Mediocre Practices Led To A Mediocre Performance
CHAPEL HILL - With just under eight minutes remaining in North Carolina’s 83-62 loss to Louisville on Saturday afternoon, a noticeable number of fans got out of their seats and headed for the Smith Center exits.
A surprise to some, even with the Tar Heels trailing by 19 points at the time, senior forward Luke Maye understood why the fans were leaving.
“I wouldn’t blame them,” Maye said. “We didn’t play very well, and I feel like we need to play better for people to be able to cheer for us.”
Led by junior Steven Enoch’s 17 points and 11 rebounds, the visiting Cardinals marched into Chapel Hill and handed the Tar Heels their worst ever home loss under head coach Roy Williams.
For the Hall of Fame coach, however, he saw his team’s poor performance coming before the first whistle was ever blown.
“Two days ago, at practice, I said it was a very mediocre practice and we needed a great one yesterday and I thought it was very mediocre as well,” Williams said. “So, that’s my job to get them prepared better.”
On the contrary, senior forward Cameron Johnson said it wasn’t his coach’s fault that UNC didn’t come focused and ready to play against Louisville.
“It’s on us to play better, it’s on us to do better,” Johnson said. “So, that’s all I’m going to say about that.”
Senior guard Kenny Williams, who finished with a team-high 12 points, said UNC got “fat and happy” after two wins on the road to start conference play – a 25-point win at Pittsburgh and last Tuesday’s victory at No. 15 N.C. State.
“We got a little complacent, we didn't come into practice the last two days with the intensity and focus we needed and it did carry over (to the Louisville game),” Williams said.
Complacency certain can account for UNC’s trifecta of issues Saturday: It shot 34.5 percent from the floor (13.6 percent from 3-point range); allowed Louisville to shoot 51 percent and Carolina was outrebounded by nine.
However, the now at 12-4 overall and 2-1 in the ACC, this is just one game, so the onus is on everyone in Carolina blue to learn from this and push forward toward Tuesday’s home game versus Notre Dame.
“Experience is always the best teacher,” said Williams, a senior guard from Midlothian, VA. “People can tell you about something all day but you don’t really get it until it happens and, tonight, it happened to us. We’ve got to look at the film from this and learn something.”
Tuesday versus the Fighting Irish will tell a lot about the lesson learned from Saturday’s loss. And like their Hall of Fame coach said, it begins with effort in practice and connecting that to the games.
“They (Louisville) really took it to us today and we’ve got to be better,” Johnson said. “The thing is, we’ve got to come out and practice tomorrow and come out and play again on Tuesday. So, we’re going to move on from this.”
They need to, because it’s not going to get much easier in the ACC.