University of North Carolina Athletics
Four Corners: 1,000 For Williams
December 1, 2016 | Men's Basketball
CHAPEL HILL— Roy Williams is in the midst of his 14th season as the Tar Heel head coach and the 29th overall of his Hall-of-Fame career. On Wednesday night at Indiana, Williams coached his 1,000th game.
On to this week's Four Corners:
1. NEWS & NOTES
♦ Carolina returned to its first practice in the Smith Center last weekend after 10 days in Hawai'i, then headed to Indiana on Tuesday night for Wednesday's ACC/Big Ten Challenge game against the 13th-ranked Hoosiers.
2. LAST WEEK
♦ After four games in six days in Hawai'i, the Tar Heels had a week off before the game in Bloomington.
♦ The Tar Heels dropped a 76-67 decision at Indiana in Assembly Hall, falling behind by as many as 17 points before getting back within four at 61-57 in the final 5:00 of play.
♦ Adam Lucas broke down the lessons to be learned from the loss.
♦ Here are the highlights from GoHeels TV:
3. UP NEXT
♦ The Tar Heels will play their first home game in nearly three weeks when they host Radford on Sunday at 4 p.m. Contests in the Smith Center will follow against Davidson (Wed. Dec. 7) and Tennessee (Sun. Dec. 11). Tickets are available.
♦ After Tar Heel players finish their fall semester final exams, Carolina will face Kentucky in Las Vegas on Sat. Dec. 17.
4. DON'T MISS IT
♦ NCAA.com featured the Tar Heels last weekend after their Maui Invitational title, praising the team's hunger and Joel Berry II's individual improvement while also writing, "It's late November, but UNC looks sharp and confident. The Tar Heels have sufficient size, scoring and experience." (Five Things We've Learned About the Tar Heels)
♦ ESPN's Jay Bilas was similarly optimistic about Carolina in a tweet from Maui:
It's early, and a long way to go. But, North Carolina is the best, most complete team I've seen. Right now, I'd have the Heels at No. 1.
— Jay Bilas (@JayBilas) November 23, 2016
Roy Williams emphasized in the postgame after the Maui title game win over Wisconsin that his team still has a lot of growing left to do: “There's probably, pick a number, 15 to 20 teams that have the potential to do it. You've got to stay healthy. You've got to get lucky and you've got to improve. If this is the best basketball that we play the entire season, then, no, we're not good enough. But I feel we can improve.”
♦ Here's a heart-warming story about a 13-year old cancer patient from Goldsboro who spent time with the Tar Heels in Maui.
♦ Here's a feature on the challenges of studying on the road for college players, particularly in the heavy travel portion of the early season.
♦ Very cool gesture from Tar Heel Vince Carter:
When you travel 14 hours to see your idol, @mrvincecarter15, & then you meet him. #ThisIsWhyWePlay pic.twitter.com/A7u2C6tcbu
— Memphis Grizzlies (@memgrizz) November 29, 2016
♦ Here's another cool story on Carter, whose influence as the NBA's elder statesman continues to impress.
