TALLAHASSEE, FL – North Carolina lost a basketball game it could have won Saturday, but the Tar Heels still took a step forward.

Roy Williams said most of his team’s mistakes are fixable and acknowledged they’ve progressed in recent weeks. He’s right.

And following UNC’s 82-75 loss to Florida State on Saturday here at the Tucker Center, Williams resisted possible temptation at accepting his team grew because, after all it lost. And Hall of Fame coaches don’t get to the Hall of Fame by taking solace from any defeat. But he teetered on the edge some because he saw progress.

Everyone did.

"It's cliche to say that you're not interested in moral victories, and I don't think I've said that 100 times in my life, I've probably said it before, but I just want us to play better,” Williams said. “You get the game to a one possession game and you make some mistakes, miss some shots, you're not quite as powerful going up with it or you get it to one and then you don't get a defensive stop. So, we've just got to get better and all those things.”

Think about it, for UNC to have a chance in the final minutes to surge ahead on the road against perhaps the best team in the ACC on a day it was outrebounded, scored just 22 points in the paint, gave up 22 points off turnovers, and its opponent hit 26 of 27 free throws, is a clear indication this thing is inching toward the right direction. The 96.3 percent free throw shooting by FSU is the third highest ever against UNC by a club that attempted at least 20.

Even in this game: UNC hit a season-high 10 threes; scored 20 points off of 17 FSU turnovers; and its bench outscored the Noles 29-17.

Slowly, Carolina is coming along, but it most certainly is.

In recent games, we’ve seen Garrison Brooks openly discuss some encouragement he received from his uncle and former AAU coach about playing with more energy, and it paid off in the win over Syracuse last Tuesday and he had it here versus the lengthy and deep Seminoles.

RJ Davis has regained his form from earlier in the season, scoring 28 points in the last two games while hitting 4 of 9 from beyond the arc with only one turnover. He led the Tar Heels on Saturday tying a season-high with 16 points.

Kerwin Walton has firmly established himself as a legitimate threat from the perimeter. A few games is one thing, but defenses have had time to adjust, so all he’s done is show he can also shoot off the dribble some, enough that opponents are now aware of it.

And now the Heels have their version of the Energizer Bunny back. Anthony Harris’ insertion into the lineup with 13:39 left to play for the first time this season gave the team a jolt. A needed one.

He’s not a savior, and anyone who expects the second coming of Shammond Williams would be wise to pump the breaks some. A lot. Harris has now played just six games in college and has spent about 24 of the last 25 months of his life rehabbing and overcoming two bad knee injuries. He still needs time, but he absolutely makes the Heels a better team.

As deflating as it was for the Tar Heels when Harris was injured and lost for the season in late December last season, he gave them a literal juice injection Saturday. Nine minutes, five points, three assists, some quality defense and a plus-10.

Oh, and the Tar Heels showed more ruggedness against the always physical and athletic Seminoles. Leonard Hamilton’s team is comfortable playing fast but also mucking it up, and the Heels handled their own. They just weren’t good enough to win on this day.

But they made progress. Don’t think so, consider what Davis said. A freshman employing an older guy’s logic. That’s another good sign.

“I would like to try to limit the ‘shoulda coulda wouldas’ and just try to fix the things we need to fix,” Davis said. “It’s basically the little mistakes that lead up to winning the game and I feel like we're a great enough team to show more effort and do the little things that can help us when it comes down to crunch time to help us win.”

The Heels made those plays winning three straight by closing out Notre Dame, Miami and Syracuse, but FSU is a different animal. And that’s the beauty of this game, it gave Williams a chance to see his team against a really good team, the defending ACC champions and a veteran club that plays to its solid culture.

And overall, Carolina did enough well. They didn’t win, but the Tar Heels made progress.