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By Adam Lucas
This week was a reminder that there is so much more to coaching at the major college level than what we see on game day.
Carolina beat Notre Dame 63-59 on Wednesday. We all know what happened in that game – the Tar Heels weren’t particularly outstanding. They only scored five field goals in the first half. You flipped it too much. The bank wasn’t very productive.
It’s fair to say that Hubert Davis was a bit frustrated after the game. His team won the game, but he knew they could do better. As he told them in the dressing room after the game, he planned to “follow up” in training the next day.
That was around 11:30 p.m. The Tar Heels finally got off the plane at around 3:00 a.m. in Raleigh. When they reassembled 12 hours later at the Smith Center for a 3:00 p.m. practice, they were greeted with a very different message.
Thursday’s practice was relatively light and consisted mostly of target practice. But before physical training began, Davis assembled the team in midfield. You’ll have to step back into Thursday’s mindset to fully appreciate this. Remember: It hadn’t been a particularly impressive win the night before. If anything, the win likely raised more questions than it answered.
But then the Tar Heel head coach started the practice by citing something positive that every starter had done the night before. Armando Bacot had given defensive duties to his teammates and made sure they were informed of substitutions. Pete Nance was on the stat sheet in several categories. Leaky Black played 39 minutes because Davis was impressed with his dedication and tenacity. Everyone received one or two words of praise that had nothing to do with the number of points they had achieved.
And then they practiced. Despite the false public belief, this is not a Ted Lasso situation; Davis is capable of being tough on his team — he only did it on Wednesday. But he has an uncanny ability to understand when enthusiasm has turned too negative and when it’s time to build it back up.
So, on Saturday, Pete Nance played part of his best game as a tar heel, scoring 22 points from time with four blocks, a solid defense and a laser assist for Puff Johnson. During the season, players must come to the basketball office at least once a week. These conversations aren’t usually about basketball.
Sometimes it’s actually about cookies. Davis was eating one this week when Nance stopped by. A discussion ensued on the relative merits of certain cookies. Then Nance dropped a bombshell.
“My favorite cookie is a Lemon Oreo,” he said.
“I’m 52 years old and I’ve never heard of this,” Davis replied.
“You can find it at any grocery store,” Nance said.
Since Davis was Davis, he went to the store that night. Sure enough, Nance was right — there were the Lemon Oreos. So Davis grabbed a pack of Lemon Oreos.
Before home games, Nance usually takes a pregame nap on the couch in Davis’ office. When he arrived on Saturday, a package of Lemon Oreos was waiting for him, courtesy of the head coach.
Then Nance went out and scored 22 points, scoring Carolina’s first points of the day with a three-pointer and then hitting three more. As he ran off after Tar Heel’s 71-63 win, the students in the risers chanted his name, “Pete, Pete, Pete!”
As Nance entered the dressing room, Davis grinned at him. “Tell them what the secret was, Pete,” he said.
Nance simply opened his locker and pulled out the Lemon Oreos. The results were undeniable.
“Well, we’re going to the store tonight,” Sean May said.
This is the ultimate answer to why Davis keeps saying he needs to know his players in order to coach them. It’s also part of the answer to why you’ll never hear Davis publicly criticize a player. He just doesn’t believe in it. With all the pressure on his players, both from outsiders and those close to them, he sees no value in amplifying the chorus of public opinion. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t see the areas of improvement needed. In private and in practice, he will speak much more openly with you. In public, however, he will be much more positive. “To me, criticizing children is absolutely disgusting,” he told Jones Angell on the Tar Heel Sports Network. This is Hubert Davis.
It will be fun to attribute most of the credit for the gigantic victory over Virginia to a magic cookie. And that’s a great story. But it was also something else. Nance has been hearing the criticism for the past month and no one has been harder on him than himself. There have been some somber moments following games in which he has struggled. But there he was every time in practice the next day, the loudest talker on defense, the guy who was always ready to pick up a teammate. Shot by shot, never skipped a day, never missed a workout to wallow a little.
“It was tough,” he told THSN. “I didn’t live up to the standards of the team or my personal standards. It was really difficult for me. But all I have to do is keep my head down and keep working.
“The key is to believe in ourselves, to believe in each other and to believe in the work. Finally the water finds its level. You have to believe in the fact that you are giving yourself the best chance of being successful. Keep working and eventually it will come through.”