Carolina Welcomes Sharp-Shooting William & Mary To Chapel Hill

The No. 19 North Carolina men’s basketball team, 9-3 overall, wraps up its nonconference slate Tuesday night against 6-4 William & Mary. The Tar Heels’ final tune-up before ACC play is slated for a 7 p.m. tipoff inside the Smith Center.

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With ACC action on the horizon, UNC head coach Roy Williams is emphasizing the importance of getting some good work in during this final week of 2014.

“This coming week will be a really good week for us because it’s the first time in quite a while that we’ll be able to get some practice time. We had no practice time hardly at all before Kentucky and a week off, so this week will be important for us,” Coach Williams says.

But practice can’t always simulate the stresses and strains encountered in a competitive game. Luckily for the Tar Heels, they get a chance to face off with the Tribe of William of Mary, whose proclivity for the three-point shot should get UNC’s full attention.

In fact, over the past five contests, William & Mary has been shooting at a 44.6-percent clip from three-point range. Tribe head coach and former Tar Heel Tony Shaver will be hoping the hot shooting continues against his alma mater.

As for the Tar Heels, junior forward Brice Johnson says the team must play with more of a sense of urgency Tuesday night.

“We need to play with a little more sense of urgency on the defensive end. We didn’t fly around as much as we should have [vs. UAB], but in some spurts of the game we did do those type of things. We did well during those times of the game,” Johnson says.

Coach Williams says the confidence needs to continue to build for young shooters like freshman Justin Jackson, who’s been hesitant to pull the trigger on open looks far too much for his coach’s liking.

“I got mad at him because Marcus [Paige] wanted him to shoot the ball, everybody wanted him to shoot the ball, and he didn’t shoot it. So I screamed at him and told him to shoot the ball or come over and sit down. The next two times he got it, he shot it. It was good for him, but also really good for our team,” Coach Williams says.

Now 12 games into the season, Coach Williams says he’s making no excuses for the trio of talented Tar Heel freshman – Jackson, Joel Berry and Theo Pinson.

“They should be more comfortable and yet, I agree with you that they are freshman and you got to understand that. But I’m trying to push them through that. Kids sometimes keep using that as an excuse. I don’t want that,” Coach Williams says.

On the other side of the experience spectrum, William & Mary senior sharpshooter Marcus Thornton is averaging 19.3 points per game on a laser-like 48.8 percent shooting. Expect Thornton to throw the deep ball up early and often Tuesday night.

But the Tar Heels are hoping to counter with a perimeter assault of their own. Junior point guard Marcus Paige says knocking down shots from behind the arc completely changes the dynamics of the UNC offense.

“It’s really important. Some games it might not be Justin, but could be Nate [Britt], Joel or Theo. Just having somebody who can knock down shots really dictates how we can play offensively. It’s hard to pound the ball inside when teams pack it in. When we have a couple outside shots go in, we can attack lanes, and we can throw the ball inside to Kennedy [Meeks] or Brice and give them room to go make their plays,” Paige says.

Carolina leads the all-time series with William & Mary 19-3 and decisively won the most recent meeting 85-60 in 2010.