Minus Paige, No 1. Tar Heels Ready for Temple

The men’s college basketball regular season officially kicks off Friday night for the nation’s No.1 team—as the Tar Heels are in Annapolis, Maryland to take on the Temple Owls in the Veterans Classic.

UNC head coach Roy Williams will be without his star point guard– senior Marcus Paige—who broke his right hand last Tuesday in practice when he got it tangled in a teammate’s jersey.

With Paige set to be out for at least a couple more weeks, Williams is expecting the rest of the team to rise to the challenge—but doesn’t want anyone feeling like they have to be super heroes.

Nate Britt (0) is expected to split time with sophomore Joel Berry in place of Paige at point guard. (Todd Melet)

“I don’t want anybody to think they’ve got to raise their level a hundred levels,” Williams said during Wednesday’s press conference. “Because then all of a sudden you turn stupid.

“[I’ve been telling them] try to get at a different level than you’ve been playing at , try to play closer to your potential than you have, and give a little extra,” the coach continued. “I don’t want Justin [Jackson] thinking he’s Michael Jordan or Kennedy [Meeks] thinking he’s Shaq or anything like that.”

Sophomore Justin Jackson is expected to emerge as a breakout star this season out on the wing, while the Tar Heels boast one of the top returning frontcourts in the nation with junior Kennedy Meeks and senior Brice Johnson.

But it’s the guards—Joel Berry, Nate Britt, and freshman Kenny Williams—that will have to be heard from the loudest while Paige’s hand recovers.

“Joel [Berry] has been playing fantastic all preseason,” Paige told reporters in his first meeting with the media since the injury. “I’m excited to watch him develop.

“All the guards—Kenny Williams even—[their] chances are gonna go up tremendously in the next couple weeks,” he added. “So getting to see how they mesh and how they progress is gonna be really fun. And I think they’ve come a long way.

“This will be good to test them early and to also get them around 30 minutes a game to get experience so when we get rolling, they will have seen everything.”

This game will be no cakewalk either, as Temple returns six of its top eight scorers from a team that won 26 games a year ago. The Owls also have a head coach, Fran Dunphy, with 503 career wins and 15 NCAA Tournament appearances on their resume.

Opening against this kind of quality opponent has affected the way the Tar Heels have prepared in practice.

Jaylen Bond (15) and the Owls bring back a large portion of last year's 26-win squad. (Cooper Neill/ Getty Images)

Will Cummings (2) and Jaylen Bond (15) returned to Temple after being part of last year’s 26-win squad. (Cooper Neill/ Getty Images)

“If you’re playing someone like Temple, you’ve got to limit what you do [in practice] and do those things very, very well,” Williams said. “And [we] wanna be sharp offensively and defensively because part of the outcome of the game is gonna be how [we] play.

“Some of the times when you’re playing some people, but you’re just more gifted, you’re gonna win the game–so you’re not as concerned about that.”

Broadcast Information:

The game is set to tip off at 7:00 p.m. and will be carried live on WCHL’s airwaves, and televised on the CBS Sports Network.

Note of Interest:

Wednesday was National Signing Day for high school athletes across the nation.

UNC picked up commitments for next season from three members of the 2016 class:

Tony Bradley, a 6-10 forward from Bartow, Florida.
Brandon Robinson, a 6-5 guard from Lithia Springs, Georgia.
Seventh Woods, a 6-2 guard from Columbia, South Carolina.

Minus Paige, No 1. Tar Heels Ready for Temple

On Air Now: 97.9 FM