Not doughy soft, just “weak tot action” soft. From the now infamous and always unpredictable(as well as ornery) Roy Williams Live!:
“I think you’re right. John Henson – and I love the boy to death and he’s got a chance to be a big-time player – John had two shots on Saturday from collectively about 15 inches and got both of them blocked. He tried to dunk the ball twice and they blocked his dunk shot. That’s maturity; it’s strength. It is a physical nature kind of thing, but we’re really concerned about John. I’m shoving more food at that boy that you’ve ever seen in your entire life.
“We got on the bus [on Sunday] and they have these snacks and I had ordered some buffalo wings and I wasn’t in the mood to eat anyway, so John got on the bus and he had his own food and I gave him all of my buffalo wings. But the bottom line is that John is still stretching when he steps up on those scales – he’s below 190. So he’s got to get stronger [and] he’s got to get bigger and that only comes with time. But I do believe that Deon one time and ‘Z’ one time and Will Graves one time… Will Graves has got all that he wants. I wish that he would shave off a little bit of that and put it on John’s body. Will went in with something too soft in the first half and got stripped. ‘Z’ went up soft one time. Deon went up too soft. I think that when you get within reach of the goal when you’re big…
“Tyler Hansbrough is the best example. Tyler tried to put the ball in the basket and you in with it. And then, if the whistle blew, he would say, ‘Oh, Mr. Ref, did you call a foul?’ A lot of guys go up there thinking they’re going to get hit and start looking at the defense trying to draw a foul and they forget about making the basket. Better than anybody I’ve ever had, Tyler made the basket and then ‘oh, by the way, you did foul me, too.’ So we do have to get stronger. We talked about that in the meeting [on Sunday]. We talked it about [yesterday]. I told John Henson, ‘If you want to be a great player,’ and I pointed at Jonas Sahratian, ‘Attach yourself to that man’s hip and do everything he says.’
“And I don’t mind saying this. Some things I keep in the locker room, but Jonas has this deal that he’s getting John to take his phone and take a picture of everything he eats. If Will Graves did that, Jonas doesn’t have time to go through the dadgum pictures. And I’m not getting on Will – he knows I’m chewing his rear end out all of the time anyway.”
Moving past the rather shocking berating of Will Graves’ eating habits. I mean, seriously, I cut Roy a lot of slack for stuff he says(as though he cares) but that seemed to cross the line unless Graves is simply not showing any discipline when it comes to his weight. Even then, it seems a bit much.
As for the actual salient points about basketball, Roy is correct and the comparison to Tyler Hansbrough’s approach to contact is dead on. I think when people talk about the UNC players being soft, the immediate connotation attached to that word in people’s minds is they are weak or cowardly. That is not what Roy is saying. What he is talking about is gripping the ball like death and bursting upward to the basket as quickly as you can muster with little or no regard to what the opposing team might try to do to stop you. That is what Hansbrough did. The current crop of UNC big men shy away from contact. They go up in a way that makes every effort to avoid it or if they do make contact it is the weak, jostling type not with enough force to put the defender into a bad position.
Now, where John Henson is concerned, it is going to be another year at least. The main reason Henson is a perimeter player is his 190 lb frame wouldn’t last ten seconds in the post banging with guys 50 lbs heavier. That is why the debate over Henson at the three versus the four was moot. Henson cannot play the four because he lacks the necessary weight to handle a lot of guys who end up playing there. As for the rest of them, they simply need to step up. From what I saw, Tyler Zeller was much better in the 2nd half of the UK game being aggressive and going to the basket strong. Deon Thompson, not so much and one of the reason UNC is missing so many shots at point blank range is this issue of going to the hoop with some intention of scoring instead of fearing contact. And not to make any sort of comparison to me playing pick-up ball with guys my age and what happens on the college basketball court, I understand how easy it is to shy away from contact and miss easy shots because you get rushed or you fear your shot being blocked. I imagine the same sort of thing happens in relative terms for these guys. To a great extent it is a matter of focus as well as being a little tougher mentally. It is also understanding that more times than not, you will get the foul call if you go hard to the basket and draw contact providing it is not a charge/block situation.
And yes, if Henson develops the same relationship with Jonas that Hansbrough had, he will be something else to watch come next season.
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My hopes for Henson was not that he’d be a good post banger, because we have Davis, Thompson, and Zeller to do the “dirty work”. My hopes for Henson was that he’d be the “Kevin Durant” type of player who could hit peremiter shots, take his man off the dribble, and pull-up for a 15 footer, or just finish at the rim. That was my hopes for Henson, and his development. I am not sure I want him to become a post player. Now I’d like to toughen up Zeller and Thompson in the paint. Davis doesn’t always finish, but he appears tough in the paint, and will snatch a rebound right away from your hands. Thompson, while being soft immediately around the basket, does show mental toughness, and hits a majority of his mid-range and turnaround jumpers, especially in big time games. Zeller’s offense has shown some improvement, as well as his aggressiveness, but lacks defensive quickness. I have witnessed too many players drive right by him going to the rim, with no help defense.
