CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina will kick off the 2018-19 basketball season Tuesday night with a trip to Wofford, and Roy Williams says his team is ready to play a game.

Practice opened five weeks ago and the Tar Heels have held a closed controlled scrimmage against Villanova and an exhibition game last Friday at home versus Division II Mount Olive. But, this is the real deal, game number one in a highly anticipated season for the program and its legion of followers.

Williams held a press conference Monday at the Smith Center to discuss the opener, elements of his team, scheduling games at programs such as Wofford and Elon, which is where the Heels go Friday night, among other things.

The season is here, and the Hall of Fame coach says his guys are ready to play a real game.

“They need it, I don’t need it because I could stay at practice all the time,” Williams said Monday during a press conference at the Smith Center. “They need to play somebody else, they really do.”

With those five weeks, though, does Williams believe the group accomplished what he’d set out to as they’re on the eve of playing an actual game?

“I’d like to think so,” he replied. “I was awake at 3:45 this morning trying to think of what else I needed to do, so I’ll have those kinds of thoughts when we’re out there shooting layups, too. “It’s such a long preseason, too. I try not to hammer them too much and yet I know that I do.

“We don’t have any tape from this year on Wofford. They could come out and play something defensively that we didn’t have any idea, so we’ll have to see how we adjust to those kinds of things, too.”

*Williams noted he expects Coby White to start at point guard, but “I don’t plan,” he said. “They tell me who wants to start by who plays the best. It’s not any elaborate plan. You play better than he does you’re going to play…

“Again, Marvin Williams never started a game and he’s done alright. So, I don’t really get too tied up into that.”

*Williams said the team is healthy, though “you always have some aches and pains at this time of year and (they) get tired of running and twisting you ankle and hitting a knee and hit in the thigh or whatever. Knock on wood, right now, I’d expect everybody to play tomorrow.”

*Luke Maye’s leap from his sophomore to junior seasons has been well documented. So, what does Williams think Maye can do as an encore for his senior season?

“It’s like a guy who jumps from 60 to 97 on a test,” Williams said. “It’s harder to improve on 97. If a guy goes from 60 to 70 he’s still got a lot he can do. Luke had it almost at 97, so it’s hard to have that same kind of improvement, same drastic improvement.

“I think Luke is better, I think he needs to be better, wants to be better, can be better. (He’s) gotta get fouled more and go to the free throw line and make the free throws. Needs to shoot a higher percentage from two, needs to rebound it even better that he did last year. So I think there’s a lot of room for improvement there.”

*One of the more important, though not talked about, elements of this team is Kenny Williams’ increasing leadership. Williams has often said since last season ended being a leader this season was his primary personal goal and reiterated that against last Friday. He said he sets the standard for focus, effort, being in the right kind of zone with every element of the game for the rest of the team.

Has his coach seen that from him, maybe a different Kenny Williams now that he’s a senior?

“I think he does feel that responsibility. I think he’s been a great leader and he’s been a leader verbally – he’s been very vocal with the guys. But, if they just watch him, that’s where he’s the best leader he is doing it by example.

“I think he enjoys that role and everybody else has got to get up to his level of competition and his level of enthusiasm. And if they do, they’re going to be a lot better themselves.”