Lucas: That's Just Kenny

By Adam Lucas

The best thing I saw at the Smith Center on Friday night was not Seventh Woods' sweet behind-the-back pass to Cameron Johnson for a three-pointer.

It wasn't Coby White's impressive play in transition, or Nassir Little's rim-rattling dunk, or even K.J. Smith's first dunk as a Tar Heel.

No, the best thing I saw happened in the moments after Carolina's 108-58 win over Tennessee Tech, when Kenny Williams stood in the Tar Heel tunnel in shorts and a t-shirt, high-fiving his teammates with a big grin on his face as they ran off the court.

Williams had gone down on the baseline midway through the second half, immediately dropping the Smith Center into stone silence. As he lay flat on his back, hands over his head, I suddenly realized I had a death clinch on the armrest of my seat. It was that kind of season-in-the-balance moment, and it looked bad.

According to the official stats, Williams is shooting 29.6 percent from the field and averaging 5.8 points per game through four games. Those numbers make absolutely no difference.

You don't quantify Kenny Williams with a stat. You quantify him with this: early in the first half, he missed a three-pointer in the corner near the baseline. Tennessee Tech got a run-out off the long rebound and appeared to have an easy two-on-one fast break at the other end. The Golden Eagles chose to beat the one defender, Woods, with a lob, setting up for an easy layup…until Williams came out of nowhere, soared to deflect the pass, and transformed what looked like the simplest possible basket into a turnover. He ended up in the first row of the Smith Center seats, giving a couple of fans an up-close look at one of Carolina's most integral players.

The score at the time that Williams sprinted almost the entire length of the floor to get back into the play was 71-36. It was the rare play in the course of the game that has nothing to do with putting the ball in the basket and still deserves to immediately go on the game highlight tape.

"That's just Kenny," said his roommate, Luke Maye. "We've seen that all four years he's been here. He loves to bring energy and set a tone on the defensive end."

The thwarted two-on-one was the second time in the second half that Williams had been in the stands; earlier in the period, he'd raced into the fifth row in pursuit of a loose ball. Four games into the season, there have been at least three occasions when the Virginia native has pursued an errant basketball into the stands. Jerod Haase catalogued floor burns. Kenny Williams may start keeping track of bleacher burns.

It's really no wonder that Roy Williams loves his senior—who has also turned in the best individual defensive performance of the season so far, a ballhawking effort against Wofford's Fletcher Magee—so much. Kenny's playing style is a perfect match for the head coach's intensity. Roy Williams was as fiery coaching Shea Rush and Caleb Ellis in Friday's closing seconds as he was leading Johnson and Maye at tip-off. Kenny Williams seems to have no internal barometer for the time and score; if he's on the court, and the basketball is rolling free, it belongs to him, with no regard to his personal safety or the game situation.

We see it in games (after the play where Williams chased the ball into the fifth row, he got back in the play in time to contest the shot and force a miss). His teammates see it every day at practice, too.

"Kenny does a great job as a senior every day bringing energy," Little said. "In practice, when everyone is exhausted, he has that energy. It spreads to everybody."

It truly does. And that's why you have freshman All-America Nassir Little diving on the floor during the first half of a meaningless Friday night game against Tennessee Tech—because he sees a senior do it every day in practice.

And that's also why it was such a tenuous moment when Williams was sprawled on the Smith Center court in the second half. There are lots of ways to judge a player's importance to the Tar Heels. But there is perhaps no better measure than the fact that within seconds after Williams hit the hardwood, Roy Williams was by his side. No hesitating to see if he'd hop back up. No waiting for a sign from athletic trainer Doug Halverson. Kenny Williams was on the ground, and the head coach wanted to be beside him.

So it was a huge relief to see the senior in the tunnel after the game, looking much more buoyant than he had a few minutes earlier. There was that ever-present smile and quiet confidence that is an essential part of the 2019 Tar Heels. It's OK. Kenny Williams is fine. And that means the Tar Heels are fine.

Earlier this season at a UNC practice, Roy Williams blew the whistle to stop the action after a couple of those trademark Kenny Williams energy plays. At this point in the season, the senior hadn't made a field goal in a game yet. "You guys see that?" the coach asked his team. "If he keeps playing like that, I don't care if he ever makes a shot. I'm going to play him forever."

And then the coach turned to his player, two very similar personalities who love to compete, and also love to get in the last word.

"But," the Hall of Famer said to his senior, "I would like you to make a shot before I die."

Kenny Williams grinned. And kept playing.

Players Mentioned

Caleb Ellis

Cameron Johnson

Nassir Little

Luke Maye

Shea Rush

K.J. Smith

Coby White

Kenny Williams

Seventh Woods

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