Soft like a jelly roll. I gotta be immensely proud of how they clawed back into that one but Henson getting stuffed at the rim like he did a couple times – once when we had a chance to drop the deficit below 5 (and his miss coincidentally led to a 4 or 6 point swing)? It was… dissapointing. Very physical game though – which I thought played more into KU’s hands. They played great against us in that first half and still managed some pretty stout defense in the second – but it’s hard to believe Davis, Thompson, Zeller, and Henson all had such weak nights. Credit some of that softness to Kentucky’s Defense. I mean Zeller barely even has to jump and he and Davis both struggled to get to the rim at times. We took advantage of JW’s absence to get back as close as we did – gotta build on it and take more aggresiveness into the Texas game (not to over look power-house Presbyterian =).
Wow, Roy, not holding anything back now, are we? Now I’m the last person to criticize our coach, but that’s a little rough. Graves is looking a little squishy, that’s true, but that was kind of mean.
JBowling — Spot on.
Thanks Rath! I really do want to see these kids succeed, and I know they are trying real hard, and have the talent to have been 9-0 instead of 7-2.
There are two types of soft: mentally soft and physically soft. UNC definitely suffers from the latter more than the former. Fortunately, physical softness is much easier to address that mental softness.
I’m glad Roy is ripping Will, he should. He has been a DI-scholarship athlete for 3+ years and he is still at least 30 pounds overweight! What will happen to his weight when he stops playing in a few years? While that amount of excess weight is not overly problematic, it’s not hard to envision his weight ballooning when he stops burning the enormous amount of calories that a DI athlete does (non-smokers who are <29 lbs over "healthy weight" do not experience a significant decrease in life expectancy; 80 lbs appears to be the big number). If Roy hammering Will publicly about his eating habits is what it takes to get him to realize what he is doing to himself, then I have no complaints at all.
Maybe Will hasn’t listened up to this point at anything else so Coach thought a little public intimidation might do the trick. Of course it could just be the on-going joke of the team a little bit too. I remember last year at the open practice for the Rams Club members Roy made some comment about Danny getting an offensive rebound and he loudly addressed the audience that it was Danny’s first offensive rebound ever. He was kidding to a degree, but also wanted to make a point that Danny doesn’t do that like he should. He improved after that it seemed. So who knows if this is another similar tactic of our coach.
As for the big men we will keep rooting them on.
roy does things for a reason, period, so he is taking into account the impact he thinks it will have on a player, and who he can and cannot make such comments about. so when he rips someone, his level of ‘mean’ is surely measured to the level that is appropriate for that individual scenario. it’s just psychology. either that or he has worked himself into the HOF by daggum luck.
Henson will never be a Durant…in fact reggie bullock ha a durant like body, long arms, skinny, but with a silky smooth jumper. henson is a big first w/ developing outside skills. he will improve on those, b/c the easiest thing (to quote roy) to improve is your outside shot. I do think Henson could and should still be an impact player this year. if nothing else for his ability to change shots as a weak side defender. if a team has a weak shooting 3 man, henson could live in the lane and discourage a team from even considering driving the basketball.
zeller looked to avenge himself in the second half which i like and that was an amazing point by JBowling about Deon. he has never been tough inside physically, but this year, he is calling for the ball, aggressively looking for his jump shot, and stepping up with confidence to knock shots down late. way to go Deon! Ed will be fine, he just needs to realize he’s the guy that can get us points regardless of who is guarding him and to be the aggressor. As long as Zell keeps improving and gaining experience (he’s a sophomore by status but missed 2/3′s of last season), then we’ll be fine inside. Henson, question mark…Graves, really impressed so far that he continues to get benched and can still come back and show that he is eager to improve and make plays to earn minutes. If he develops at all this year above where he is right now, we’ll have a legitimate perimeter threat. heck last year i don’t remember a single 3 from him in a big game, and against UK he went something like 4-7.
that dude is flat out skinny. i am 6 inches shorter and 30 lbs heavier. i can’t imagine 6’10″ 185-190.
i think he was a guard before the growth spurt.
we’ve had some bigs that werent terribly physical. i think that made Tyler seem like such an anomaly. Rasheed. Brad. i remember thinking many times that i wanted Brad and Eric to rip the damn rim off instead of laying it up.
I am guessing that none of you would be big fans of Mark (fame is fleeting) Mangini?
