CHAPEL HILL – Roy Williams met with the media preceding North Carolina’s game at Syracuse on Wednesday night and discusses the Orange’s zone, Andrew Platek’s health, his team’s chemistry, Theo Pinson’s zaniness and what exactly the term “tough little nut” means.
*On Syracuse’s famed 2-3 zone, Williams said:
“For us, it goes back to how we’re going to play against a zone. It’s hard for us to simulate in practice trying to get ready for it. People don’t understand it until you get to it. It’ll be a shock for Kenny (Williams), it’ll be a shock for Cam (Johnson), it’ll be a shock for any of the big guys.
“So that’s the biggest thing I think about is they play zone but I think last year they led the league in steals playing zone, I think this year they’re first, second or third. So it’s a very active, aggressive zone.”
The Orange are ranked No. 10 in the nation allowing 63.4 points per game, are No. 9 holding opponents to 39 percent shooting from the field, including No. 5 nationally limiting opponents to 33.1 percent from 3-point range. Syracuse is also 10th in the nation blocking 5.2 shots per game.
*Andrew Platek, a freshman guard who missed Saturday’s win at Louisville with a concussion, was cleared for a full practice Tuesday, Roy Williams said at his weekly presser earlier in the day at the Smith Center.
“I would assume he’s going to be released to play. Yesterday, we kept him out of contact but he did everything else. Unless he comes in and I hold up four fingers and he says ‘one.’ So I would guess that he will play.”
As for how it happened?
“He was driving down the lane and Seventh (Woods) tried to take a charge, and his face went right into Seventh’s chest,” the coach said, before chuckling. “Theo (Pinson) has a way to describe it and Joel (Berry) has a way to describe it, I can’t do that. That’s what happened.”
*“Tough little nut” is a term Williams has used to describe a few of his players in the past, but perhaps none more than Marcus Paige and current UNC senior guard Joel Berry.
“I don’t really know,” Williams said when asked about the term’s origin. “I think I may have sued it a hundred years ago with Jacque Vaughn, but I know that when I came here, I’m pretty sure that Marcus (Paige) was the first one that I said that about.”
Oh no, Williams has called more players than that the endearing term. One of the reporters in the press conference read off the names he came up with after some extensive research:
Aaron Miles (Kansas): “Oh yeah, little rascal. I called him the little rascal.”
Raymond Felton: “Yeah.”
Dewey Burke: “I called him a tough little nut? I must have been on drugs or something. He was the ‘Biscuit Boy.’”
Wes Miller: “Yeah, I said that.”
Ty Lawson and Dexter Strickland, too. He also called Washington’s Isaiah Thomas that in a press conference during the 2011 NCAA Tournament the day before UNC played Washington.
“A lot of those that you put there, there’s a reason for it. Wes came closer to reaching his potential than anybody I've ever coached. I’ve got a guy right now that’s going to be in the same conversation.
“But, Aaron Miles, he didn’t shoot, he didn’t do a lot of things but he won and he competed and he was a tough little nut.
“Dewey Burke, that’s a surprise. I’ve got to tell Dewey I called him that.
“Dexter, the game we played up in New Jersey and defensively what he did in that game is as good as anybody I’ve ever had. So I think that might have been a one-time thing with Dexter.
“Ty with the toe. I guess I probably said it sometime around that. I mean, the LSU game, when I took him out I did not know if he was going to go back in. Not only did he go back in, he dominated the second half. He was in pain.
“I think I probably said it about Marcus and Joel more than any of those other guys. When I say it, it’s a very positive, complimentary, affectionate kind of thing that I really appreciate their toughness.”
