University of North Carolina Athletics
Brownlow: UNC Basketball Notebook
February 26, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2010
By Lauren Brownlow
It's not in Roy Williams' nature to look ahead to next year. He did say that he has obviously looked ahead somewhat, as coaches do every year, but said he hasn't been "drawing lineups" with Reggie Bullock or Harrison Barnes quite yet. Part of what has made Williams successful is his confidence in himself and in his team, but he admitted even he has had to do some investigating, looking at practice plans from as far back as 15 years ago. "I really do believe that the biggest thing that I've learned is that just because it's been done for 21 years and it's been comfortable for 21 years and it's worked for 21 years, that doesn't mean it's going to work today," Williams said.
After the loss on Wednesday, more than one Tar Heel quoted the normal three-point shooting percentages of Florida State's Chris Singleton and Deividas Dulkys prior to the game. Singleton had been shooting 10-of-50 and made 3-of-6; Dulkys had shot 18-of-58 and made 5-of-11. Wake Forest features two freshmen (Ari Stewart and C.J. Harris) that combined to hit 34.4% of their three's against everyone else and 7-of-11 (63.6%) against Carolina. Williams himself is frustrated when things like that happen, but he has been reinforcing that Carolina's defense has at least something to do with it. "It's the woe is me kind of thing, everybody does things against us. The other thing is, we've got to play better defense. We've got to get there and challenge them more," Williams said.
And Zeller has sensed that frustration, particularly his younger teammates ones who aren't used to the level teams play at when they see Carolina blue. "I don't know if all my teammates realize what the North Carolina name means," Zeller said. "They're playing North Carolina. They're going to come as prepared as possible. They're going to get in extra shots that week. They're going to come and be ready to play. All those stats are lower for the rest of the teams compared to what they're going to be against us. We've just got to come out and play harder and get after them even more."
Wake Forest point guard Ish Smith broke down the Tar Heel defense off the dribble on a regular basis in the first meeting, and slowing him down will be a priority. "You have to be concerned about Ish scoring points, but you have to be more concerned about what he gets for other people and how quickly he gets them," Williams said. "The shots that he usually gets for other people are either wide-open three's or dunks. He makes just enough throughout the course of the game that you have to guard him honestly."
Injury update: Roy Williams mentioned that Will Graves sprained his ankle in practice on Thursday and he is not sure how he will be today. ... Travis Wear is playing in one out of every ten possessions in practice, a bit behind the progress Williams wanted to see. When Tyler Zeller sat out against Georgia Tech, he has already progressed to one out of every four. "He'd really have to do a lot more and say that it's not swollen any from yesterday and it's not hurting before I would play him tomorrow," Williams said.
Williams also dismissed any notion that anything other than bad luck would be involved in the recent rash of injuries. "I can't imagine what another issue would be. Everybody always says, `Are they working too hard in the weight room?' or, `Is the trainer using the right kind of tape?' I just think it's athletics," Williams said. But he did point out that all eight of Wake Forest's rotation that see ten or more minutes have played in all 25 games. ... Speaking of injuries, Tyler Zeller feels that he's close to 100% in terms of his conditioning coming off of his stress fracture.
