North Carolina coach Roy Williams said Monday that he hadn't spent much time with his team since Saturday's blowout loss. The Tar Heels flew home after the game and didn't gather again until a team meeting Monday morning.
"As soon as I finish this call, we'll go practice," Williams said during his weekly ACC teleconference with media members. "But I haven't seen anything that I liked. There is nothing related to Saturday's game that I liked.
"And we'll have to see how we respond in practice today. But the smartest thing I've ever done as a coach is not say too much to them, or to not say anything to them until today. That's given me 48 hours."
Asked what signs he'd look for to judge whether his team is responding the right way, Williams said, "See if we live."
"I don't think it needs much elaboration," he said. "We've got to have great practices. I mean, we're not going to go up and beat Virginia Tech (Thursday) just because we lost on Saturday. People say, 'Oh, they're going to bounce back.' Makes no difference ... We've just got to do a heck of a lot better job."
Defending UNC's perimeter defense: Though Florida State's Deividas Dulkys earned ACC Player of the Week honors after scoring a career-high 32 points and hitting 8 3-pointers against UNC, Williams disputed the notion that the Tar Heels' perimeter defense has been a liability this season.
"We have not had this year the trouble guarding the ball on the perimeter," Williams said. "Our defensive field-goal percentage on the 3-point line is about second in the league (fourth after Saturday's game, 30.9 percent), but we had trouble guarding it Saturday. For the most part, we've really done a good job with that."
Energy issues: Even when the Tar Heels have been at their best this season, they at times have appeared to lack energy and intensity. Asked Monday why that was the case, Williams said, "I have no idea."
"If I had an idea, I would have already changed it. I don't think we were lethargic against UNLV," he said, referring to the Nov. 26 loss in Las Vegas. "It was a great crowd, and their team is pretty good. And they played (well.) But we were not as active as we needed to be against Florida State."
Williams hoping for mental toughness: After the loss at Florida State, several Tar Heels players questioned their own mental toughness. Williams said his team lacked poise. The good news, if there is any, is that Williams has coached teams in the past that he said have developed the kind of mental fortitude lacking so far this season for UNC.
"We have," Williams said. "You can go back to last year. We were struggling, but down the stretch those guys got tougher and tougher and tougher, and hopefully this team will be able to do the same type of thing."
