Brooks Fine, Williams Being Held Out But Expected To Play

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Roy Williams gave an update at the outset of Tuesday’s press conference on the health status of Garrison Brooks and Kenny Williams, who were banged up during Sunday’s win over Washington in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Brooks was whacked in the face in the first half drawing a lot of blood. Williams did something to his hamstring during the second half. Both players ended up going to the locker room but returned to finish the game.

“Garrison, a report came out first said he had lost a tooth and that’s not what happened, he had two of them removed from the area where they originally were and slid down the street a little bit,” the coach said, smiling. “He got those put back on his own property, the proper spots and looks better. I think he’ll be fine today at practice.”

Brooks still ended up winning UNC’s defensive player of the game honor, and much of that was based on how he played after he returned to the game. Brooks finished the game with five points, five rebounds and three assists in 21 minutes.

Carolina’s coach also noted that Brooks rode in an ambulance with a police escort to have the work done on his mouth while still in Columbus.

“Kenny feels a lot better,” Roy Williams said. “We’re not going to use Kenny today, but if we were playing a game today I think I’d play him. We’re just holding him out to give him a little more time. They’ve done some more tests and said it’s still just a little bit of a hamstring strain, I guess you’d call it. I think if we were going to play a game today he’d play.”

The senior guard was made available to the media as well Tuesday and discussed his hamstring injury.

“It’s better. I wouldn’t say it’s a hundred percent, but it’s definitely better than it was two days ago…,” he said. “If we had to play today, I’d definitely be suiting up and playing, there’s no doubt about that.”

The Virginia native said it’s not so bad it would affect his play if the Heels had a game Tuesday.

“It’s just uncomfortable, I don’t think it’s hindering me, unless you guys saw something in the second half that looks like it was hindering me,” he said. “I didn’t think it was, it was just an uncomfortable feeling.”

He also said the hamstring feels a lot different than Sunday when he injured it but did admitted it was tough the morning after.

“I’m going to be honest with you, Monday morning when I bent down to tie my shoes it was a little tough,” he said. “Like I said, it’s uncomfortable but it’s getting better pretty quickly.”

Williams finished the game with two points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals in 27 minutes.

The top seed in the Midwest Region, UNC (29-6) will face No. 5 seed Auburn (28-9) on Friday night in Kansas City at 7:30 pm EST.