Note: Full Roy Williams Press Conference below this report

CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams met with the media Wednesday for the program’s annual media day at the Smith Center.

Williams discussed the many new players on his team, the returners, chemistry, …………..

*Williams said that 6-foot-11 junior Sterling Manley has not practiced and there’s no timeline for when he will practice. He had surgery in the offseason but the soreness in his knee has continued. The medical staff has tried to determine the origin of the injury but has been unsuccessful.

“I don’t know,” Williams said, when asked what the latest is regarding Manley.

He repeated it a few times almost pleading with the media to realize he simply knows nothing.

“He’s not practice (and) I don’t know… I don’t know, I really don’t. Sterling’s not doing anything.”

*Williams explained what Kendall Marshall’s role is in the newly-created position he now holds:

“What we’re trying to do is get somebody to be aware of social media and things that we can use in recruiting and be aware of putting out more things for prospects,” he said.

There was some question about Marshall’s job title, Director of Recruiting, but that’s not an actual part of his job. Williams further explained.

“He has not been involved in the recruiting,” Williams said. “Last year, I guess he finished school in mid-year and I tried to find some things for him to do just to hang around. He watched practice every day.”

*UNC has two graduate transfers this season, as Christian Keeling (Charleston Southern) and Justin Pierce (William & Mary) are stepping into prominent roles on the team. What made them fits from a basketball perspective?

“Need. We needed some more guys,” Williams replied. “I think we needed people on the perimeter, didn’t have as big a need up front. Christian gives you a little bit of scoring. He’s a tremendous player, very gregarious person – he’s Theo Pinson Jr… He’s been coached very well, he understands how to play, he’s never met a shot he didn’t like so far. We’ll see how that goes and we go down.

“And Justin played for Tony Shaver at William & Mary. They were making a coaching change and he was looking for some other place. I think his qualities he has will be more beneficial to us in anything right now is rebounding… He’s a sneaky kind of rebounder that goes in and gets his hands on a lot of balls.”

*So, is Cole Anthony further along than Coby White was this time a year ago? And what else does Williams like about the freshman point guard’s game?

“He’s a different point guard,” Williams said. “Coby was more of a scoring point guard, which I’m okay with, I like point guards that can score and I thought Coby did that great. Cole can score, but Cole is more of a quarterback back there trying to get other people the ball. Coby had a belief he could make every shot, and he made a bunch of them… We had some shooter and I loved the way Coby always attacked.

“With Cole, we don’t have those types (from last season) types of shooters, and I think with him, he’s got a chance he will find some guys for easier shots. I love both and would love to have both of them together. I would have sat over there and leaned back in my lawn chair if I had both of them together.

“They’re different. Cole is good defensively, and I’ve said this to him and said it publicly, in high school he was the best defensive rebounding guard I’ve ever seen and we’re going to need him to go rebound the defensive boards for us, too.”

*Are the de facto leaders for this team the older guys who have played the most, thus Brandon Robinson and Garrison Brooks?

“It’s still in progress, but I think those two guys are veterans, they understand things,” Williams said. “They’re the ones I’m asking questions, ‘Okay, what do you think about this’ and everybody else understands that. I think the younger guys respect the fact that they’ve been here.”

Williams also said that Anthony has gained the respect of his teammates because he won the 12-minute run, he did the best job in the 33 conditioning program and the nature of his job as the point guard leadership simply comes with it.

*Historically, Williams has played two big guys when he had the personnel, so now that he has Garrison Brooks and Armando Bacot, does he envision playing two fairly traditional bigs at the same time much this season?

“I’d like to play two big guys up front, I’m more comfortable doing that,” he said. “How far did the (3-point) line go back, that (gestures with his hands) far? My own personal opinion is the shooting percentages will go down a little bit… But it doesn’t bother me because I want to throw the sucker inside anyway, so yeah, I’d like to play two big guys.”

He noted that Brooks has worked a great deal on extending his game to where he can play some four.