North Carolina At Chapel Hill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTIMz1EStJk

Don’t tell Hubert Davis it’s only the first day of September.

The Carolina head coach was in midseason form this week as his Tar Heels went through a couple of the NCAA-allowed preseason practices. Official practice for the 2022-23 season will begin in late September.

With no opponent to prepare for, this week’s two sessions were focused on two aspects of the game: individual skills and refining some of the offensive and defensive principles that form the core of Davis’ system.

That doesn’t mean, however, that they were easy workouts.

Less than ten minutes into Thursday’s session, Davis halted a very basic fullcourt layup drill when he spotted what he considered to be an egregious error.

“What have I told you many times?” he asked the team. “The best way to be successful is to do exactly what I say to do. When you’re on the left side, it’s a left hand layup. If you choose not to do that, how can I trust you to put you in the game? When you get on the court, you might decide you are going to do something your way instead of my way.”

And when they’re on the court together, it’s readily apparent that there will be plenty of Tar Heels vying for playing time. Add Pete Nance to the four returning veterans (Caleb Love, RJ Davis, Armando Bacot and Leaky Black) and that’s five talented, experienced college basketball players. Freshmen Seth Trimble is going to play, as is Jalen Washington. Puff Johnson played key minutes in the postseason run. Dontrez Styles hit one of the biggest shots of the NCAA Tournament. D’Marco Dunn has shown flashes. Justin McKoy has significant ACC experience. Freshman Tyler Nickel has played bigger than his high school level of competition. Will Shaver has the added benefit of enrolling early last winter. You can legitimately make a believable case for thirteen different players earning major minutes this season–and there aren’t enough minutes for a 13-player rotation (even while keeping in mind one of Davis’ favorite sayings that applies to those in and out of the regular rotation: “You’re going to get an opportunity, I just don’t know when that opportunity will come.”)

In other words: earning the head coach’s trust is the best path to playing time on a crowded depth chart. Even if that means something as simple as how you shoot a layup.

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