When Roy Williams looks back at North Carolina’s 91-83 loss at N.C. State one month ago, he takes no solace in the fact that UNC narrowed an unsightly halftime deficit to just eight points.
“Everybody said it was a great comeback,” Williams said. “I don’t care about that. They had us by 28.”
Williams notoriously hates losing to the Wolfpack — and he hasn’t done it often.
The loss on Jan. 26 was just the second in 26 games he’s coached against N.C. State, including his time as head coach at Kansas.
He’s also undefeated (9-0) against the Wolfpack in Chapel Hill, but coach Mark Gottfried and company will try to change that today.
As the Wolfpack (19-7, 8-5 ACC) face off with the Tar Heels (18-8, 8-5) on their home turf this afternoon, it’ll be imperative that UNC gets off to a better start than it did one month ago.
Otherwise, that streak could be in jeopardy.
“We were playing well going into that game, but we came out kind of slow, and N.C. State basically just punched us in the mouth from the get-go,” sophomore P.J. Hairston said.
“We know what we’re up against, and it’s up to us to come out and strike first instead of letting them strike us first this time.”
Bullock on T.J.
UNC’s shift to a smaller lineup in its past three games has been well-documented, but N.C. State has gone through some changes of its own, too.
After defeating North Carolina on Jan. 26, N.C. State lost three straight games, struggling in the absence of point guard Lorenzo Brown, who’s now back on the court after dealing with an ankle injury. In that time, freshman Tyler Lewis established himself as a legitimate option at the point, adding to N.C. State’s depth.
Like Williams’ insertion of Hairston into the lineup at power forward, coach Gottried also made a lineup tweak in N.C. State’s most recent game. He started freshman forward T.J. Warren in place of guard Rodney Purvis, and Warren responded with a career-high 31 points and 13 rebounds against Florida State.
N.C. State now boasts a larger starting lineup, while UNC sports a smaller one. But Williams is confident that Reggie Bullock can match up well with Warren out of the three spot.
“T.J. is a tweener,” Williams said. “He can play inside. He’s played the four spot a lot this year, and he’s also played the three spot for them, but I think he’s more of a perimeter player than he is a post player.”
P.J. on C.J.
In his newfound role in the four spot, Hairston came across his greatest physical challenge at Georgia Tech on Tuesday, as he matched up with the 6-foot-8, 245-pound big man Robert Carter Jr.
“I know what a true power forward is now,” Hairston joked. “It was a lot to deal with for the most part. But I feel like I’m strong enough to hold my weight down there and just kind of contain him more than anything.”
Hairston will face another tough test today as he goes toe-to-toe with N.C. State’s C.J. Leslie. At 6-foot-9 and 200 pounds, Leslie doesn’t pack the same physical punch as Carter Jr., but he leads the Wolfpack with 15.7 points per game and is a proven scorer.
Hairston said the key defensively will be to stay in front of Leslie and force him into some poor shots.
Hairston’s teammate Bullock said he believes the sophomore is just the man to do that.
“I think it’ll match up a little better because I see C.J. as more of a face-up four than with his-back-to-the-basket type four man,” Bullock said. “And P.J.’s strong enough to play down low, and he’ll guard with the strength of a four man, so I think it’s a good matchup for us.”
‘I’m not giving up on our big guys’
Williams has switched to a guard-heavy lineup because of the personell at hand, but there’s no denying that he’d go big if he could.
“I’d like to get the basketball inside, score inside more and get a better balance,” Williams said. “But the fact of the matter is that we don’t have that kind of player right now, so whether I’m comfortable or not, I think you have to put guys out there that give you the best chance to win.”
Still, big men Desmond Hubert, Brice Johnson and Joel James — who was cleared to play after missing time with a concussion — figure to get some playing time against N.C. State today. The Tar Heels were outrebounded 42-32 in the Jan. 26 loss to N.C. State, and Williams said that, because of the size differential, he anticipates having two big men out on the court at times throughout the game.
Those big men might not be starting at this point in the season, but they still have key roles to play.
“I’m not giving up on our big guys, I can tell you that” Williams said. “They’re going to get great opportunities from now until the day they put me under the ground to be players.”
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