The answer to that question by some graduate assistant on the staff of a recent UNC opponent would be “oh crap!”
Via the N&O’s Andrew Carter who was handed a copy of a unnamed UNC opponent’s scouting report for a game against the Heels which was left on a copier in the Dean Dome. I am guessing there is a graduate assistant somewhere getting scolded for not being more careful with these types of documents. At least he didn’t leave a playbook behind not that UNC really needed it.
Anyway, here is what one of UNC’s opponents had to say about the Tar Heel players.
STARTERS
Kendall Marshall:
“Very crafty. Pushes the ball with the pass. Doesn’t like pressure. Must have active hands to affect vision.”Dexter Strickland:
“Very aggressive in transition. Driver!! Their best defender – Always running through passing lanes.”Harrison Barnes:
“Very efficient on offense. Good 3pt shooter. On dribble pull up. Make him uncomfortable.”John Henson:
“Long and very active. Wants to spin off of you in post. Hates it physical. Hates pressure on perimeter. Physical block outs.”Tyler Zeller:
“Runs pipe hard. Jump hook over left and right shoulder. Play the ball early. Hates it physical.”RESERVES
Reggie Bullock:
“Shooter. Offensive rebounder. Looks for 3’s in transition.”James Michael McAdoo:
“High energy offensive rebounder. Runs floor hard.”P.J. Hairston:
“Shooter. Looking to shoot at all times. Doesn’t guard.”In addition to the player breakdowns, the scouting report included a “team summary” about UNC. That read like this:
Offense:
-Transition team looking to ball ahead and run the pipe
-Secondary – Carolina Break & 5 up
-Half court – Pus for Barnes/Shuffle for BigsDefense:
-Deny wings
-Run and jump after TO’s
-Hard help on ball screens
-Marshall and Barnes don’t want to guardThe offensive keys for this particular team:
-Run it right back at them
-Earn space/get open/be strong
-Execute/screen/driveAnd the defensive keys for this particular team:
-Transition D
-Defensive rebounding/Physical box outs
-Getting after Marshall
I found it interesting how highly Dexter Strickland was regarded and that there is a perception P.J. Hairston doesn’t play defense. If you count yourself in the “play P.J. more” crowd that isn’t good news. Outside of that, Tyler Zeller and John Henson not liking physical play is hardly new information. Saying Marshall and Barnes “don’t want to guard” seems odd. In the case of Marshall his defensive issues have always struck me as one of ability not desire. In the case of Barnes, he has given off a vibe that he is disinterested on defense in some earlier games this season but there has not been much evidence of that lately. Oh and “run it right back at them”? Really? You really want to try that?
Exit question: Can someone tell me how you make Barnes “uncomfortable”?
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certainly is the kind of thing that could fire up our guys.
no one wants to read stuff like that about themselves, whether its true or not.
interesting.
Exit question: Can someone tell me how you make Barnes “uncomfortable”?
Um, Make him drive a car in Chapel Hill?
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/10/20/1580950/barnes-not-content.html
“Can someone tell me how you make Barnes “uncomfortable”?”
Ask him to describe what men like about Beyonce???
Seriously, I took from this that you should force HB to put it on the floor and dribble. That is, guard him close and aggressively, and fight against his dribble drive - because he is not smooth with dribbling.
For the most part, seems like a fairly accurate scouting report - play UNC physical and put pressure on defenders by driving defenders. And I think “running it right back at them” is the lesser of two evils for many UNC opponents - the alternative is going against UNC’s set defense where their length and size can shut you down.
One thing about this scouting report I found odd is it is not very flattering of UNC. If one did not know, you would think UNC was not a ranked team…weird. Sounds like this particularly team needed to downplay UNC to build their own confidence. So, it was probably from one of the cupcakes we just recently destroyed.
Clearly this opponent lost because they didn’t gameplan for Justin Watts ).
This is kind of interesting in that I don’t recall having seen anything like this before generated by a team.
A breakdown of a report like this is kind of difficult to read between the lines, and I wouldn’t make too much out of what it seems to say about UNC, at least in terms of them being downplayed by the opponent. I would assume most any scouting report would be positive in nature, as opposed to indicating how difficult something might be to accomplish against the Heels.
Also, if you see something like “run it right back at them”, this would indicate that particular team was willing to run, or play that type of game. You wouldn’t see something like that, for example, on Wisconsin’s scouting report.
