CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina Coach Roy Williams and graduate transfer Justin Pierce met with the media at the Smith Center on Thursday ahead of the Tar Heels’ home matchup against Gardner-Webb on Friday night.

Williams gave updates on a few key injuries and discussed his starting point guard’s ability to rebound the ball, among many other things, while Pierce discussed UNC’s free throw woes, the Carolina family and much more.

Below are both press conferences along with some bullet points about what each had to say:

*Freshman forward Armando Bacot suffered a concussion in the first half of UNC’s win against UNC-Wilmington last Friday. Williams said Bacot has fully recovered from the injury and will play against Gardner-Webb.

*The status of senior guard Brandon Robinson hasn’t changed, as he is still recovering from an ankle sprain he suffered in the Tar Heels’ exhibition win over Winston-Salem State, meaning he will not play against the Bulldogs.

“I think B-Rob’s getting closer…,” Williams said. “B-Rob’s not doing anything yet at all but I’m hopeful it’ll be sooner rather than later.”

*Williams also spoke about the injured trio of freshmen guards Anthony Harris and Jeremiah Francis as well as junior forward Sterling Manley, who are all yet to play this season.

“Anthony and Jeremiah, we’re having do some half court stuff but nothing full court…,” Williams said. “Sterling’s not doing anything five on five at all.”

*Freshman point guard Cole Anthony is averaging a team-high 10.5 rebounds through the first two games, finishing with 11 versus Notre Dame and 10 at UNCW. He’s currently tied with junior forward Garrison Brooks for the most rebounds on the team.

Williams discussed what makes Anthony, who’s just 6-foot-3, such a prolific rebounder:

“Cole does it better than anybody but he goes and gets it,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing, you’ve got to go in put yourself in that position and he’s not afraid to go in and mix it up with the bigger guys. He does have the strength and jumping ability to go in there and compete for it.”

Justin Pierce is a graduate transfer from William & Mary. The 6-foot-7 small and power forward scored 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in UNC’s win last Friday at UNCW. Here are some things he had to say Thursday:

*The Tar Heels are shooting just 55.3 percent from the free throw line so far this season. Pierce said his head coach is making the entire team “take a minimum of 200” free throws prior to shootaround Friday.

*After Evansville upset top-ranked Kentucky on Tuesday, Pierce said someone sent out a text in the team’s group chat saying “we’ve got to tighten up and we’ve got to bring it every night because you don’t want that to be us.”

*Coming from William & Mary, Pierce is new to the Carolina family, a phrase used to describe the relationship between current and former UNC players and coaches. Pierce said it didn’t take him long to notice how much of a family atmosphere there is inside the program.

“It’s a really special place and you don’t really know it until you actually are apart of it but I’ve noticed it just in my short time being here,” he said. “A lot of former players reached out to me when I committed here and said, ‘Welcome to the family.’”

*Fellow graduate transfer Christian Keeling has struggled through his first two games in a Carolina uniform, averaging 4.5 points and shooting just 30.8 percent from the floor. Despite Keeling's slow start, Pierce believes there’s no need to worry about him as it’s only a matter of time before things start to click.

“I don’t worry about Christian at all,” he said. “He’s a big-time player, he’s a big-time scorer. We’ve seen what he can do in practice, I’ve seen what he can do at Charleston Southern. He’s going to be just fine and I think it’s important not to overreact just two games into the season.”