CHAPEL HILL – North Carolina Coach Roy Williams and junior guard Andrew Platek met with the media Friday afternoon at the Smith Center in advance of Saturday’s home game with Boston College.

Most of what they discussed was the probable return of Cole Anthony to UNC’s lineup, how the Tar Heels have improved since he went down 11 games ago, and how winning some games prior to Anthony’s return is important to the other players.

Below are both full press conferences along with some bullet points about what was said.

Note: Be sure to check out the rest of our coverage from the Smith Center on Anthony’s probable return.

*Williams isn’t sure if there will be a playing time restriction with Anthony, he’s going to wait and see how he does in practice Friday and Saturday morning, and then, obviously, how things go during the game Saturday. One thing is for certain.

“He’s not going to play 40 minutes,” Williams said. “It just depends on how he looks, how rusty he looks, how clean he looks, how sharp he looks, and of course his conditioning.”

*As for Anthony’s conditioning: “They’ve been working hi pretty doggone hard, whether it’s in the swimming pool or the weight room. And he’s a pretty high-conditioned athlete, anyway.”

*Typically, injured players sit at the end of the bench during games, but Anthony has sat next to the coaches during UNC’s games while he’s been out. How much has having him by the staff helped him during this process?

“I think he’s seeing it (the game) differently,” Williams said. “I’ve told this story, I did it (with) Drew Gooden (at Kansas) 20 years ago and I thought it helped Drew immensely. We’ll wait and see with Cole.”

*The Tar Heels have played 11 games without Anthony, so now the team must adjust to having him back in the lineup. Williams isn’t sure how that will play out, but says having good kids on the team who look at the big picture should help.

*At 10-10 and ranked No. 93 in the NET, the Tar Heels have a lot of work to do if they’re going to eventually earn an at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament. While the players may think about it at times, Williams doesn’t, even as tempting as it might be now that Anthony is probably back.

“I’ve never spoken to them about making the NCAA Tournament,” he said. “I’ve spoken to them about ‘Let’s get better today.’ That’s what I’ve said every single day and I’ll say it every single day, and it’s not any different than what I’ve ever said when any of our other teams were struggling.”

*With the news that Anthony is probable for Saturday, junior guard Andrew Platek and the rest of his teammates are excited about the potential of Anthony suiting up again for the first time since UNC’s 56-47 loss at Virginia on Dec. 8.

“He’s a very important player to us and it’s good to have him back on the court,” Platek said. "It felt kind of weird seeing him practice with us because it’s been so long since he’s been on the court in live situations.”

*Platek discussed what the process has been like for the Tar Heels since Anthony was ruled out of action nearly seven weeks ago.

“Obviously, we lost a few games, so it was tough trying to figure it out without Cole because he’s a huge part of our team…” Platek said. “But I think, ultimately these past couple of games and over the past couple of weeks, we have kind of figured it out and we’re really turning a corner. So, bringing him back I think it's going to add to our success. He’s a big competitor and he just wants to win as much as we do.”

*Coming off a two-game win streak over Miami and N.C. State, confidence is high for a team that has gone just 4-7 since Anthony has been out. And, while confidence hasn’t been an issue for this team over the last week or so, Platek said Anthony’s return to practice has provided even more of a confidence boost for UNC as it prepares for Boston College.

“We feel very confident going into this game but we can’t get over confident and fall back to ‘oh, we won two games, we’re going to be ok,’ which is not the case because we need to string more together,” he said. “We need to win more games if we’re going to play later in the year.”

*The junior guard said the Tar Heels have been playing “with a lot more confidence” and have been “a lot looser” going back to the Virginia Tech game on Jan. 22. This has led to improved performances and, as a result, more W’s in the win column.

“We really wanted to win some of the games we lost and that’s just kind of devastating to lose games like that, especially the overtime one's like Clemson, which was a heartbreaker,” Platek said. “That really takes a lot out of a team, it’s pretty deflating. So, to get back up afterwards, I think it shows a lot of resilience from our guys."