Strengths
Kenny Williams is part of the reason head coach Roy Williams considers this North Carolina men’s basketball team one of the best shooting teams he’s ever coached. For his career, Kenny Williams is a 35.5 percent shooter from three, and this season he’s averaging 8.9 points and 3.7 assists per game, good for second on the team.
The senior guard also ranks among the Tar Heels’ best perimeter defenders. He takes a lot of charges, has the size and tools to guard every position and is tied for second on the team with 25 steals.
Most importantly, though, Williams seems to have inherited the role as the emotional leader of No. 8 UNC’s experienced squad. He doesn’t shy away from big moments and has made big plays a few times this season — including when he hit the go-ahead 3-pointer in overtime against Miami to give the Tar Heels a lead they’d never relinquish.
Weaknesses
On the season, Kenny Williams is shooting 32 percent from the 3-point line — 8 percent below his percentage last season. He’s a streaky scorer and oftentimes struggles to create his own shot.
Part of this can be attributed to his insistence on not taking bad shots that could disrupt the flow of the offense: “I'm really good coming off of screens and set shots, and I don't really like to get outside of that,” the senior guard said in a Jan. 18 press conference. “If I have to, I will, but I just don't like forcing things.”
Aspects to watch for
It’ll be interesting to see who Kenny Williams matches up with come UNC’s faceoff with No. 2 Duke. No clear matchups have seemed to surface ahead of Wednesday’s contest. First-year guard Tre Jones and first-year forwards R.J. Barrett, Zion Williamson and Cam Reddish pose unanswerable matchups for most teams; in any matchup, Williams will have his hands full.
