Williams & Woods Dish On Little
CHAPEL HILL – Among the topics North Carolina head coach Roy Williams and junior point guard Seventh Woods were asked about during Friday’s press conference at the Smith Center in advance of Saturday’s game at Clemson were about freshman forward Nassir Little.
Last week, Little had an 18-point, eight-rebound performance against Florida State that featured highlight reel dunks in a performance that was flashier than his workmanlike outing against Syracuse three days later. That more grinding effort ended when Little was poked in the eye near the end of the game. He finished with 11 points and six rebounds.
While there’s still a lot of room for improvement, both Williams and Woods have been impressed by Little’s continued development, particularly over the last few games. Here is what both had to say about Little:
Williams on Little's development recently:
"He was really coming I think really well - and I can’t tell you which two games, they start running together a little bit - but he played 23 minutes, 25 minutes in two straight games and then all of the sudden he gets hurt three different times. And so, he took a giant leap backwards at that point because, after those two games, I thought that his playing time would probably continue to increase to get up there where they’d be, no question about it, where the top six guys were.
“But spraining his ankle, getting hit in the sternum, getting poked in the eye the other night, it’s been a hard time for him. It seems like everytime he turns around it’s some other little thing that doesn’t mean he can’t play but it means he can’t play at the highest level that he thinks he can and we do also.
“But yea, some freshmen, some sophomores, some juniors, some seniors don't get it (his playing time) until their senior year. But I was really pleased, not satisfied by any means, but I was really pleased with how he was coming (along) and a couple of games there his defensive grade for like six straight games was positive but it’s all taken a backseat now because of the little nagging injuries.”
Williams on Little's play against Syracuse being different from the FSU game:
“He wasn’t as into it mentally on the defensive end of the floor as he had been there for those four, five, six games in a row before he got hurt. But, seven out of eight from the foul line (against Syracuse), he was 2-for-6 or 2-for-7 or something like that from the field, missed a couple of shots that, he had two outside shots, he’s been making those in practice.
“But, I thought he started to come back and then he gets poked in the eye. I mean, he was really red and, the good news is, where it was all red was not in the spot you’re worried about the most.”
Williams on Little handling the outside talk:
“He's been absolutely phenomenal handling all that stuff I mean it’s just amazing. He’s really handled it well. He wants to get better, he thinks he is getting better, knows he has to get better on the defensive end of the floor. He was really excited for six straight games - I think it was six straight - to see that he had a positive grade for six straight games defensively because it was an ugly scene before that. But he really has just handled it so, so well it’s been amazing.”
Woods on who's impressed him the most since the loss to Louisville:
“I would say probably Nas. He’s come through big for us lately. He’s been way more aggressive. I feel like everything's slowing down for him at the right time so I feel like he’s been impressive lately.”
Woods on who would win a dunk contest between he and Little:
“I feel like I would give it to Nas. I feel like, me being shorter though, I feel like it’s more impressive when I dunk. But nah, Nas definitely got some stuff up his sleeve though.”