Roy Williams' Early Timeout Another Strange Moment in Strange Start for UNC
CHAPEL HILL — It took just over two minutes on Wednesday night for another strange turn in what has been an exceptionally strange two weeks for North Carolina.
As another errant pass flew out of bounds, Roy Williams tapped both hands on his chest and did the unthinkable.
A timeout.
At the 17:51 mark of the first half.
Of a November game.
“Earliest one in my history, I’m sure,” he said. “It doesn’t have a lot of competition.”
The source of Williams’ ire was another slow start for the Tar Heels, punctuated by silly turnovers, and in particular, a forgotten screen in a bread-and-butter set in the secondary break offense.
“We were stupid. Come on. The first day of practice this summer, first day, we ran regular secondary break and the guy in the corner comes up and sets a rear screen,” Williams said.
In his estimation, that’s a concept the Tar Heels have executed in each of the 35-40 practices they’ve had together since this summer.
“I just wanted to scream so I’d feel like I was getting something done,” he said.
The screaming eventually worked somewhere after halftime as Carolina finally found its groove and pulled away for a 75-61 victory over Elon at the Smith Center, but the performance was yet another night of inconsistent execution on offense mixed with a laissez-faire approach to guarding open shooters on the perimeter.
The timeout came as a surprise to the 20,000 in attendance, but it wasn’t much of one to the five guys on the floor.
‘We were playing bad, so it didn’t shock me too much,” forward Garrison Brooks said. “It’ll be the last time we do that.”
Williams was clearly animated as he ripped into his team, and that didn’t surprise them, either.
Cole Anthony didn’t want to get into specifics.
“What he told us in the huddle is stuff I was telling myself in my head, so nothing really surprised me,” he said. “It was a wake-up call for us.
“I think we’re a championship caliber team and we’re nowhere near there yet. I think he should be mad, too.”
The turn didn’t come immediately, as Elon — No. 315 in the KenPom.com rankings — held on for a 33-32 halftime lead, fueled by a 6/15 effort from 3-point range. Coming in, the Phoenix was making 14 percent of its attempts from beyond the arc.
For all the grief the Carolina offense has taken so far this season for not meeting its lofty standard, Anthony believes the bigger issue is on the other end.
“It’s just a matter of, defensively, staying on our assignments, making sure we lock in defensively,” he said. “I think all of our problems can be solved on the defensive end and the offense will take care of itself.”
That much was evident as the Tar Heels did a better job of contesting shots in the second half, leading to more opportunities to run on defensive rebounds, and in turn, more chances for easy buckets.
“We played not very intelligently early in the second half and all of a sudden we’re running, defending a little bit and shooting over 50 percent for maybe the first 10 minutes of the second half.”
One of the few bright spots for Carolina was Armando Bacot, who took advantage of those chances to run, getting himself in good position on the break, scoring 18 of his 22 points in the second half to go with 14 rebounds.
Like everything this season, that run was short-lived as the Tar Heels allowed Elon to draw within seven points late.
“Then, we are brain-dead again,” Williams said.
That last push by Elon prompted another strange moment, as Williams yet again called timeout at the 2:56 mark. He was no less animated in that one, trying to get his team across the finish line.
The Tar Heels got there, but in the process, became the first Carolina team that has failed to score 80 points at least once in their first four games of the seasons against opponents with an average defensive efficiency ranking of 220.
Carolina doesn’t head to the Bahamas until next week for the Battle 4 Atlantis, but the Tar Heels have already embarked on a long, strange trip.
Only time will tell if the Tar Heels took anything from the surprise timeouts, or Williams was just screaming into the void.
“I told them the big leagues are starting right now,” Williams said.