“Can someone tell me how you make Barnes “uncomfortable”?”
Texas defenders seemed a bit gassy…
This has Rick Barnes written all over it.
Assessments are pretty accurate, and any game plan against UNC should be 1) play physical 2) make the weak links on defense (Marshall, Barnes, and Hairston) guard 3)Make Barnes put it on the floor where he has been turnover prone and less efficient
The only one I would add is 4) Make them earn it from the free throw line.
And I would change “run it right back at them” to “make them work for 35 seconds on the defensive end”.
sc11,
You just described Wisconsin’s gameplan against UNC.
The author of the rundown simply thinks what anyone would think who watched the UNLV game. But his idea to “run right back at them” is crazy. A running game is just what we want.
“The only one I would add is 4) Make them earn it from the free throw line.”
Good point, and that seems to already be happening this year (16% higher rate of FTA’s, adjusted for pace, than last year) though it’s hard to tell if the increase has been effected by our opponents or by UNC seeking to draw fouls.
The key will be who gets fouled.
So the team has had this little tidbit for weeks.
I would like to know what the players think about it.
Lots of great athletes have fueled themselves by critical, skeptical or negative comments that have been made about them.
Part left out
“Marshall and Barnes don’t want to guard”
Coaches know those 2 want no part of defense. That has to change for Harrison ….
“You just described Wisconsin’s gameplan against UNC.”
Exactly, and one of the reasons UVA will give Carolina fits in their two meetings this season.
Why would a team not want to “run it right back” offensively against UNC? Lots of teams have done this in recent years…Kentucky, Duke, UNLV, LBSU, Texas, Maryland, Wake Forest, GT.
But notice the first item in the report under defensive keys. It is “Transition D”. Offensively pushing the ball against UNC is NOT how they kill you - it is UNC pushing the ball that kills teams. So a good opponent can “run it right back” at UNC, play good transition D and win.
True but the problem is keeping up that pace when you have to do it on offense and defense. UK tried to run with UNC then abandoned it in the second half for a slower tempo that caused that game to end up being only four possessions more than the Wisconsin game. Also, I have seen some stats that UNC’s DE is not quite as good early in the shot clock as late but running “right back at UNC” is generally a bad idea. You might get a basket here or there but I wouldn’t game plan that way.
^Numbers certainly bear that out. UNC is 55-6 (0.909) under Roy in games with 80+ possessions, and 51-3 (0.944) since the start of the 2005 season.
Simply put: You run with/at UNC, you lose.
And the reasons our opponents lose: We are deep.
We recruit what we run.
We run what we recruit.
^^80+ possessions means the opponent let UNC run as well. That’s my point, you CAN run on UNC with success, but you better play some good transition D. No matter your offensive game plan against UNC (e.g., Wisconsin or Washington) you have to limit UNC’s offensive possessions by playing good transition D.
I would have guessed UNC wins most high possession games (and CM’s stats back that up). But I would also guess that transition D is the culprit, not the opponents willingness to run. And if you say that running with UNC wears a team out, UNC has to run on both ends as well. If an opponent is used to playing high possession games, they should probably do that against UNC…with special emphasis on transition D.
“If an opponent is used to playing high possession games, they should probably do that against UNC…with special emphasis on transition D.”
I agree with this, and think it’s harder, and less effective, to play a slow down game if you’re not used to it or built for it.
If UNC can impose it’s will, and play the way it wants, it’s no surprise that they have such a high percentage of success in fast-paced games. Conversely, when they’re drawn into a game that they had rather not play, they can still win but probably not quite as efficiently.
Last season, the 3 slowest-paced games of the year were against BC at home (where BC basically abandoned ORB’s to get back on transition D), and against Miami and Virginia on the road - all fairly close. So one might say this is the way to play UNC, but really only if you’re used to playing slow, which BC, Miami, and Virginia were last year.
As far as this “mystery-team” scouting report (maybe it will be leaked eventually) goes, my guess would be (and this is certainly a wild guess) LBSU.
Of course one would think LBSU would tend to want to play closer to their normal pace (they are the slowest-paced team, in terms of raw tempo, we’ve played at the Smith Center this year), but in the UNC game they ended up playing 10 possessions faster than avg., were able to keep their TO’s around their norm, and won the rebounding battle. So it appears they were a willing participant.
Who knows which team this was, but it’s fun to speculate.
FREE REGGIE
Uh Duke is not very good, especially on D