Roy Williams took part in the weekly ACC Conference Call on Monday morning to field questions about his team, choice of Jordan Brand shoes for each game, why home teams are still winning most of the time, on his freshmen not having a typical Carolina experience and more.
Above is a video of the full 13-minute Q&A session and below are some notes and pulled quotes about what he had to say:
*Armando Bacot has been UNC’s best and most consistent player this season, and he’s been at his very best over the last three games, connecting on 24 of 32 shots from the floor averaging 18.7 points per game. On the season, Bacot is shooting 65.5 percent from the floor, nearly 20 points higher than a season ago. What has been the biggest key in his game taking the next step?
“Two things, he shot a terrible percentage last year (46.9) for a big guy at North Carolina,” Williams said. “Against Wofford he was 2-for-14, he was in the 40s (for the season). It’s just he didn’t focus on the target. He was interested in spinning and spinning one way and spinning the next way, laying it up and never had the opportunity to focus on the target.
“It’s one of the things we talked about in our player meetings last spring and summer after the season was over and I tried to get him to simplify…
“Number one, he’s simplified; number two, he’s more attentive to the details of focusing on where you’re shooting the basketball and not just throwing it up and thinking that’s a good shot; and he’s worked hard at it. He really has.
“He had a three or four-game stretch where it was down, but other than that, he’s been fantastic for us all year. You take out that three or four-game stretch in there and it would be phenomenal.”
*ACC teams are a combined 88-28 at home this season, which is rather consistent with past years when COVID and no or limited fans were ever an issue. There was a belief before the season that home court advantage wouldn’t be a thing this year, but it is. With Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Boston College and Miami a combined 15-16 at home, that means the other 11 ACC teams are a combined 73-12 at home. To what does Williams attribute this?
“My own opinion is my guys come in the Smith Center five or six times a week and shoot, Duke’s guys go in Cameron five or six times a week, the same thing in (NC State) Raleigh, the same thing in (Clemson) Littlejohn,” Williams explained. “You get used to the baskets, used to the rim, used to the background.
“The background is what’s so different in every place, so you get more used to it, you get more used to the floor, you get more used to everything. And I think if you’re going to pick a place to play a game, you’d like to play that game where you play the most. I think that’s the biggest reason to me, they’re just more familiar with the surroundings, and that familiarity does make it easier for everybody.”
UNC, by the way, is 6-0 at the Smith Center.
*One of the major drawbacks about not having fans at the Dean Dome is the freshmen don’t yet know what it’s like be a part of the true Carolina experience. And it’s not just the buzz inside the Smith Center and during starting lineup intros, it’s everything from walking around campus to every little aspect of being a UNC basketball player. None of that exists this season, not even the attention the Tar Heels usually get on the road. It’s just not there.
“It’s really, really difficult,” Williams said. “There’s not been many students on campus at all. Our guys leave here, go back to their rooms, come back to the gym, go back to the rooms, come back here. You’re not going in the classrooms. The total experience is just not there.
“What we’re trying to do is try to keep an eye on them, trying to talk to them a little more, trying to get them to understand how unusual this is for everyone. At the same time, we’re asking the older guys to take care and keep an eye out for the younger guys a little bit more.
“And for us, the total Carolina experience being with your classmates and in the classroom and walking up on campus, it’s just not there. And it is really hard and it’s sad to me because I think that part of the college experience is fantastic, just like playing in the Smith Center. At the same time, we’re having to talk to them a lot about playing in the Smith Center.
“Every former player I’ve ever had talks about running through that tunnel out on game night, well now they run through that tunnel on game night it’s not anything like what it was for those other people.
“The mental health of our student athletes, not just here at North Carolina, but all the schools around the country, is something I think every coach has been concerned about because we don’t want it to seem like a job. It’s lost a lot of the fun times the student athletes can normally have.”
*Williams’ shoe of choice for each game has generated quite a buzz, as he has worn a different pair each time the Tar Heels have played. So far, that’s 16 games and 16 different pairs of shoes. Williams doesn’t pay attention to social media, but how much thought has he given to choosing shoes based on the general reaction it's getting and how it's received on the recruiting trail?
“Absolutely none, absolutely none,” Williams replied.
Williams has said before the coaches decided last summer to wear more casual attire this season instead of suits, noting the NBA coaches wore polos during the bubble games when it season resumed. Williams said that Dean Smith always told him “if you want to be respected like a business man and professional, you’ve got to dress like one.”
He continued.
“Every game that counted on the record, except in Maui and Nassau, I wore a coat and tie. Every game, never failed. I didn’t wear a turtleneck. I told the coaches I had to think about it and I would get in with them so I did.”
Williams agreed to do it so he went to Eric Hoots, UNC’s Director of Player Development, to discuss what shoes he should wear.
“I think I’d like to wear a different Jordan Brand shoe at every game,” Williams said he told Hoots. “It’s easy for me because I’m size 9-and-a-half and that’s been the sample size, so over the years, I’ve been sent a lot of shoes that other people love and I don’t even know the reason why.
“So that’s what it was. It takes Eric and myself about three minutes before each game to decide which pair of shoes to wear and that’s all it is. I didn’t do it for anything other than how loyal I wanted to be to Jordan Brand and how loyal they’ve been to me.
“I didn’t know it was going to get any hits or interaction whatever it is they call it, but it’s gotten an incredible amount of attention.”
And as a note, there is zero chance he will wear the shoes Jordan gave him for winning his 800th game. Those are in a box in his house, “and I won’t wear those,” Williams said.
*Now that February is here, it makes a little more sense for coaches to be asked their thoughts on having the ACC Tournament since there has been discussion of some top teams opting out in different leagues out of concerns they could end up testing positive and either miss or throw off the NCAA Tournament. Smith gave a very long answer to the question, but the gist of it was as follows:
“I have several feelings off the top of my head,” Williams replied. “You know what opting out means? It means you frickin quit. Whether it’s the team or individual, opting out means you quit. And that bothers me.
“I think it was (Florida State Coach) Leonard (Hamilton) that said, ‘Does that mean we’re afraid the virus is going to be – we will be more susceptible to the virus playing in an ACC Tournament than we would be the regular season games?’
“I don’t have a strong, strong opinion. Maybe I’ll develop one, but if we’re going to play let’s play, if we’re not going to play, let’s not play… We’re trying to play every game on our schedule. We’ve lost Clemson, we’re tying to figure out some place we can get them back.
“So, I’m in favor of playing. Like Leonard said, I just can’t understand why people think you’re going to get sick or be more susceptible to getting sick in an ACC Tournament then you are when you’re playing the regular season. At least you’re in one place and not going through three or four different towns, cities, campuses, or whatever.”
