CHAPEL HILL – Roy Williams has said it probably more than a thousand times in interviews and press conferences in his 31 years as a head coach. Sometimes, the Hall of Famer is emphatic, sometimes he’s not, but he’s always clear.
Rebounding is the most important statistic in basketball.
And for that, Williams isn’t too pleased with where his team is rebounders with the season opener versus Notre Dame right before them. It’s only the first week of November, but Williams is concerned.
“My feel’s not real good right now,” Williams said. “Armando (Bacot) is long enough he’s going to get some without jumping, Huff (Brandon Huffman) hangs around the basket and can get a lot of rebounds, Garrison (Brooks) works at it. But I’m really discouraged right now about the rebounding that we’ve gotten from the other guys.”
Williams noted that wings Brandon Robinson and Christian Keeling combined for three boards in UNC’s scrimmage versus Villanova a couple of weeks ago. A year ago, the Heels averaged nearly 10 rebounds a game from the those two spots.
“So, we’re worried about that part,” the coach said, ‘but we’re still emphasizing it a heck of a lot but just haven’t gotten there.”
He noted the bigs may get theirs, but what’s made Carolina such a dominant rebounding team over the years has been that it comes from everywhere on the floor. Small forwards, wings and even the point guards are asked to get in there and pull down missed shots.
Carolina lost 79.3 percent of its rebounding from last year’s team that won a share of the ACC regular season title and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. The Tar Heels led the nation in rebounding margin last season as well as in 2017, when they won the national championship. UNC was No. 3 nationally in 2018.
So that’s Nos. 1, 3 and 1 over the last three seasons, respectively. This year’s club clearly has a lot to live up to.
Keeling had some big rebounding games at Charleston Southern, but not against any of the power programs he faced. Fellow graduate transfer Justin Pierce, who came over from William & Mary, was rather prolific snaring missed shots for the Tribe.
At 6-foot-7 and 210 pounds, he grabbed 576 rebounds in 2,275 minutes at William & Mary, which is a rebound every 3.9 minutes he was on the floor. The last two seasons versus Power 5 or comparable programs, he pulled down 29 boards in 118 minutes, which is one every 4.07 minutes. Twice in those four games, versus TCU and UCF, he grabbed 10 rebounds.
But how much he plays with Keeling, Robinson and Leaky Black in the mix on the perimeter remains to be seen.
The other thing Williams mandates is that his team runs, runs and runs some more, of course only if they can. To run, however, a team needs the ball, and generally, running occurs after opponents’ missed shots.
And maybe the Tar heels have somewhat of an answer there.
Of the non-bigs, Brooks believes freshman point guard Cole Anthony is the player that has a chance to be a really good rebounder. Interestingly, Williams said in Charlotte last month that Anthony is the best rebounding guard he’s ever recruited. So maybe that’s how the Heels get some additional boards.
“He’s a really good defensive rebounder, really athletic and has a knack to find the ball,” said Brooks, who averaged 5.6 boards per contest a season ago.
So, is the potential there for the Heels to satisfy his high demands on the glass?
“I really don’t know, not enough, no, because I’d like everyone of them,” Williams replied. “But, I think they’re continuing to work at it, (so) we’ll see.”
Williams’ standard for grabbing missed shots never wavers, and it’s a proven concept. The players know this, even the new ones, though they’re still building toward satisfying their head coach.
“We have a lot of time to get better,” Brooks said. “We’re not where we want to be at. I believe we could be one of those teams that can rebound the ball really well, but we’re not doing it right now up to expectations.”
And until the Heels do, they’ll hear it from their coach every single day.
