Williams Encouraged, But Needs More From Heels

Each of the Tar Heels’ last six games were one-possession affairs under the two-minute mark. They had chances to win each contest but ended up going 3-3.

Narrow losses, with expansive lessons, at NC State and Georgia Tech helped fuel come-from-behind wins over Notre Dame, Miami on the road and Syracuse. Saturday, Carolina was right there at Florida State but couldn’t overcome the Seminoles.

The silver lining from the 82-75 loss at the Tucker Center is that Roy Williams’ lineup when the Heels made a push from an 11-point deficit getting back into a tussle included senior Garrison Brooks, redshirt freshman Anthony Harris and true freshmen Caleb Love, RJ Davis and Day’Ron Sharpe. At times, true freshman Kerwin Walton was swapped in for Love or Harris, who had a few breaks intertwined.

Senior Andrew Platek and junior Leaky Black (foul trouble) played prominent roles in recent comeback wins, but this push was more by a group that largely hadn’t played together until Saturday, and other than Harris and Sharpe, each of whom had gone through some rugged stretches this season.

"I'm encouraged when we always make runs,” Williams said, following the defeat. “I really feel like for 100 million games it seems like, when we've been behind, that we've always kept playing. And I think we did that today.”

But doing so with five freshmen prominently factoring, that means something.

“I'll look at it on tape and, yes, we'll recognize who we've got out there and say that's pretty good,” Williams said. “But this generation is, who knows if they're going to be around tomorrow, much less thinking about, 'Oh, three freshmen, we're going to have those guys for four years.'

“I mean, it's a different world and so what you have to do is who's on the court for you at that specific time? How well did they play?"

No matter if any of the pups are around even next year sort of doesn’t matter right now. UNC still has 14 more games to play before the ACC Tournament, it’s essentially at the mid-point of its season, so there is plenty of hoops remaining for this group, and the mantra is to improve and win games.

Williams knows what he has in Black and Platek; they are fairly reliable. He has a good idea about Walton, who has regularly been subbed out for defense down the stretch in narrow games. Bacot is who he is, and at times is a high-end player, though he logged only 17 minutes Saturday.

But getting a significant push at the ACC’s defending champion and perhaps the league’s best team is noteworthy, especially when it includes the struggling Love, inconsistent Davis and Harris, who has now played just six games as a Tar Heel dating back to last season before his knee injury.

Love wasn’t always on the floor, as he sat from the 5:22 mark until 46 seconds remains, but UNC had already cut an 11-point deficit to five by the time he went to the bench and trailed by just three when he returned. Davis was on the ball during that period and showed clear progress from some of his wobbly performances in December.

Carolina still checked a lot of unpleasant boxes Saturday. It was outrebounded by the Seminoles, allowed 22 points off 14 turnovers, and fouled way too often, sending the Noles to the line for 27 free throws, in which they hit 26, making its 96.3 percent accuracy the third highest ever against a UNC team by an opponent that attempted at least 20 free throws.

But the Heels are getting close, Williams says.

“I think we are getting better,” he said. “I think we're doing some things better. But I'm about as frustrated right now as you can possibly be because I just think of the little things that I think we could have done better that would have helped us.”

Yet, the Tar Heels were still right there versus a terrific team. Young guys and all.