CHAPEL HILL – Roy Williams held his annual summer press conference Tuesday at the Smith Center. And over the course of 30 minutes, the North Carolina coach hit on numerous topics, of which THI will lay out over the next few days.

Here, the focus is on Thursday’s NBA draft, the perception some have regarding Williams and one-and-done players and some levity courtesy of a recent tattoo former Tar Heel Deon Thompson got on his arm.

Note that UNC will have three players selected in the first round Thursday night as Coby White, Nassir Little and Cam Johnson are projected to go somewhere in the opening round. Williams also discusses Luke Maye and Kenny Williams, too.

*Williams said he realized last summer that White could very well be a one-and-done player when the team held some practices in July in advance of their exhibition trip to the Bahamas.

“Last summer at about this time, I said (to his staff) ‘Guys, we need to try and see if we can get a great point guard in the next class because I don’t think he’s going to be here,” Williams said. “And I told my staff at some point – we had four practices I think last year and I thought he was the best player on our team during the summer.

“I think it was at that point if you’re the leading scorer in the history of North Carolina high school basketball you’re pretty good, you don’t have to be a nuclear physicist to figure that out. But I think the way he played here last summer and our practices and everything is what sold me.”

So when Williams met with freshmen White and Little 48 hours after losing to Auburn in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, the conversions had two tints: Little leaving after one year was basically the plan all along, but that wasn’t the case for White.

“I met with Coby at 7 (pm) and Nassir at 8 or vice versa on Sunday night and the three seniors earlier in the day,” Williams said. “Coby, it’s a neat deal for him because he had told me, ‘Coach, I never planned to come here for one year.’ So when we started I knew that was his statement and what he’d already told me. And I said, ‘Son, tell me what you’re thinking,’ and he sort of didn’t know what he was thinking.

“He had gotten a great deal of confidence during the year by the way he played, and he said, ‘What do you think?’ I told him it was very easy for me, that he was going to be a number one draft choice, he was ready for it. Could he become more ready if he stayed, yeah, but why? I thought it would be the right thing for him to do. I gave him my blessing (and) I think he was pleased with that.

“His mother mentioned in some article that he really became at ease after our meeting that that was the right thing for him to do.

“Nassir, all along we knew that was in his mind and I said, ‘People can say you didn’t have the year that they thought you were going to have but you’re going to be a number one draft choice, you’re going to be able to reach your long term dreams and goals and you have my blessing.”

*Cam Johnson played two years at UNC as a graduate transfer and blossomed, to say the least. He’s now projected as a first-round pick after being lightly recruited out of high school and on no NBA radars as recently as last fall.

“Cam can shoot that basketball, and in case you guys don’t know, that thing that hangs from the ceiling or hangs on the walls is called a scoreboard, it’s not a draw-a-charge board, or a dive-on-the-floor board, it’s called a scoreboard,” the coach said, generating some chuckles among the assembled media. “Golden State could have used Cam because I’ve never seen a pro game where they play a box-and-one because those other guys they’re paying millions of dollars usually can score.

“But that’s what Cam has. He can shoot the basketball, has size, is a tremendous kid, healthier than he’s been in the last five or six years. It’s going to be an exciting time for him and his family, too.”

*Williams will not be at the draft Thursday. He’s been a few times and enjoys it, but he’s going to be in Pigeon Forge, TN, to watch his daughter in a dance competition.

“I will have a television available, so I can see what’s going on,” he said.

*Luke Maye and Kenny Williams are not projected as first-round picks but both players have worked out for a lot of NBA teams. Even of they aren’t drafted Thursday and don’t go straight to the NBA, or ever play in the league, there’s still value in them working out for as many teams as possible.

“(Maye’s) had workouts with 11 different teams, which is a high number,” Williams said. “Coby’s worked out for four, Nassir eight or something like that, Cam nine or eight, but that’s a good number for him because he needs to be seen by more people, and the more people that see Luke, sit down and talk to him are going to be impressed. Long term, it’s going to help him. Kenny the same thing…

“What you want is have those guys seen by more people…. Deon Thompson has played nine years outside the USA and has had a great time playing in eight different countries, I think it is. He’s had a marvelous time. Can you imagine you’re 22 years old and play basketball for nine years in eight different countries and make good money?

“The thing with Deon is we wanted more people to see him and it’s the same thing if it doesn’t work out for Kenny and Luke to play in the NBA they’d be seen by more people (who) can testify (for) them… You never can tell, those jobs can sometimes get you back in the NBA, too.”

*On the perception some in the media have that continue suggesting Williams doesn’t like having one-and-done players on his roster and some of the other accusations levied (he holds them back, etc), Williams offered a sound defense.

“People are going to write what they want to write,” he said. “The (opposing) coaches probably promote it a little bit, too. I’ve got a wonderful situation because some kids come here and like to stay around and at the same time I try to recruit those (OAD) guys, just didn’t get as many of them.

“I’d love to have one or two of those guys on every team because you like to have talent and talent helps you win. But I also like to have some of those guys you feel are going to be around three or four years.

“We’ve had Tyler Zeller and Tyler Hansbrough (and) both just wanted to stay around, and the perception that everybody else got from that was that I put handcuffs on them. This year, there were people saying I was holding Nassir back. Yeah, I want to hold a guy back so I can lose, that really makes a lot of fricken sense.

“And the other thing, if I’m holding Nassir back why am I not holding Coby back? So really, it boils down to other people are going to say what they want to say.”

Note that Williams also added he does not want “five or six guys like that because I do enjoy building a team, I do enjoy seeing guys like Luke Maye and Kenny Williams get better and better each year.”

Back to defending himself, regarding holding back Little without regard to the guys who blossom under his watch:

“Cam wasn’t on any mock drafts out of high school,” Williams said. “In fact, this spring there were four mock drafts and somebody sort of irritated me with something that was said.

“So our guys got together and they showed four mock drafts from October-November, and it had Nassir three, five, seven and nine – I don’t know, I’m just guessing – and now he’s nine, 12, 13 and 14. Coby was zero, zero, zero, zero, Cam was zero, zero, zero, zero, so I said if you’re going to blame me for one guy then shouldn’t I get some credit for the other two? I don’t think I should get credit for the other two, so it’s just silliness is what it is.”

*By the way, Williams hadn’t seen a tattoo Thompson recently got depicting his college coach. So, Williams got a chance to see it during the presser. His reaction:

“When did he have this,” Williams asked, laughing. “I think I would remember that sucker.”

Williams also said he asks his players not to get additional tattoos when playing for him. But as for Thompson, it was a fun minute.