
{"id":26612,"date":"2012-06-21T11:37:49","date_gmt":"2012-06-21T15:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=26612"},"modified":"2012-06-21T11:37:50","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T15:37:50","slug":"heels-mcadoo-prepares-to-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/06\/21\/heels-mcadoo-prepares-to-lead\/","title":{"rendered":"Heels\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 McAdoo prepares to lead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_20318\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20318\" style=\"width: 100px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2011\/08\/18\/support-the-players-by-filling-kenan-stadium\/landreth-mug-30\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-20318\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"landreth-mug\" width=\"100\" height=\"134\" class=\"size-full wp-image-20318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1-84x113.jpg 84w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/landreth-mug1-74x100.jpg 74w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20318\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Eddy Landreth<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<strong>By Eddy Landreth<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>James Michael McAdoo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s answers during the Tar Heels\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 annual summer interview session with coach Roy Williams and selected players proved to be as rare as the young man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skills.<\/p>\n<p>McAdoo, a rising sophomore, did not dodge and did not hedge when answering questions about the long road from the weak start of his freshman season to a dominant finish during the 2012 ACC and NCAA tournaments.<\/p>\n<p>His answers were obvious products of candid, possibly even painful, self-evaluation.<\/p>\n<p>McAdoo started slowly in the fall of 2011. After that, he required much of the season to regain the form that had made him one of the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top recruits.<\/p>\n<p>Just remember, this is a young man who was named USA Basketball\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Player of the Year while still in high school. McAdoo is the youngest player to ever win the award; it normally goes to a college or professional player.<\/p>\n<p>He led two USA Basketball teams to gold medals in separate summers, one in 2009 in Argentina and another in 2010 in Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Then McAdoo surprised even himself with what came next. The young man who achieved so much in high school arrived in Chapel Hill, and a shell of his former self impersonated the youngster who dominated the competition during international play and high school games.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Honestly, I felt like it was my consistency,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McAdoo said of the start to his freshman season. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The first of the year I was lackadaisical in my approach to the game. Mentally, I felt I was out of it.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t necessarily tell myself that this team needed me,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153As the year went on, I talked to Coach [Williams] and the other coaches. I realized the team did need me, and I had to step up my game. I had responsibilities. Just because I was a freshman did not mean I could sit back and play well when I want to. They needed me every day.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>He said he is not sure why he had such a poor mental approach to the start of his career.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McAdoo said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s college. You all know how college is. There is a whole different atmosphere. Mom and dad and my sister were not here.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You have to grow up quickly, especially if you want to play Division I basketball at UNC. So I feel like I lost my focus, lost who I was, but I was able to make up my mind and do what I am capable of doing. It finally showed on the basketball court.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>McAdoo is 6-feet-9 and weighs at least 220 pounds. His overall athleticism and great quickness are two of the qualities that feed the reservoir of talent he utilizes to be a dominant force.<\/p>\n<p>The inconsistency he showed early in his freshman year has now been replaced by steady hard work and excellent production. The leap forward has continued into the middle of June while playing pick-up games against Tar Heels now in the NBA and players soon to be there.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The way he is playing right now is amazing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d teammate Reggie Bullock said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Coming in, when he first started the season, I saw that he was a little shaky. He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really know what to do, when to do it.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He was too passive to Harrison [Barnes], John [Henson and [Tyler Zeller]. With his game, he is definitely a dominant player.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>McAdoo said the difference came about when he learned to erase doubts and passiveness and build on the skills he has always relied upon to be a great prospect.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153God has given me a blessing,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d McAdoo said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ecstatic just to be able to start the season where I left off. Hopefully, I can help this team win basketball games.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a great opportunity to be one of the players on UNC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s basketball team, period, let alone one of the better ones.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Michael McAdoo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s answers during the Tar Heels\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 annual summer interview session proved to be as rare as the young man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":20318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[431],"class_list":["post-26612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26612"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26616,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26612\/revisions\/26616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}