CHAPEL HILL — Before North Carolina defeated Syracuse earlier this week, Garrison Brooks informed Tar Heels assistant coach Steve Robinson and director of basketball operations Sean May that he intended to pick up his energy on the court as a means of increasing his sagging production.
Those moments were part of several candid conversations had by the senior forward, who made sure to talk to himself in a purposeful way, too.
“I knew I had to play better,” he said. “I told Sean I was going to play better, I told Coach Rob I was going to play better. I drew a line and said, ‘I’m going to play better and help my team.’ ”
North Carolina visits Florida State on Saturday afternoon looking for its fourth straight victory in Atlantic Coast Conference basketball, with Brooks, the veteran team leader, effectively having spoken his own improvement into existence.
Twelve games into the season, he delivered his first double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds during the Tar Heels’ victory against Syracuse on Tuesday night. It was an elevated effort that snapped Brooks out of a mini slump, a slide marked by 7-for-21 shooting from the field and 6.7 points per game across the three previous games.
Those numbers are nothing resembling what he provided in ACC league play last season — he led the conference in scoring (18.8 points per game), while ranking second in rebounding (9.0 per game) and field goal percentage (shooting 53.5 percent) — or what has been expected of him this season since becoming the league’s Preseason Player of the Year.
Brooks’ search for answers turned up a collection of voices offering advice, ranging from one of his coaches on the AAU recruiting circuit, to his uncle Mo Finley, a former Alabama-Birmingham standout, to his own unvarnished critique of what has been lacking.
“Fix your energy, fix your attitude, fix your mindset to the game,” Brooks said, relaying some of the motivational reminders he has given himself. “It doesn’t matter if you’re scoring, you’ve got to make a difference in one part of the game. It doesn’t matter, you have to affect the game some type of way.”
Brooks’ activity level appeared to elevate against Syracuse, while he worked the soft areas of the Orange’s trademark zone defense near the free throw line. He also contributed three steals and two blocked shots Tuesday night to match season highs in each category.
At the end, with North Carolina applying the finishing touches, his dive to the Smith Center floor to grab a steal in the game’s final 40 seconds helped the Tar Heels secure their third narrow win in a row, all of them claimed by a total of nine points.
He said his former AAU coach and Finley, his uncle, both “got on me about not having the right energy” after watching some of his recent struggles on television.
“They said, ‘If you come out with energy and passion, the ball will find you; you’ll get easy buckets,’ ” Brooks said.
Brooks earned second-team All-ACC honors and the league’s Most Improved Player award last season. He reached the 20-point plateau in 11 games, posted 12 double-doubles, and closed on a tear. He pumped in at least 25 points during four straight games to conclude the regular season, and averaged 24.8 points across his last six regular-season games.
But he wasn’t a starter for North Carolina’s recent games against Georgia Tech, Notre Dame and Miami, when he failed to crack double figures in scoring. Freshman forward Day’Ron Sharpe replaced him in the opening lineup for those games, before Brooks returned to the starting unit Tuesday night and promptly supplied 14 first-half points.
North Carolina coach Roy Williams has said some observers made Brooks’ removal from the starting lineup an overblown issue. Williams also has expressed displeasure with an ESPN broadcast crew’s characterizations of Brooks as he shot just 1-for-7 from the field, scored six points and picked up four fouls in the Tar Heels’ escape of Miami.
“I was really disappointed that people said he had bad body language down at Miami,” Williams said. “He did not have bad body language. That’s who he is, he’s a very stoic kid. … He has the greatest attitude you can possibly have, and it’s hard for those guys doing the TV stuff. They’re in their home 500 miles away, watching it on TV and trying to make comments.
“Garrison does not have bad body language. Garrison does not have a bad attitude. He’s damn near perfect.”
TIP-OFF
Who: North Carolina (8-4, 3-2) at Florida State (6-2, 2-1)
When: Noon Saturday (ESPN)
Where: Tucker Center, Tallahassee, Fla.
Series: North Carolina leads 50-14, including 17-7 in games at Florida State, and has won eight of the last 10 meetings between the teams
Tip-in: Florida State has won 19 straight home games in the ACC, a streak that began Jan. 22, 2019
This article originally appeared on Times-News: UNC team leader Garrison Brooks speaks improvement into existence, quiets mini slump
