Roy Williams probably does not much care for surprises, at least when it comes to his basketball team.

But the North Carolina coach has had more than his share this season courtesy of having the 325th most experienced team in the nation, according to KenPom.com. The Tar Heels are quite young.

Two seniors, one of whom has been a role player during his career, a junior who missed much of his freshman season due to an injury, and a sophomore are the only Heels who regularly get onto the court without having an “FR” next to their names on the official roster. Naturally, with seven of the Tar Heels’ top 11 players freshmen, the unpredictability meter has been popping this winter.

Each game for Williams is like being at a fair and winning a grab bag. Or better yet, like when Forrest Gump reaches into a box of chocolates: He never knows what he’s gonna get.

“It’s a very uncomfortable feeling, that’s what it is,” Williams said during a Friday zoom in advance of Saturday’s home game versus No. 11 Florida State.

“This is 33 years as a coach, and it’s probably surprised me with their makeup, their reaction to my sayings, their reactions to the plans, reactions to the toughness have been different from anything that I’ve ever coached.”

And at no time has the inconsistent nature of his young team taken center stage more than over the previous week.

The Tar Heels rocked Louisville by 45 points last Saturday, shooting up 20 spots in the all-important NET rankings while better positioning themselves for landing a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Four days later, they lost at home by 13 points to a Marquette club that owns a losing record and is in next-to-last place in the Big East. Carolina dropped 11 spots in the NET after the loss.

UNC’s uninspiring performance was something Williams saw coming a day in advance at practice. His team didn’t handle the prosperity of the Louisville game well at all, and they just weren’t ready for the Eagles.

Williams qualified his statements in advance saying he wasn’t interested in making excuses, yet denying the reality of the situation doesn’t serve anyone well.

“The youthfulness of this club is just something that is really, really unusual,” he said.

The Tar Heels average 1.07 years of college experience per player. Four of their six true freshmen were still 18 years of age in late September, which is when practices began in pre-pandemic times. Even more, Caleb Love turned 19 on Sept. 27, Kerwin Walton did so on Oct. 20, RJ Davis a day later, and Day’Ron Sharpe turned 19 on Nov. 6, just 19 days before the season opener.

“Somebody said our team, in age, there were only like 25 teams in the country younger than we are,” Williams noted. “My gosh, I’d hate to see how they reacted in certain situations if there’s somebody younger than we are.”

One can see the youth in the players’ yo-yoing individual performances.

Sharpe has scored 21 and 25 points in games, his only two outings with more than 16 points, but he has also been at six or fewer points on seven occasions. Davis has settled into a backup role, so his minutes are down a bit from earlier in the season, but his production remains all over the place.

He finished with 11 points versus Marquette and was in double figures in four consecutive games in January, but in between had a five-game stretch in which he totaled just 15 points, twice failing to scratch at all.

Perhaps Walton has come closest to settling into a range. Going back to when he was inserted into the starting lineup at Georgia Tech on Dec. 30, a span of 14 games, the Minnesota native has scored between nine and 14 points in 10 contests with a low of seven and a high of 19, which came in the win over Louisville.

Love, however, might be the poster child for the wild ebbs and flows newcomers have experienced.

The 6-foot-4 point guard has scored in double figures in 10 of Carolina’s 22 games, but only four times in the same 14-game span previously noted regarding Walton. He went for 11 at FSU last month followed by 20 points versus Wake Forest and 15 against NC State. Since, he has been in double figures once in UNC’s last seven games, and that was a 25-point explosion at Duke.

Love has 20 total points in UNC’s last four contests.

“Every day trying to get better,” Williams replied, when asked what Love is still trying to figure out. “Every day trying to listen to what we’re saying in getting better. Again, I feel like I’m a stuck record over here, he’s a freshman. I have no idea, no idea. It’s a new world, that’s all I can tell you.”

Each day is also a new wilderness for Williams.

“Teams we’ve had in the past, over time, I’ve been able to read their reactions and feelings (by the) looks they’re giving me in the locker room,” he said. “But again, it’s such a new team, I haven’t gotten any clue yet about what they’re thinking.”

It will eventually click with the players, and the coach will no longer wonder what he’s going to get from his guys night in and night out. But it may take some more time because the 325th oldest team in the nation won’t exactly get old overnight.