Tar Heels defeat Colonels in commanding win

CHAPEL HILL -- North Carolina already had been planning to practice today, starting at 9 a.m. But for a while here on Monday night at the Smith Center during the Tar Heels' 99-49 victory against Nicholls, UNC coach Roy Williams thought about changing the practice time.

Forget 9 a.m., he thought at one point. Make it a couple hours earlier.

And the focus of the practice: Running. A lot of running.

"A half-hour ago, it was going to be a track practice," Williams said, referring to the time when the Heels appeared to be just going through the motions of another dominant victory against another overmatched opponent.

About three minutes into the second half, No. 5 UNC (10-2) led the Colonels (4-8) 49-26. The outcome wasn't in doubt then or at any point on Monday night but, still, Williams didn't like what he was seeing from his team.

He didn't like the intensity. Didn't like the execution. He especially didn't like that UNC appeared so passive.

Minutes earlier, Williams had attempted to make his point inside his team's locker room at halftime.

"We knew he was very frustrated, especially at halftime," said Tyler Zeller, the Tar Heels' senior forward. "He came in, and said a lot of things that were very true - something that we can't be that lax when we go out and play. We've got to be able to play with intensity."

Yet still, Williams wasn't seeing it. So he pulled the starters with 16:25 to play, and put in a line-up comprised completely of reserves. They turned UNC's 23-point lead into a 29-point lead.

Williams reinserted the starters with 11:43 to play and, apparently, they got the message. During the next four-and-a-half minutes, the reenergized, refocused Tar Heels went on a 16-1 run.

"It was an ugly game and at times it was a fantastic game," Williams said. "I was really mad at the first group, as you probably could tell. And I let them sit there and I thought our second group really got more active and when I put those guys back in it was really a pretty exhibition of basketball for about four minutes."

That it was. At one point, most in an announced crowd of 18,072 rose and gave UNC a standing ovation. Even though the Heels had dominated from the start, there still hadn't been much reason to cheer until that 16-1 run.

Asked later if he felt his starters had indeed received the message he was trying to send, Williams said, "I think we've got really bright kids. If they didn't get that message, they're never going to get it. So now let's see how they respond."

Dexter Strickland and James Michael McAdoo scored 14 points apiece to help lead UNC, which again struggled from the free-throw line. The Heels made 7 of their 21 free throws during the first half, and finished 21-of-41 from the line.

The Tar Heels finished with 72 rebounds - most for any UNC team since 1956. Those 72 rebounds, which included 31 offensive rebounds, were tied for second-most in school history. Williams wasn't too impressed.

"We had a tremendous number of offensive rebounds because we missed so many shots," he said.

His team's shooting woes - the Heels shot 43.5 percent - were but one thing that drew Williams' ire. What made him most upset was his team's lack of an edge - that it appeared, at times, to be going through the motions.

"I don't think it should be tough," sophomore guard Reggie Bullock said when asked how if it was difficult to bring intensity against a lesser opponent. "It's just more mental. We've got to come out with enthusiasm ... Yeah, we beat them by 50 but to me I don't think we played one of our best games."

No. 5 NORTH CAROLINA 99, NICHOLLS 49

Percentages: FG .314, FT .500. Three-point goals: 2-22, .091 (Hammond 1-3, Talkington 1-6, Rillieux 0-1, Smith-Hyde 0-1, McBeath 0-2, Lewis 0-3, Prest 0-6). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 2 (Lewis, Smith). Turnovers: 23 (Rillieux 7, Smith-Hyde 4, Smith 4, Lewis 4, McBeath 2, Hammond, Talkington). Steals: 7 (Lewis 2, McBeath, Prest, West, Smith, Rillieux).

Percentages: FG .435, FT .512. Three-point goals: 4-19, .211 (Bullock 2-8, Barnes 1-3, Hairston 1-5, Crouch 0-1, White 0-1, Marshall 0-1). Team Rebounds: 3. Blocked Shots: 11 (Henson 7, McAdoo, Simmons, Zeller, Barnes). Turnovers: 13 (Barnes 2, Zeller 2, Crouch 2, McAdoo, White, Simmons, Marshall, Strickland, Henson, Bullock). Steals: 13 (Marshall 3, Zeller 2, Barnes 2, Henson, Strickland, McAdoo, Bullock, Hairston, Watts).