Williams On Starters, Freshmen, Sunday's Scrimmage & More
CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina will play a basketball game Wednesday, a couple of weeks later than when the season was supposed to begin. So UNC Coach Roy Williams was available via zoom for a press conference Monday to discuss his team as it gets ready to face College of Charleston at the Smith Center and finally launch into their season.
UNC and Charleston tip at 6 pm and the game will air on the ACC Network.
Above is the full video of Williams’ entire presser and below are notes and pulled quotes from what Carolina’s coach had to say:
*UNC has four experienced players back from last season and six freshmen that made up the No. 2 recruiting class in the nation. So, when deciding on a starting lineup, does Williams weigh experience over talent, or the other way around?
"I think you do both,” he said. “I can't give a weighted number to either one of them. In '06, we lost everybody, so the first game I started Bobby (Frasor), Marcus (Ginyard) and Tyler Hansbrough. It was an easier decision with Tyler than perhaps some other guys.
“But, I think you do look at both but I think, even more importantly than that, the trust that you have that they're gonna do what you want them to do and, five weeks of practice, how have they done in gaining your trust? I think talent should take over almost all the time, but it doesn't and it never has taken over completely for me."
*That said, even with the game about 52 hours from the time of Williams’ presser, he still hadn’t decided on a starting lineup yet for the opener.
"No, I have not,” Williams said. “We scrimmaged amongst ourselves last night and that gives you some good feelings, some bad feelings. Some guys move up the ladder, some guys get on the slippery slope and slide down. But I have not made a decision yet and no one on my staff knows the decision and the reason they don't is because Ol' Roy doesn't know it."
*Duke announced Monday its opener versus Gardner-Webb will not be played and DePaul has canceled its first three games, as two examples of how COVID is already affecting the college basketball season. What are Williams’ thoughts on that and how he will navigate through the season having to deal with the possibility any games can get moved or canceled at just about any time?
"I don't handle it very well, but it's the world we live in right now,” Williams said. “Somebody else canceled their first four games until December 7. There was a football game, I think on Saturday morning, that was canceled that was gonna be played at 12 o'clock. It's the world we live in, I don't like it. I like normalcy, I like a routine, but that's not what we have right now.
“You can just do everything you can possibly do and still have a slip up. But, the process, you need to do everything you can possibly do and then be prepared to handle everything as well…
"You're concerned about it. The biggest thing is, if you spend all your time worrying about that, you're not ready to get the job done, you're not spending your time preparing your team. And it's a little bit, but it's a much different situation, but it is. Doc Allen's thing, if the mailman stopped and barked to kick at the dog that barked, it would never get the mail delivered. So, a little bit about that same dynamics there is we've got to do everything we can and be able to handle new information and be able to handle the next new information and be able to handle the next information."
*There won’t be any shortage of talent this season. Garrison Brooks is back along with Armando Bacot up front plus Leaky Black on the perimeter and Andrew Platek in his role. Add to that six gifted freshmen whom Williams says likely will be called on to help.
"Well, the worst thing about our preparation this year is the six freshmen in the mix for playing time and I'm talking about major playing time,” Williams said. “Not having an exhibition game, not having a scrimmage, officials in there were regular ACC officials. We're going into a game Wednesday night and we're not prepared because we haven't had any of those things and we've got six freshmen in.
“But, the front court, Garrison (Brooks) is the security blanket, there's no question. He gives you that feeling that he's gonna do the right thing or come close to doing the right thing every time. Armando (Bacot) is better, he's more experienced. And then I think, with Day'Ron (Sharpe) and Walker (Kessler), you've got two extremely gifted kids and how were gonna mix up the minutes, I have no idea.
“And I've always thought that's what the exhibitions give you and that's what your scrimmages give you and we haven't had any of those. The first time we go out there and play somebody else, it counts."
*One of the topics when we spoke with Williams last month was the health of junior wing Leaky Black, who has mostly been banged up during his UNC career. Black has largely been healthy since healing during the offseason, so is Williams looking to get from Black this season?
"I'm gonna answer this in a very positive way and, if it jinks' us, I'm gonna hunt your butt down,” Williams said, laughing and joking with the questioner. “But, knock on wood, Leaky's last several practices have been healthy and during sometimes in our practices, he's been sensational. And we've got to get that kind of play consistently from him all year long if we want to be the best team we can possibly be.
“He's able to do things the other guys can't do. His defensive play and his ability to sneak up on the board, to block a shot, to deflect a pass, he'll have more of those kinds of plays than everybody else on our team put together and, the last week or 10 days, he's been healthy enough to do those things."
*A few weeks ago, Black said he’s never been more confident than he is at this time. Williams says it’s shown on the court and how Black handles himself with his younger teammates.
"I think the knowledge and the experience is that what makes kids do because you just know what's expected of you, you know what could possibly be the outcome if you do A as opposed to B. So, I think the experience factor and the fact that he feels better probably than he has in a long time."
*Perimeter shooting was a huge problem a year ago. The Tar Heels finished the season ranked No. 310 in the nation from beyond the arc hitting just 30.4 percent of their attempts. Williams says this year’s group is better, at least up to this point.
"During practice, we're making a heck of a lot more than we did last year in the games,” he said. “So, I'm hopeful that we'll make more in the games this year than we did last year. Shooting, I'd say that Kerwin (Walton) would be the guy I think everybody would pick as the best shooter. Puff (Johnson) would be in that mix, RJ (Davis) would be in that mix, Andrew (Platek) would be in that mix.
“Caleb (Love), sometimes his shot looks absolutely perfect, sometimes he doesn't use his legs enough and he misses short more than anything else. But, right now, we're making a heck of a lot more shots from the perimeter than we made last year during the games but, again, you've got to see what it's gonna be like in the games and can they do it."
*The Tar Heels held a final scrimmage Sunday, so what are Williams’ observations on what he saw?
“It’s really hard when you scrimmage yourself,” he said. “You’re not scrimmaging somebody else and trying to focus on, ‘Boy that was great, (darn), the guy on the blue team did a sorry job,’ so I don’t know if the offensive play was that good or the defense was that bad.
“But we just needed to get out in front of officials because we’re going to set a world’s record on number of fouls and I’m hopeful that the official would call more fouls than my coaches and assistant coaches do in practice. But it does work them a little bit, too.
“They’re out there, and we went 20 minutes and took a five-minute break and went 20 more minutes. We stopped several times just trying to get points across. But, our big guys are going to the backboards, and I’d say that’s the one thing that’s been more encouraging and more consistent than anything else that we’ve done.”
*Williams spoke last week some about how freshmen Caleb Love and RJ Davis play together on the court and was asked more about it Monday.
“They really done a nice job,” Williams said. “They’re both freshmen and haven’t played together until this year. There’ll be a lot of times they’ll be on the court together and, of course, there will be some times that Caleb will be at the point and there’ll be some times that RJ will be at the point and the other guy will be on the bench. But, they’re going to play a heck of a lot together this year as well, and I think so far 28 or 29 practices in, there willing to share the ball.
“Caleb is more of a volume shooter. I’m more one of those guys that wants to see a higher percentage and so we get both of them to understand that.”
*Jacob Turner contributed to this report.