WRAL Sports Fan

North Carolina

Life gets tough for the Tar Heels this week

By Tim Hall

Nov 18, 2009

North Carolina head coach Roy Williams didn't seem so optimistic about his upcoming trip to the Big Apple after his team beat Valparaiso 88-77 in its third game of the season. Williams said his team has no chance in New York playing that kind of basketball.

The No. 4 ranked Tar Heels (ESPN/USA Today) young corps of players will be thrown to the wolves in the second week of the season with back-to-back games against ranked teams at Madison Square Garden. California is ranked 12th this week, Ohio State moved up to No. 15 and Syracuse entered the polls at No.24.

Williams was heard Tuesday on 99.9 The Fan when he joined ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the Morning.

"Our life is gonna get a little more difficult these next couple of games, we've eased past some guys that we're just flat out more gifted than but it'll get a little more challenging this week," Williams said.

Though talented the main concern with North Carolina going into this week's 2K Sports Classic semi-finals is the lack of pressure situation experience in big time games. Tyler Zeller, Will Graves, Larry Drew II, John Henson and the other freshmen are in for a test.

"Ginyard, Thompson and Davis are the only three guys we have that have ever been in a game at crunch time," Williams said. "There'll be a lot of crunch time up there and it'll give us the chance to see how our guys react under pressure."

Drew II will be one player the coach keeps a close eye on. Williams said he is looking forward to seeing how the point guard responds to playing a guy that is just as fast.  Williams also wants to know how his frontcourt rebounds and reacts against a frontcourt just as big as they are.

But unlike college football, the good thing is that a season can't be ended in November with a couple losses to top teams.  Preseason tournaments can be looked at as a chance to build towards March, when it counts.

"We're 3-0 but we've just been more gifted than the other teams we played so far but it's not gonna be that way up there, so we'll find out a lot about our team," Williams said. "All four teams are very gifted, very talentd and come Saturday morning I might know more than I wanna know."

The Heels play the Buckeyes at 9:15 p.m. on Thursday night. Not long after Williams will know even more about his squad as Michigan State, Kentucky and Texas all loom on the schedule.