UNC turns page despite questions and youth abound

Roy Williams addressed North Carolina's concerns at ACC Operation Basketball Wednesday. (Photo by Brian Wilmer/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

By Brian Wilmer (@sportsmatters)

Special To Daly Dose Of Hoops

CHARLOTTE -- For someone whose team is almost universally picked among the top three in the ACC this coming season, Roy Williams had a lot of things to get off his chest Wednesday at the league’s Operation Basketball event.

Whether voicing his displeasure over the ACC moving to a 20-game league schedule (“So I'm not in favor of it. Coaches had no voice in it whatsoever. And we go to the spring meetings, there's no talk about it. And then all of a sudden in July we're doing it. So that's what happened.”) or the voted-down hurricane relief exhibition between his Tar Heels and South Carolina (“It's frustrating, the response was frustrating, it's still frustrating.”), Williams was a popular guy with the media.

Oh, and there’s the issue of his team on the court.

Luke Maye earned plaudits from the league’s media, being named the ACC Preseason Player of the Year. Veteran stars Cameron Johnson and Kenny Williams surround Maye, with forwards Sterling Manley and Garrison Brooks among those who played supporting roles last year.

Many of the unanswered questions come at the top and bottom of the lineup. Joel Berry II’s departure leaves a chasm in the North Carolina backcourt, with his leadership and late-game heroics a hallmark of the program from which he graduated last year. Williams’ team also enters the season in search of a rebounding and post compliment to Maye, who snatched 10.1 boards per contest in 2017-18. Manley and Brooks averaged just shy of four apiece last season.

“The biggest thing for this team (is for) somebody to step up as a one and somebody to step up as a five, and for us to have a better overall awareness of what we’re doing on the defensive end of the floor. I think those are the two biggest challenges on our team,” Williams told a reporter Wednesday. “You give me some of those ones or fives (from Williams’ past teams) right now, then I’m gonna be really happy.”

Greensboro native Coby White will be one of the guards called upon early in the season to provide some stability in the backcourt. White brings to UNC the all-time high school scoring record in the state (3,573 points), and averaged 15.3 points per game on the FIBA Americas U-18 gold medal team this summer to pace that club in scoring. White is the first North Carolina Mr. Basketball to don the Carolina blue since the man he hopes to help replace, Theo Pinson, took the honor in 2014.

“I think we’ll be okay, but I don’t wanna be satisfied with just okay,” said Williams of his team’s backcourt situation. “Coby’s gonna be good, whether it’s gonna be October, November, December, or where it’s gonna be. He’s gifted. He’s really gifted.” Williams also mentioned junior Seventh Woods as a potential key backcourt piece, while acknowledging the need for Woods to stay healthy. Woods missed 17 games last season due to a stress fracture in his right foot.

The post position presents its share of challenges, as well. A number of options exist in the paint, with none yet providing the stability Williams seeks. “Guys have gotta get better. Somebody’s gotta step up and do it, or I’ve gotta go back and play a little bit smaller,” said Williams. “In fact, Luke’s probably better offensively as a five, because the five guy’s gotta guard him, and go out there to 23 feet. It is harder defensively, it is harder to rebound, and it is harder to be able to bother the ball coming at you around the rim.”

Williams mentioned that Brandon Huffman, who shot 54.3 percent from the field last season, has been limited by a knee injury and only gone through a handful of practices. Manley and Walker Miller are “still not where I want (them) to be,” added Williams, while Brooks “is a guy that lets you complete more check marks in all the boxes about what you need your guy to do.”

To be certain, the three heralded new faces on UNC's roster (White, Leaky Black, and Nassir Little) bring impressive offensive credentials to Chapel Hill. Williams hopes to lean on the youngsters quite a bit on the defensive side of the ball, however, offering both a committee-based approach to the stellar defense provided by Pinson and the ability to shore up a perimeter defense that showed some gaps last season. While the Tar Heels ranked 38th in defensive efficiency in last season’s KenPom numbers, the club ranked 316th among Division I schools in opponent three-point shooting, at 38 percent.

“I think Coby is good defensively, has a chance to be really good. I think Leaky is very good defensively and has a chance to be really good. And Nassir is so athletic he can be really good as well and he works really hard. So I'm hopeful that all three of those guys can be very good defenders,” said Williams. Black and Little both provide impressive length on the wing (Black is 6-foot-7, Little 6-foot-6), with Black having led his Cox Mill High School team with 3.2 steals per game as a senior.

Despite the question marks ahead, league media projected the Tar Heels to finish third in the circuit in 2018-19, offering 20 first-place votes to Williams’ club. For UNC to reach its goals for the season, it will have the chance to exorcise two demons in one place when competing for the league tournament title. Not only will it hope to avenge last season’s ACC tournament championship loss to Virginia, it will look to erase the bad taste of the resounding NCAA tournament defeat handed down by Texas A&M on the same Spectrum Center court on which 2019’s ACC tournament will be contested.

“We know what happened here. And we know that we have some history now. And we've just used that as motivation in practice and in the preseason. Coach definitely hasn't let us forget it,” said Williams at Wednesday’s media gathering. “But we use it as fuel and motivation to get back there and not let it happen again in that same situation. So it's definitely something that we won't forget.”

North Carolina opens its season with road trips to Spartanburg, S.C., to take on Wofford (Nov. 6) and Elon, N.C., to face Elon (Nov. 9), before returning home to host Stanford in a Nov. 12 tilt. Those first three games will all be televised on ESPN network properties.