CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Roy Williams met with the media via zoom Monday afternoon to discuss what he learned about his team’s three games last week in the Maui Invitational, about heading to No. 3 Iowa on Tuesday night and several other things.

UNC is 3-1 and the Hawkeyes are 3-0, though they’ve only played NC Central (won by 30), Southern (won by 27), and Western Illinois (won by 41). Iowa is led by national player of the year frontrunner Luka Garza, who is averaging 34 points and 9.7 rebounds while playing just 26 minutes per game so far.

Above is Williams’ Q&A session and below are some notes and quotes from what he had to say:

*Carolina might have to battle the Hawkeyes without its best player, as Williams said Garrison Brooks may not play Tuesday.

“It was just unfortunate that he sprained his ankle (in Asheville) and he hasn't practiced since then," Williams said. "He hasn't been able to go full court. In fact, the first day he did nothing. Absolutely nothing. And then we got him in some halfcourt work yesterday."

*Williams said redshirt freshman guard Anthony Harris is still not ready to return. Here’s the full update:

“He’s still not doing anything full court,” Williams said. “I promise you, guys, we’re not going to surprise you, when he can start doing things full court, we’ll let everybody know about it. The last couple of days he did nothing, period. He didn’t feel well, it was not COVID-related, so don’t jump at any fricken conclusions, he just didn’t feel well.

“Today, we’ll let him to do some drills. But he has not done anything live where he’s guarding somebody and somebody’s guarding him or we’re running full court, I promise you when he does that we’ll let you know.”

*The ACC/Big Ten Challenge is the biggest college basketball event before conference play begins, and whenever UNC goes on the road, it’s always a huge deal for the home fans to have the Tar Heels in their building. But that won’t be the case Tuesday, as only family and a small contingent of media will be allowed inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Does that change things much going into a game like this?

“In some ways, it’s easier because you don’t have the crowd going crazy and the other team scores two baskets in a row and you can’t hear what the call is and guys get nervous and the whole bit with three, four and… five freshmen on the floor at one time,” Williams said. “It’s easier from that point.

“But, the guys that have been around a long time, I’ve told them I’ve never lost a game because of a building, it’s usually because that other team is really good. And I’ve probably never coached (against) a team when the guy can say he has seven starters returning… I think it’s going to be the team that we’re concerned about.

“In some ways, the pageantry, the excitement of college basketball is not there, there’s no question about that, but the toughest thing about that is trying to get your guys ready to play the other team. Somebody said this morning, because I don’t watch it, that Iowa’s ranked number three in the country, watching them on tape and looking at their stats, this may be as difficult a job as we’ve ever had on the road regardless of who it is and where it is.”

*Luka Garza might be the best player in the nation and is certainly a player no other team could stop a year ago. What is the challenge UNC will face having to deal with him?

“He’s really good, that’s the first thought,” Williams said. “He’s a guy that just got better and better and better every year. I think he’s grown some since he got at the college level. The other day in a game he was 14 of 15 or something crazy like that. It will be a load for us for our young big guys to try to guard a guy who is really skilled, who’s very well experienced in playing and doing those kinds of things.

“(Iowa Coach) Fran (McCafferey) does a great job with his team and they’ve got a lot of weapons, but there’s no question that Garza, you’ve got to try to cut down his percentage first. That’s your job is to cut down his percentage first.”

*Iowa isn’t a one-man team, as William emphasized. The Hawkeyes are experienced, deep and have perimeter players that can shoot the ball. Joe Weiskemp, a 6-foot-6 wing who has started for three years and is coming off a season in which he averaged 14 points per game, and C.J. Frederick, a 6-foot-3 third-year sophomore can both regularly hit 3-pointers. In all, six of Iowa’s top seven players are back from last season.

“Try to get out on the shooters,” Williams replied, when asked about the game plan in dealing with the other Hawkeyes. “They’re 39 percent from the 3-point line. You do have to try to guard those other guys first. Because one of them is 76 (percent) and the other one is 73 (percent) from the floor.

“Joe has been there a while and Joe does a great job. He’s very selective and he’s shooting 50 percent from the 3-point line. CJ Frederick is shooting 50 percent from the 3-point line… They make 10 of them per game, and so we do have to get out there and guard those guys. But some of our very good teams have been difficult for other teams to guard because we had inside play and guys who could make 3-point shots and that’s what Iowa has.”

*Carolina’s freshman backcourt had some struggles last week, notably Caleb Love. So, in the couple of practices the Tar Heels have had since getting back from Asheville, what kind of improvement has Williams seen from his young backcourt?

“Well, we’re trying to do that every single day,” Williams said. “And guys, if you think about it, we played Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, we gave them off Thursday, practiced Friday, gave them off Saturday and then we practiced (Sunday) and are practicing today, so it’s not like we’ve had training camp since those games were over with…

“Specifically about the guards, I can give you a long list (and) I’ve already given it to them. We’ve got to shoot the ball better, we’ve got to have more assists, fewer turnovers, and we’ve got to pay more attention on the defensive end of the floor. So that’s a big chore. I described the whole game of basketball as a point guard..

“RJ and Caleb are very gifted, but they’ve got to do a better job of running the game, controlling the game, and the biggest thing is getting us into the tempo and the pace we want to get to, and being able to do it without turning the ball over. And the other thing is our big guys are shooting a much better percentage, so the guy shooting a much better percentage, make sure you get him the ball.

“And again, you’re describing a point guard, and that’s really hard at this level.”

*On the flipside, what are some of the things Williams liked about what Davis and Love did last week?

“I don’t think they’re afraid of the moment,” Williams replied. “I like that part because I think they’re competitive guys. They’re not afraid, (like) RJ stepping up to the free throw line and making two big free throws for us the other night. I love that part that they’re not afraid of the moment, they’re not afraid of what’s going on, they’re confident. They just have to play better.”

*The film room session Sunday was quite long, Williams said, and some kids enter college never having really watched film or they didn’t watch it properly, and some come in having a good handle on it. How challenging is it to get so many young kids to properly learn how to watch film to speed up their improvements?

“You know it’s different, some guys just pick it up like that,” Williams replied, snapping his fingers. “Some of them have had more opportunity to watch tape when they were in high school, but some of them don’t (and) it takes a long time… I’m standing there going back and forth and I’ve got a laser pointing at it, ‘That is you, that’s not your teammate, that is you right there.’ It’s hard for some people.”