GoHeels Exclusive: Pre-Duke Notebook

By Pat James, GoHeels.com

When North Carolina faces Duke on Wednesday at Cameron Indoor Stadium, it'll mark the 60th time in Roy Williams' coaching career that he's been on the UNC bench for a game against the Blue Devils.

But his perspective on the rivalry has been the same for quite some time.

"The first couple of years as an assistant, it wasn't like it is now, for sure," said Williams during Monday's media availability. "But after (Duke coach) Mike (Krzyzewski) got there, they started being really, really successful. So, my feelings have been the same for 28-30 years, something like that.

"It's just a tremendous rivalry, two really great programs with great history, 10 miles apart – which makes it a bit unusual. But for the last 25-30 years, it's been the same for me. I'm very flattered to be part of it, a very small part of it."

Here are four more notes from Monday's media availability, leading up to Wednesday's 9 p.m. game in Durham:

A point of emphasis
In many ways, UNC's 95-57 win at Wake Forest on Saturday was one of its most complete performances this season. But turnovers were once again an issue, as the Tar Heels committed 15. They're now averaging 13.8 turnovers per game.

"The turnovers were silly," Williams said. "You can't make turnovers like that. The careless, the silly and the selfish turnovers, we've got to get rid of those kinds of things."

That'll especially be important Wednesday. Through Sunday's games, Duke ranked first nationally in steal rate, according to KenPom.com. It's forcing 15.9 turnovers per game.

"We've got to take care of the ball if we want to put ourselves in a position to win the game," Coby White said. "We know we've got to do that, so I think we're going to lock in on it in practice and get prepared for this week.:

'A different bird'
Williams said he watched Duke's Zion Williamson as much as anyone else when Williamson was in high school. So, he hasn't been surprised by what Williamson's accomplished as a freshman, averaging 22.4 points and 9.2 rebounds while shooting 68.3 percent from the field.

"Zion is a different bird, there's no question about that," Williams said. "We tried to recruit him very, very hard. He's got a combination of (skills) that I've never seen before. And there's a lot of attention. But he deserves it. He's backed it up and he's been pretty good."

Now comes the challenge of slowing Williamson down.

"He's a great player," Luke Maye said. "The thing we've got to do is we've just got to have a team defense; we've got to do our best to kind of gang up and try to slow him down. But they also have a lot of other players, so at the end of the day, you've just got to do your best to stay in front and make as little mistakes as possible."

Staying focused
Ahead of his first game in Cameron Indoor Stadium, White said his veteran teammates have described to him what the environment will be like and offered some advice.

"Just focus on the game," White said. "Don't listen to the fans in the stands. Just be ready to play, be prepared for a lot of things to happen. They're going to try to dig deep, especially the fans to get under your skin. But just stay focused and locked in and locked in on the coaches."

Kenny Williams said his advice for the freshmen could be boiled down to two words: be ready.

"We were just talking about it in the weight room earlier, about how their fans can get a little bit crazy," he said. "If you've got some dirt, they're going to do their best to dig it up. We just told them to be ready for that, but also just to stay focused on the game as much as you can."

'A special place to play'
Carolina's last victory over Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium was on March 5, 2016, when UNC won 76-72 to secure its first ACC regular-season title in four years. Maye and Kenny Williams were freshmen then. Three years later, they're looking to snap their two-game losing streak at the facility in their final game there.

"The last two years haven't been the best," Kenny Williams said. "That's a special place to play, especially being a part of this rivalry. (Playing there one last time) does mean something. But it will mean a little bit more if we go out there and get a win to end it."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Luke Maye

Coby White

Kenny Williams

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