Drew is going home and I am going nuts!
HC Williams & Larry Drew
The more I keep reading about junior point guard Larry Drew II and what he feels about last year and what he is doing about this summer and the more I truly hope that Kendall Marshall can step in and play from day one. Yes, I am saying it, put me off the Larry Drew bandwagon, heck put me “anyone else at the point but him” status. Why? Well, according to an interview the third year player is going to go back home to work out with his father instead of working out with the rest of the team in the second summer session. A team that has many new pieces and not many pieces that gelled over the course of the last season should not be working out without the player that should be its general on the floor. Another thing that annoyed me is that Larry Drew said he does not think about last season anymore. Sorry but all of this in my mind just creates a lot of tension that is unneeded for a team that needs to be a lot better than they were on their 100th year anniversary.
This is what Drew said about going home for the second summer session…
“Yeah, they do (prefer that I stay in Chapel Hill for the second summer session), but they understand at the same time,” Drew said of the Tar Heel coaches. “I am privileged to have a father who has been in the league for as long as he has. He’s going to be right there with me the whole time. He taught me the game and he’s been there with me in basketball since before I can remember.”
This is all fine and dandy, but if you do not have the privilege to have the players to work with how will you ever become a top notch point guard? I believe that in order to be a great player at the position you have to know how each of your team mates react and move depending on how the play is going, being with your father might perfect your skills in passing, but if you do not know where your team mates will be I have to say it’s all for nothing. And please do not give me “I will be working out with other guys” cause that is not the players you have to go into the season with.
“It’s something I want to take advantage of because I don’t get to see him much during the season or during the year,” Drew continued. “I’m just really looking forward to spending some time with him and picking his brain. I’ve still got all my game tapes from last year, too, so one thing we’re going to do a lot this summer is watch all my game films and break them down.”
Again, this is great, it’s awesome, it’s a once in a life time chance, working with someone that has been in the National Basketball Association that long, and is now the head coach of the Hawks, is going to help Larry Drew finesse his game. The problem I have is that it’s not going to finesse the team’s game and in the end basketball is a team game! You are going to break down tape of a team that will be missing 2 out the 4 players that started last season. Again, all good, but not going to help you with the upcoming players that you do not know. What I am trying to say, had last season ended with 28 or more wins, Top 3 in the conference, Top 15 in the nation, Elite Eight (or higher) in the tournament, by all means go work out with dad. But it didn’t!
In the end, the more I read it the more I have to say I have many questions. Is Drew listening more to his father or his coaching staff? Amd furthermore, is he listening to his father over head coach Roy Williams when it comes to how he should be playing? Would he be doing this if he was let’s say in the pro’s, where his father spent so much time in? Is this going to cause problems with the team in general (locker room/practices/games)? Is this going to cause problems with the fan base (I know it’s causing it with me)? And while I might be jumping off a ledge too quickly because of this I am of the belief that this might not hurt the team at all, but there is NO WAY it is going to help it.
Drew is the supposed floor general of a team that lost 17 games last year, will have four (if not five) new players coming into the mix, has only one senior, needs to still learn how to gel/bond, and your best option is to go home watch old tape and work with your father? Sorry, again I might be totally wrong, but this to me puts Drew in a no win situation and the team at jeopardy of losing games they might not have to. And I will finish with this, if this year Drew does not take a step up will he then stay on campus next year to work with the team or will going home be more important once again? If you think I sound upset I am, because in the end Larry Drew took a scholarship knowing fully well what he was committing to, and yet, after a bad season, he chooses what is best for him over what is best for the team! And that is not the “Carolina Way” in my humble opinion.
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