CHAPEL HILL– The brakes have seemingly been hit on the Carolina men’s basketball season following a trio of ACC losses.

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However, Head Coach Roy Williams says he still maintains hope that much like last year, his team will be able to supply some answers and turn things around.

“You don’t feel good about the way you’ve played. But yet you do have a great deal of confidence and a great deal of hope that you can get things turned around. Last year about this time we weren’t feeling very good either and maybe it was as good a turnaround as we’ve ever had. There is a lot of hope,” Coach Williams says.

With the success of the zone defense employed by both Miami and Syracuse in the past two contests, Coach Williams says he expects to see plenty more zone in the games to come. But that’s not daunting him.

“I’ve loved it [zone] for 25 years. This is the first year in my entire coaching career that I haven’t set over there and started giggling when someone went to zone. It really is. We’ve always really done a nice job against it, and we’ve had guys make shots,” Coach Williams says.

Despite the less than desirable start to conference play, Coach Williams says there will be no quit in the Tar Heels. He says he likes when kids hurt. It lets him know they really do want more.

“You got to put that junk behind you. […] You’ve got to learn from your mistakes. I love it when kids hurt when they lose. That means it does mean something to them. They do care. We’ve got to take it from that stage and learn things from our mistakes and keep trying. To me, I’ll be down ten times, and I’m going to get up eleven. We’ve got to get that attitude over to the kids,” Coach Williams says.

One of the weaknesses of this year’s Carolina team is the inability to finish the plays inside when picking up fouls. Coach Williams says the old-fashioned three-point plays aren’t being produced by his players because they’re lacking the aggressive mindset of past UNC great Tyler Hansbrough.

“Part of that is our fault. We’re not being tough enough to finish the play. Who had more three-point opportunities than anyone you’ve ever seen? Tyler Hansbrough. He focused on finishing the play. He didn’t see a guy coming and flinch,” Coach Williams says.

The Tar Heels will have plenty of time to regroup and collect themselves this week before facing Boston College on Saturday.