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CHAPEL HILL – Is North Carolina’s iron five getting tired?
That has become the biggest question regarding UNC’s basketball team, even though it’s just February 4.
The five Tar Heels that start games are logging a bunch of minutes of late, and it isn’t likely to change. With Anthony Harris unavailable for the remainder of the season and Dawson Garcia back home dealing with family health issues and increasingly unlikely to return, UNC has been reduced to a couple of reserves and the starters in the rotation.
Carolina (16-6, 8-3 ACC) still has nine more regular season games remaining, including Saturday when Duke visits the Smith Center, plus the postseason, but head coach Hubert Davis is already taking measures so his iron five can stay fresh.
“It is an issue to me,” Davis replied Thursday, when asked if he’s concerned about the minutes his starters are playing, or if their youthful ages make it a non-issue.
“We’ve had to adjust and tweak and pivot and alter practices to adjust to the high minutes that the starters are logging. And it’s also motivation and encouragement to the guys that are coming off the bench how important they are to play well and to give incredible minutes when they get into the game.”
Harris hasn’t played in three weeks, and the last time Garcia suited up was in a 22-point loss at Wake Forest on Jan. 22. UNC has won four consecutive games since, with three of the contests in doubt until the final minute.
In a rout of NC State last Saturday, the third bench player to check into the game was Dontrez Styles, who entered with 6:28 remaining and the Tar Heels leading by 27 points. They actually had the margin up to 35 points with 14:53 remaining, but it took seven more game minutes before Davis went to Styles.
In the other three games, starters have played 558 of 625 minutes per game. Or rather, Brady Manek, Caleb Love, RJ Davis, Armando Bacot, and Leaky Black have averaged playing 37 minutes in each of those contests.
The bench played 25 minutes in a win over Virginia Tech, 21 in the victory over Boston College, and 21 in an overtime win earlier this week at Louisville. Their combined numbers in those three games: 2-for-13 shooting from the floor, including 1-for-4 from three-point range, and 5-for-5 on free throws for a total of 10 points. In addition, they combined to grab 11 rebounds, hand out one assist, register one steal, and Puff Johnson drew a key charge at Louisville.
So, the starters are grinding it during the games, but not in practice. That has been toned down some.
“We kind of scrapped a lot of the transition stuff,” Bacot said, noting one way change has been implemented to help them keep their legs. “As y’all know, a lot of practice is based around my competition, full-court transition stuff.
“So, we kind of do it now where we do like one play half court and we go down play defense verse the blue squad and then come back. Just mainly everything is half-court now."
Hubert Davis hasn’t just adjusted practice, it has been incumbent upon the players to marry themselves to the mandate of staying fresh. Thus, that responsibility remains with them off the court and away from the team as well.
“Just staying true to my treatment,” Caleb Love said, when asked how he’s going to be preserving as much energy as he can when not on the court. “Me and (team trainer) Doug (Halverson) have been working almost every day on my legs and making sure my legs are fresh and ready to go each and every day.
“He’s just always keeping me fresh and ready to go for practice and games and I appreciate him for that.”
But is it really working?
The Tar Heels didn’t exactly pull away from pedestrian teams like the Hokies, Eagles, and Cardinals, even though they led Louisville by 10 points with 12:35 left to play in regulation, but couldn’t close the door. Some observers hinted the Heels can’t find that extra gear late in games because of the minutes that are accumulating.
Love, however, suggested otherwise.
“I could have played two more halves,” he said, when asked how much juice he still had within during the overtime Tuesday night. “I’m always ready (for) however long we’ve got to play.”
Bacot said it doesn’t matter how much he plays, and Davis doesn’t appear all that concerned in games. The first sub off the bench in the second half in Louisville was Kerwin Walton, and he entered with 8:59 left in regulation.
As the trite saying goes, it is what it is, and changes don’t appear looming ahead for the Tar Heels.
