Larry Drew II: 24 minutes, 2 assists, 3 turnovers, 1-5 shooting, 5 points
Kendall Marshall: 16 minutes, 2 assists, 0 turnovers, 2-5 shooting, 5 points
Game after game, Kendall Marshall plays much better than Larry Drew, yet Drew continues to be the starter and play the majority of the minutes at the point. I'm not sure what games Roy Williams is watching, because it's clear to me that Marshall is much better, and he typically matches or surpasses Drew's output in less time while making fewer careless turnovers. Some people say that Larry Drew is a better defender, but I question that as well. It seems to me that it's just another catchphrase that people get in their head, then just repeat over and over and convince themselves that it's true (these kinds of things are typically found in politics). Even if Drew was a better defender, he's certainly not enough of an upgrade on that end of the floor to make up for how bad he is on offense. He has no confidence, rarely even looks to penetrate, and has no chance at making a shot from the outside. He doesn't create much for his teammates, and he's just not a threat to do much of anything when the Heels have the ball. This is the last time I'm going to talk about this, as I've clearly made my point and I'm getting tired of repeating the same thing after every single game.
Besides the botched decision at point guard, Williams' substitution patterns have been suspect all year long. He has consistently replaced the five players on the floor with five new ones after only three or four minutes of game time, assuring that no one on the team can ever find a rhythm on the court. With around 17 minutes to go in the 2nd half against Virginia, he finally decided to let some guys play for 6-8 straight minutes, and the Heels clawed back during that time and won the game. I hope he noticed how that worked, but I'm not counting on it. He needs to watch how Coach K only plays his best players for the majority of the game and take some notes.
While I like a lot of things that Roy Williams has done at Carolina, he has had a very hard time for the past two years just putting the right guys on the court. Virginia is not a good team and this game really shouldn't have been close, but Roy seems intent on giving everyone similar minutes rather than playing the best players for the majority of the game. Although Harrison Barnes has struggled so far this season, I still believe he is our best and most talented player. Unfortunately for him, he has been on the court with Kendall Marshall for less than 5 minutes all season, and that has really hurt the quality of shots he's been getting. While some of the shot selection has to be attributed to Barnes himself (he needs to drive much more often rather than settling for fade away jumpers), I just don't understand how those two haven't been on the court together hardly at all this year, as I think they would be a great combination on the floor. If I was coaching, I'd start Marshall-Bullock-Barnes-Henson-Zeller, with McDonald, Knox, and Strickland playing big minutes off the bench. Drew and Watts would play sparingly, only coming in if someone was dead tired. I do like what Watts has done this year as an energy spark off the bench, but he just isn't talented enough to get the same kind of minutes as a guy like Reggie Bullock. Strickland has come back to earth after a few great games and is back to flying around out of control, and it's time for him to take a back seat to the bigger more talented players behind him.
It probably seems that I want Roy Williams fired, but that isn't the case. I love what Roy Williams does for the University of North Carolina, and I have no doubt that he loves the school. He has carried on the legacy of Dean Smith, making sure that the Carolina family sticks together and never loses that bond. I imagine he's a very good mentor for college kids, and he's obviously a great motivator and speaker (speech maker, interviewer, talker, however you want to word it), as well as an extreme competitor. Despite this, he clearly lacks a lot of vision when it comes to in-game changes and adapting to what's happening on the floor, and that is a major part of what he's getting paid millions of dollars to do. I'm as big a fan of UNC athletics as anyone in the world, and it really hurts me to see us struggle so much unnecessarily and not be able to do anything about it. Maybe one day someone will read my ideas and hire me as an assistant, as my basketball skill set would be a perfect compliment to Roy Williams. That, after all, is the major reason I started this blog, and I'm going to continue it until someone sees it and decides they have to take a chance. Spread the word ;)
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