Tar Heels earn ugly 68-53 win over Hokies

At 9 p.m. on Monday, the North Carolina men’s basketball team will hold practice. This was not supposed to happen.

“We’re supposed to have practice off tomorrow,” Coach Roy Williams said after UNC’s strange, bloody (literally) 68-53 win against Virginia Tech on Sunday night at the Smith Center. “(The schedule) says, ‘O-F-F.’”

This was the plan before Williams, who is not known for suppressing his feelings, snapped a clipboard out of ire, stalked his bench to induce fear and angrily yelled things like “GET BACK!” and “Kick it out!” during one of the more peculiar and dispiriting wins that he will ever coach.

The Tar Heels (14-4, 4-1 ACC) had 17 turnovers — a number that players would repeat no fewer than five times in post-game interviews, so ingrained was it into their minds already — shot more 3-pointers than free throws in the first half, and never found any type of offensive or defensive cadence against one of the poorer teams in the ACC.

So Williams, who looked generally dissatisfied throughout, exercised his unilateral authority and changed at least 12 people’s Monday night plans.

“I told them I’d see them at 9 o’clock tomorrow night,” the coach said. “We’re gonna practice.”

His players were unsurprised.

“I could almost feel it coming, which is bad, because I’m on the court playing,” said point guard Marcus Paige, who shot only 30 percent and turned the ball over four times. (Paige, who has been battling plantar fasciitis, also left for the locker room in the second half because of a bruised right hip. He reappeared minutes later and said it was OK after the game.)

“I think everybody had seen it coming,” said forward Isaiah Hicks, who had eight points and six rebounds in 18 minutes and continued his ascension as a reliable big man off the bench. “All the coaches, really, when you’re up and they get pissed, you know it’s something really bad.”

“I understand why he’s calling it,” said forward Brice Johnson, who had a double-double but often was the target of Williams’ sideline tirades. “We had 17 turnovers.”

The game started auspiciously enough for UNC — Johnson dropped in a soft hook for the game’s first points, and freshman Justin Jackson, who was the best player on the court, knocked in a jumper the next possession to make it 4-0 — but then devolved into something that both Williams and Paige would call “ugly” about two hours later.

First, it was the blood. Hokies guard Will Johnston stopped the game three times in the first half because he bled on the court. (He later lost his bright orange shoe and again stopped play.)

“He couldn’t catch a break,” Johnson said of Johnston, who somehow looked like the type of guy who would stop the game four times in 40 minutes. “He had blood over his eye, blood coming out of his nose, his arm was bleeding. I’m like, ‘God, man, we need to put a body suit on you so you won’t bleed everywhere.’”

Next, it was the 3-pointer-free throw disparity. In the first half, UNC shot 13 threes, four of which went in, and zero free throws, zero of which went in. “I’m sure it has happened,” Williams said, “but I can’t remember a team of mine ever go a whole half without shooting a free throw. Not that you should look it up. There’s a lot more things you can do. Go home, get your glass of wine, see your wife.”

Because she would probably not have enjoyed this game: wayward passes and bad shots were common, and energy levels were low. For every steal-and-slam by uber-athletic swingman J.P. Tokoto, there was a misguided pass by Paige. For every slash toward the hoop by Jackson, there was a missed layup by a Johnson or Kennedy Meeks.

“I don’t think we’re a stupid team,” Williams said, “but every team plays stupid sometimes. I asked them to take the shot that I wanted, not the shot that (Virginia Tech Coach) Buzz (Williams) wanted.”

Not everything was doom, though. There were alley-oops and easy chances, and the Tar Heels outrebounded Virginia Tech 49-22, which provoked Buzz Williams’ face to several times turn the color of the Hokies’ maroon jerseys and his legs to spend more time on the court than several of UNC’s substitutes.

Paige, who possesses more perspective than the average college junior, recognized that. “At the end of the day we won,” the point guard said, “and that has a huge bearing on a lot of things around here.”

Except Monday night’s practice.

sports@dailytarheel.com