I am not sure that teasing a guy about his weight rates very high up the cruelty scale when you are talking about things coaches have said to and about players historically.
if Mangini wants to be obese, i guess thats his business, or his health issue.
from what i hear, there were school officials actually concerned about him having a heart attack on the field and the resulting PR/recruiting nightmare.
I disagree…I do think Roy means “weak and cowardly” when he says that the bigs are “soft”. How else might you connote that?
It’s what I mean when I call them “soft”, at the very least, so any hint of validation from the HC is welcome.
And “soft” is nowhere near as colorful as what I call them as the game is going on and they’re getting their **** thrown repeatedly…
The part I missed in his comments was where he called himself to account for costing a victory by failing to call a 30 second time out in the first half.
No matter how soft our bigs, Roy has to know that the failure to call the time out is the real reason we lost to Ky.
LOL!
Seriously, I have never seen anybody on a Carolina team take it to the hole like Psycho T. I do not expect to see anyone in my lifetime play as hard as Tyler did. I still remember his dunk over the 7’4 guy from Asheville. It was a fearless and hard as a 22 year old can be. There was fire in his eyes.
there was a period of time in the second half when the wear twins were in the game together and very quickly double teaming the interior effectively. those kids play tough. they remind me somewhat of two mini-hansbroughs. but obviously “softer” inside with better outside game.
If the coach is talking like this in a press conference, imagine what it’s like at practice.
I bet they will be running next weekend.
But interior strength is not just something for the current team to work on. Everybody UNC plays for the rest of the year will be testing it as well.
I have no problem with Roy’s comments about our players. They are spot on. If you ever spend any time around Roy you will find out the he “ribs” everybody and that you better be able to take it. Will Graves needs to lose weight to reach his potential; he knows that. Roy has his style and he really does not care if we (everybody) like it or not. That is the major difference between Roy’s and Dean’s style. Roy is more like Buddy Baldwin’s approach; tough love. Deon is soft although his body is not. He is a 2-step jumper whose vertical will not wow anybody. When he takes that extra split-second to gather himself in close and takes it up weak he is going to get a lot of shots blocked with no foul call. If he takes it up strong with two hands right into the chest of the shot blockers he draws contact and goes to the line more (Hansbrough). Whether he can ever mentally shift into that attitude is debatable. There is not a lot of filter between what Roy thinks and says. He is pretty much open and honest with the press; that’s just his nature. Roy Williams is as tough a guy as any of us will ever meet. Criticize him or second-guess him all you want; he has a purpose for “most” of the things he says. You all know that there is no other coach in college basketball that any of you would rather have at UNC!
Right now I wouldn’t exempt Davis from the “Physically Soft” category. He got pushed around a lot against Kentucky and Syracuse. He needs to get stronger just as badly as Zeller does.
I certainly agree with the vast majority of comments here and I have no cred to dispute Roy.
This issue to me, is sort of like comparing Larry Drew to Ty Lawson. It just ain’t fair and alot of us were spoiled by what we saw last year.
Compare 90% of college freshman/sophomore front court players to Tyler Hansbrough and the conclusion will be that they’re “soft”. I think the biggest issue is physical maturity although the issue with Deon is more about aggressiveness.
The lengthening of Tyler Hansbrough’s shadow has begun.
Just curious if anyone else has noticed one of the Wear twins (I believe Travis) has got what appears to me to be a bit of a nasty streak.
I think it is fair to say, and correct me if I am wrong, that this year’s team does play intesnity into its’ own hands. I sincerely believe that you can compensate for being a step behind your opponent by playing the intensity of the game into your advantage. Hansbrough played his entire UNC career embracing the intensity of games in which he/his team were always the target. Even players like Wayne Ellington and Ty Lawson ended up taking the magnitude of the moment and embraced it: thus, riding the wave to the golden shores of championship basketball.
This year’s team is so painfully young, and there is as low a level of players who embrace the intensity of the game as I have seen since Roy’s arrival. The players need to learn how to work the moments of physical/psychological challenges to their advantage.
Oh, and they could use an extra week working on their free-throws.
A bit of humor (and truth) Henson posted on his facebook account this morning:
“Its too cold outside dudes like me aint built for this.”
FYI, Ginyard is going to be held from tomorrow’s game due to pain in left foot. Said to be precautionary.
53bgJ,
I hadn’t noticed but I sure hope it’s true.
C.Michael,
“Precaution” is PR code for, “We’re screwed.”
I’ve been slightly disappointed with Ginyard. He has shown flashes, but the team needs more.
I’ve been looking for a go-to guy for weeks. Right now, surprisingly enough, the guy who looks like he really wants the ball at crunch time, and can do something with it, is Dexter Strickland.