29-0, Wisconsin's Tempo, And Being Back On Heels' Minds

NCAA Tournament games are always must-win affairs: Win and you get to play again, lose and the season is over. As much pressure as there is living up to a standard long ago set at UNC, another layer of responsibility is being heaped onto the Tar Heels’ plate: Roy Williams’ amazing streak.

This is the 30th team Williams has taken to the NCAA Tournament from Kansas and Carolina, and he has yet lost an opening game. Williams’ teams are 29-0 in NCAA openers, so that streak is on the line Friday with the No. 8 seed Tar Heels facing the No. 9 seed Badgers in the South Region at Mackey Arena on Purdue’s campus in West Lafayette, IN.

Williams’ remarkable record and other achievements, including recently becoming the fourth Division One coach to win 900 games, earned him high praise from Wisconsin Coach Greg Gard earlier in the week.

“Well one, he’s had really good teams, whether he’s been at Kansas or at North Carolina,” Gard said. “So that’s part of it. And obviously, he’s a Hall of Fame coach, has he won 900 yet or is he still in the 800s? So, he’s been doing it for a long time, and obviously has had tremendous success at both places.

“I think it’s a combination. I think it’s always having good teams but also him doing a good job of preparing them and putting them in that position.”

Make no mistake, the Tar Heels are aware of the streak.

"That's great,” UNC senior forward Garrison Brooks said, when asked about it. “So, we just have to keep going. That's all I can pretty much say about that."

Keeping it going is not the main thing on the Tar Heels’ minds, though. This strange NCAA setup for teams means they are not getting anything close to the usual NCAA Tournament experience, one Brooks was a part of as a freshman and sophomore. Without the pomp of a usual tournament appearance, this game has quickly become more about the actual game.

Williams’ mark is nice, but Carolina has a game to play Friday versus an older club that will try to strangle the Heels out of their comfort zones. That, more than anything else, is the Heels’ focus.

Wisconsin’s adjusted tempo is No. 326 in the nation. By comparison, Virginia and Clemson, two teams that frustrated the dickens out of the Heels earlier this season, have adjusted tempo rankings of Nos. 357 and 338, respectively.

If it was a challenge for Carolina in those games, Friday could be the same. So, the Heels got a head start on preparing for the Badgers, inspired by Brooks, who is by far Carolina’s most experienced player in NCAA Tournament games, having logged 106 minutes in five contests.

“Usually, we do scout like a day before the game,” Bacot said. “But then I thought about I'm like, ‘Yes, the NCAA tournament, we know that we need to plan (because) it’s win or go home.’ So, it kind of makes sense.

“I guess (Brooks) was kind of showing us just the level of focus we need to have going into the game on Friday.”

Beneath the pressure of Williams’ streak and facing a quality team from the Big Ten, however, is an appreciation for being back in this position.

Nobody played in the NCAA Tournament last season because it was cancelled due to COVID-19. Yet, UNC was going to miss it anyway, because the Tar Heels stumbled to the second worst season in program history finishing at 14-19. But they rebounded this winter and are grateful to reclaim some normalcy for the program.

"It's awesome,” Brooks said. “Something our team’s worked so hard for. And you see that when we made it on selection Sunday, you see the excitement in everybody's faces, and just opportunity to play again.”

Brooks isn’t taking this for granted and said he didn’t take the earlier trips for granted either when the Heels were a two seed his freshman year and one seed his sophomore year. He had advised the other members of the 325th most experienced team in the nation to relax, prepare hard, and enjoy the experience.

That and make Williams 30-0 in NCAA Tournament openers.