I would think too that he is probably a little more media savvy given his Dad. Certainly helpful in the role he will have next year.
Nice article and opinions as well THF.
Go Heels!
While Tyler Hansbrough turned out to be a better person and a better Tar Heel than anyone could have expected him to be, I have to say that I always expected him to be pretty damn good as a player. Tyler was not Hubert Davis in terms of blowing away expectations on the court. He probably reminds me most of Bobby Jones, but Tyler was certainly much more highly touted coming in than was Jones.
Two things really stick with me about Hansbrough: the fact that he actually mentioned school work in a specific, non-rote way during interviews and the Pete Rose (without the gambling) ethic.
How do you replace one of the best offensive teams in Carolina History and still plan to defend your NCAAT?
With Defense. Defense will be the key item for the 2009/10 Heels. This year’s team has the “POTENTIAL” to be one of the best defensive Carolina teams in the past 15 years. With a front court of Davis, Thompson, Henson, and Zeller swating shots (just read Roy’s comments on the potential to be the best shot blocking team he has ever coached), Drew & Strickland pressuring the perimeter with their quickness, and Ginyard & McDonald flying around defenders and denying passing lanes. There is alot of potential for good things on the defensive end of the floor, and Drew is a key part of that.
Drew just needs to be Larry Drew not Ty Lawson, and everything will be alright. I was impressed with Drew’s ability to defend early last season and he clearly lost confidence last season. If he protects the ball and plays with confidence, he and the rest of the Heels should be fine.
I think that Roy has purposefully over-sold the notion that we will be near transparent at the point. He is obviously lowering the expectations (there), as any good coach would do. Yet, Roy being Roy, it sounds like he and the staff will prep so that they have 3-4 guys who can handle the point; thus, there WILL be depth there. I’m liking this scenerio more and more. Of course, with youth there will be some breakdowns…but, Marcus is gonna be in that mix somewhere too. If we can have a point rotation of Drew-Strickland-Ginyard…then I won’t lose much sleep.
The key to this year’s team, perhaps more so than any team in the Roy era, will be the defensive execution. We give K and Dook a lot of crap, but Mike Krzyzewski can get by with spare parts and win 25-30 because of the defense that he teaches. Sure, there are a lot of b.s. gimmicks (flopping, illegal reaches, and [of course] errant elbows being thrown), but Dook are able to stay in most games because they can (somewhat) manipulate the pace with their defensive packages. There is a lot of man-to-man in what they do, but the Dook players really do follow the ball well…it is scary to think what they would/will do with some real athletes…
Back to point, the Heels have to follow the ball and not get lost chasing down three-point-shooters. I’m sure Roy and staff will have the textbooks out all season long.
Ty Lawson was best at getting the ball down the court in record time by dribbling past defenders. Drew does not have that kind of speed, but there are other ways to get the ball down the court in a hurry. With bigs that can run the floor, I think UNC will rely more on the outlet pass this year to set up breaks/secondary breaks. We have enough size to rebound well without all of our guys crashing the boards each time, so I think the opportunities will be there for nice long passes down the court.
i think he’s going to do just fine. after all, Roy recruited him. i could see him eventually being somewhere in the Jimmy Black to Kenny Smith spectrum.
LD II is going to do well. No one expects him to be as great a point guard as Ty and he doesn’t have to be, as long as he’s a good on court leader and ball distributor.
BTW, I ran into John Henson somewhere on campus the other day. I forgot exactly where b/c I was so starstruck at the time. I literally ran into him. I was walking and texting at the same time and I wasn’t looking where I was going and I ran smack dab into him. I looked up and saw this huge 6’10 guy and I recognized him. I stammered “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry John!” and he said “No problem” and walked away. It was pretty amazing!
I’m glad to see all peeps on same page in terms of expectations for LD2. I’m not expecting Lawson, not Felton, and not even Cota… Just Cota-esque in that I want to see him as a pass first and pass second and shoot if you must type PG. Limit turnovers and give us 6 pts, 6-7 assists. And let the bigs do the rest. Having LD2 and Ginyard together on the floor wil probably give us great stability and tremendous defense in the backcourt.