North Carolina Coach Roy Williams met with the media via Zoom on Wednesday morning in Indianapolis ahead of the Tar Heels’ first round matchup with No. 9 seed Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament on Friday evening.

A No. 8 seed, UNC will take on the Badgers at 7:10 pm at Purdue University’s Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, IN, which is located about 70 miles northwest of Indianapolis.

Among the topics discussed were the Heels' defense, the bubble, the Badgers and much more.

Above is the full video of Williams’ press conference and below is some pulled notes and quotes from what the Hall of Fame head coach had to say.

*The Tar Heels have done a solid job defensively in recent weeks, holding their opponents to a combined 42.6 percent shooting over the last six games.

UNC has also forced 15.5 turnovers per game against some solid competition, including Florida State, Virginia Tech and Notre Dame in the ACC Tournament and Duke, Syracuse and the Seminoles once again in the regular season.

So, do these stats match what Williams has actually seen from his team on the defensive end?

“Not really, but I do think we’ve gotten better defensively and I still think that we can get a heck of a lot better…” Williams said. “As a coach, you always look at your liabilities and try to work on those. It's like, if you're a golfer and you can't putt a lick but you can drive it like crazy, you better start learning how to putt if you want to beat anybody.

“So, we work on trying to not turn it over and work on trying to make shots and trying to make sure that we guard the three-point line.”

*Carolina enters the NCAA Tournament as a No. 8 seed in the South Region, with an opening round matchup against the Badgers and, if it wins, a second round matchup with the winner of the No. 1 seed Baylor and No. 16 Hartford game.

Wisconsin enters Friday’s game having not beat a team with a winning record since Jan. 27 and, of its 10 Big Ten regular season wins, seven of them came against teams with losing records.

The Bears, who most expect to get past Hartford with relative ease, finished the season at 22-2 and 13-1 in Big XII play and have been one of the top teams in the nation for the entire season.

With all this in mind, does Williams see an opportunity to make a run in the South Region if his team can get in a groove starting first on Friday night?

“I think so,” Williams said. “It's what we’ve talked to the team about. I believe it in my heart and soul, but we never talk about anything down the road except guys, come on, if we want to stay here, we’ve got to play.

“And I say that old saying that I made up, it’s a Roy original which means it's not very good, but if you continue to look down the road, that's where you're going, down the road back home. You’ve got to take care of your business today.”

*Wisconsin leads the nation in fewest turnovers per game, averaging just 8.9 through its 29 games this season.

The Badgers also like to play slow and currently sit at No. 326 nationally in possessions per game. In comparison, the Heels sit at No. 45.

Beating teams that like to slow things down - look no further than Virginia, who UNC has lost seven straight to - is something Williams' teams have struggled with over the years.

So, how concerned is Williams about a potential low possession game against Wisconsin?

“Like I have been at every game when we’re getting ready to play somebody that likes to play slower than we do,” Williams said. “Even at practice yesterday, we had a turnover early in practice that was just careless, I said, ‘Guys, come on. This is not going to be a 90 or 100 possession game and we can't do those kinds of things.’

“It’s mystifying to me that we haven't made as many significant strides in that part of the game as I think we should have. But yeah, it's more damaging, those turnovers, when it's a low possession game. We talked about it yesterday, but we've talked about it all year with them, too.”

*One of the most unfortunate things for teams in the NCAA Tournament this season is having to stay inside the tournament bubble.

While there’s no literal “bubble,” the idea behind it is to keep teams as isolated as possible so the chances of contracting COVID-19, and subsequently having to drop out of the tournament, are as small as possible.

In the past, Williams has enjoyed taking walks around the different cities the Heels' are playing in and doing various other activities with his team, but that simply isn’t going to happen this go-round due to restrictions.

While the bubble is far from ideal, Williams understands why it has been put in place and is trying to make the best out of it.

“The only thing we've been doing is staying in our room and swabbing our nose every six hours is what it feels like,” Williams said. “So, it’s been difficult guys, it hasn't been nearly as much fun. I love the competition, so I live for the games.”

Despite the restrictions, the Heels were able to walk around Indianapolis on Wednesday morning and even visited a local stadium.

“This morning, they made it available for us from 6 am to 9 am to go to the minor league baseball park, Victory Field, where the (Pittsburgh) Pirates’ farm system plays. So, we walked around on the warning track to home plate and just circled the place and that's really the only time that we've been out.”

*Williams mentioned last week during his team’s ACC Tournament semifinals run that teams have been closing out harder on freshman guard Kerwin Walton, who has been UNC’s most consistent outside shooter this season.

This has led to a drop in Walton’s three-point shooting efficiency, with the Hopkins, MN, native shooting just 14-for-45 from beyond the arc over the Tar Heels’ last seven games.

Getting Walton back to his best is going to be crucial for this team if they want to make any kind of run in the NCAA Tournament and Williams puts some of the blame on Walton’s shot struggles on his other guards’ inabilities to consistently hit from outside.

“They are closing out harder on him, but it's easier to do that guys,” Williams said. “You've heard me talk about it for years and years and years, if you've got five scores, it's hard to guard, if you've got one, that's pretty easy. Well, we’ve got one guy that they're worried about from the three-point line and they close out on him."

How can they get Walton better looks?

“We've got to look for him more, we’ve got to screen for him more, he’s got to move better. As he gets older and more experienced, he’ll be able to do that better. But it's like I've always said, you need balance.”