Cougars must brake Tar Heels’ break
PULLMAN – Washington State men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper.
On it, written deliberately in ink, were the six or seven defensive principles he felt will be key in Thursday’s round-of-16 contest against No. 1 North Carolina in Charlotte, just a couple hours down the road from UNC’s Chapel Hill campus.
Atop the long list was a simple statement: transition defense. Next to it, as if to share top-billing: build a wall in front of the point guard.
”(Build) two or three walls, if we can,” joked Kyle Weaver, part of the bricks and mortar in WSU’s attempt to keep NC’s cat-quick sophomore point Ty Lawson out of the key, especially in transition.
“We’ll have to try our best to just try to slow them down, throw them off their rhythm,” Weaver continued. “Just get back, whether (we have) a miss or a make, or a turnover. Stop the ball; don’t give up easy baskets.”
The top-seeded Tar Heels (34-2) are the nation’s second-best scoring team, averaging 89.9 points per game. They’ve scored 221 in their two NCAA tournament wins, with nearly a quarter of them coming from fast-break opportunities.
“They’re the most impressive team in the country in terms of getting down the floor and scoring in transition off your misses – or makes,” Bennett said Monday.
“That’s where it’s going to start as we had to do it against Notre Dame.”
But Notre Dame, which the 26-8 Cougars demolished 61-41 Saturday, is no North Carolina. After all, there aren’t DVDs on the Irish’s fastbreak available for purchase on the Internet.
“The Carolina fastbreak, and what coach (Roy) Williams has installed, is very well known; he’s made videos about it,” said Bennett, who admits to having watched some of the instructional tapes. “The way they run the floor, they have a very good secondary break. They even have a rule if there aren’t two or three guys back on defense, they want a shot up in one or two passes.”
The Tar Heels’ ability to push the ball up the court, especially after made baskets, is in the forefront of every Cougar’s mind.
“They run,” Robbie Cowgill said. “They sprint down the court every possession. … Coach Tony was saying today it’s like when UCLA runs on a turnover, but on every play.”
“I’m … having nightmares about running back on defense 100 times,” echoed Daven Harmeling.
“They are probably the best running team in the nation, a step up from what we’ve played,” said Aron Baynes.
“Even my dad said ‘get back on defense,’ ” Tony Bennett added, alluding to his father, Dick.
So it’s established North Carolina loves to run. And it’s Lawson who runs the show.
The 5-foot-11 point guard missed seven games this season with ankle and hip injuries. In those games, the Tar Heels only scored above their season average in regulation once.
“Lawson, he’s quick, he just goes around people,” Weaver said. “He finds shooters at the right time. They know when to get at certain spots, when to shoot the 3, (when) to take it inside. It will be tough for us, but I think we’re ready for the challenge.”
Derrick Low will be the cornerstone in fourth-seeded WSU’s wall against Lawson and he’s looking forward to that challenge. A type of challenge he’s faced before.
“I don’t think it will be the biggest challenge, but he’s definitely a great player,” Low said. “I’ve had to guard (former UW and current New York Knicks player) Nate Robinson as a freshman, I had to guard (former Oregon and current Houston Rockets player) Aaron Brooks. I had to guard (UCLA’s) Darren Collison. I’ve had to guard a lot of great point guards. He’ll definitely be one of them.
“There’s a lot of talk about how fast he is with the ball. Those guys I just mentioned we’re all fast with the ball.”
Bennett feels it’s crucial for Low and company to keep Lawson and the N.C. fastbreak under control.
“Our style of play and getting to that,” he said, “will be very important to us to be in this game.”
But the Cougars do have one thing going for them in this battle of wills.
“It’s definitely a good time to be playing some of your best defense, which is something we’re doing right now,” Cowgill said. “That’s going to have to carry over to be in the game against North Carolina.
“It’s not like we have to become a good transition defense team in three days. That’s supposed to be … the first key principle of our whole defensive system. It will be tested, but it’s not like we have to revamp everything to play them. It’s what we’re supposed to be doing.”
Just better than they ever have before.
Notes
The 81 points the Cougars yielded in Denver would have been the fewest any team has given up in its first two games since 1949 – when the tournament had just eight teams – except for one thing. Pac-10 rival UCLA gave up just 78 during the weekend. The schools were only the third and fourth since the shot clock was introduced in 1986 to hold their first two opponents to less than 50 points. The other two, Kansas in 1986 and UCLA last year, made the Final Four. … Charlotte holds a special place in Bennett’s heart. It was there, after all, where he met wife Laurel. “She was an assistant youth pastor at the church I went to,” Bennett said. “The youth pastor asked me to talk to the youth group and that’s where I met my wife.” Bennett added the minister who married them, David Chadwick, was a North Carolina basketball player. When Bennett found out who and where WSU was playing, he called Chadwick, wanting to know where his allegiances lie. “I think we might have a Cougars fan there,” Bennett said.
Another great moment for Bennett, who played parts of three seasons with the Hornets, was a playoff victory over Boston in 1993 when Alonzo Mourning hit a 17-foot jumper to eliminate the Celtics in an NBA first-round series. “We jumped on him like school kids,” said Bennett, who was on the court for the shot. “If you ever see a replay, I had (Boston’s) Dee Brown blocked out. I was ready to get the tip to put it back in. I think he might have jumped over me, to be honest.” … North Carolina, Bennett added, is “about basketball and (NASCAR) racing.”
When Low was in high school, one of the schools that recruited him was the University of Kansas, coached by Roy Williams. Williams even mentioned it after the second-round win over Arkansas, praising Low’s leadership and overall play. Low said Williams called a few times and even sent an assistant coach to the islands to watch Low play for Iolani School. “We were planning an official visit,” Low said, “then (Williams) traded schools.”