CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina Coach Roy Williams met with the media Monday afternoon ahead of the Tar Heels’ matchup with N.C. State in the Smith Center on Tuesday night.

Among the topics Williams discussed were injuries, the last win in Raleigh, motivation, Coby White’s stellar weekend and much more.

*Both junior forward Garrison Brooks and graduate transfer forward Justin Pierce missed UNC’s 72-55 loss at Louisville on Saturday. Brooks missed the game through illness while Pierce did not play due to a sprained ankle.

It was the first game both Brooks and Pierce had missed all season, meaning freshman forward Armando Bacot and graduate transfer guard Chrsitian Keeling are the only two rotation players that haven’t missed a game due to injury or illness so far this season.

Williams spoke on the status of Brooks and Pierce heading into Tuesday’s game against the Wolfpack.

“We haven’t practiced yet and I haven’t seen Garrison today,” Williams said. “He’s had another doctor’s appointment and some things are encouraging. We’ll see if he can do anything during practice today and if he can it would be very limited, I would think that to say the least.

“Justin felt much better yesterday, his ankle felt better, and I would expect he would be able to go through a regular practice today.”

*UNC’s last win came nearly a month ago in a 75-65 victory at N.C. State. And, while it was far from a vintage performance from the Tar Heels, they did play one of their best games of the season, with Brooks leading the team with 25 points and 11 rebounds and three other players finishing in double-figures scoring.

It was a positive outing for UNC in what has been a season full of disappointing ones. Still, Williams said his team’s performance in the Jan. 27 win was far from perfect.

“This year, we got off to a pretty good start in the first half, not the first two minutes or four minutes,” Williams said. “I think we were down seven nothing, nine nothing something like that and we got two straight steals off our defense and sort of got us back in the game. Garrison was, needless to say, all of our offense early in the game.

“But we were doing OK and they were missing shots that they normally make, that’s what I remember going into halftime. Even late game we had made some nice plays. Christian Keeling had made two big pull up jump shots for twos right in that stretch. Andrew (Platek), they didn’t identify the right man going back, so he gets a layup….

“It was more of a, if I can use this word and I haven’t used it enough with this team, it was more of a workmanlike effort of just going out and doing the job and trying to see what happens.”

*Having lost seven straight games and sitting in sole possession of last place in the ACC, the Tar Heels have basically nothing to play before besides pride going into the final four regular season games.

With so many things having gone wrong for this team this year, it’s understandable that keeping the players motivated could be a legitimate concern for Williams and his staff.

For the Hall of Fame head coach, however, he doesn’t think he’ll have to worry about that with this group.

“I think they will,” Williams said about his team giving maximum effort the rest of the season. “It’s a passion, it’s a passion with me. You may be great at golf and you may not be any good, but if I’m playing you, I’m going to try and beat your tail. That’s the only way I’ve got to compare it to right now."

*Former UNC and current Chicago Bulls point guard Coby White had a big weekend, finishing with a career-high 33 points in consecutive games on Saturday and Sunday. In doing so, White joins elite company, becoming the only Bulls rookie besides Michael Jordan to score 30-plus points in back-to-back games.

Williams discussed if he ever thought White, who is averaging 11.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 24.7 minutes per game this season, would be as good as he has been during his rookie campaign.

Here’s what he had to say:

“It’s hard to say because I saw him as a sophomore (in high school) and fell in love with him as a sophomore and he committed to us the summer after his sophomore year,” Williams said. “So, during his sophomore year, I didn’t see that, no. But, he got better as a junior, he got better as a senior and, when we came in last summer and started practicing, I thought he was the best player on our team and that’s hard to say because we had Kenny (Williams), Luke (Maye) and Cam (Johnson) who had already been through it and everything.

"But, after our summer practice I said to my staff, I said ‘he’s the best player on our team’ and that’s when we really started realizing, hey, we’re probably not going to have him but a year.

“So, no, there was a time period that he made us feel that way and I think he’s proven that in the NBA, but it wasn’t when I first saw him. Ralph Sampson at 7-4 as a junior in high school, it was pretty evident he was going to be great or James Worthy as an eight grader I thought was one of the best players I’ve ever seen… Coby’s was a very consistent sweat that he put in and he’s got better and better.”