UNC wants to play fast, but not against beating Virginia at its own game

For at least a couple of practices every season, maybe more, North Carolina coach Roy Williams asks his players to do something very unlike Williams: He asks them to slow down, to not push the pace, to – imagine this, considering the source – take your time trying to score.

That is not how Williams likes to play. He said so again on Friday, the day before UNC’s game against Virginia on Saturday at the Smith Center, and he emphasized his desire to consistently score 80 or 90 points -- or more.

“But to be a really good team,” he said, “you’ve got to win in the 50s and 60s, as well. And we understand that.”

There might not be two coaches in the country whose philosophies are more diametrically opposed than Williams and Tony Bennett, who’s now in his eighth season at Virginia. Williams, as has been well-documented, can never score enough.

And then there’s Bennett, who has turned the Cavaliers into a national contender with an uncompromising system built on discipline and patience on offense and withering defensive intensity. Virginia would be among the most formidable opponents for any team.

And yet it’s especially so for UNC, given how much its preferred style of play contrasts with Virginia’s. The challenge for the Tar Heels in these games begins well before tip-off. It begins with the preparation, and the pursuit of mimicking in practice what the Cavaliers do effectively during games.

This isn’t necessarily like football, where the Tar Heels, for instance, routinely set aside extra time to prepare for Georgia Tech’s triple-option offense. In basketball, Williams said, he simply tries to help his players understand they’ll have to win in different ways. And win slowly, at times.

“You talk to them about it, you practice it,” Williams said. “(You) get the blue team to be more patient with their shot selection, and get the white team to make sure that they get a better shot, not just a first shot they look at, but the first great shot they look at is what you want.”

Virginia, though, has a knack for forcing teams to settle for bad shots. Or rushed shots. Or both.

The Cavaliers often crowd the middle, and bunch their defenders within the 3-point line. They eliminate driving lanes. They double-team players in the post – and that will be a obstacle, especially, for UNC given its reliance on the interior – and make it more difficult to pass out of those double-teams.

The Georgia Tech football comparison came up more than once on Friday. One reporter asked Williams if he prepared for Virginia the way UNC football coach Larry Fedora might for Georgia Tech. Another asked Justin Jackson if he dreaded playing against Virginia the way some football players might dread playing against Georgia Tech’s triple option.

“We definitely don’t dread it,” Jackson said. “Obviously we know they’re going to try to slow the pace down. That’s just how they play. But for us, we have to continue to play the way we know we can, and as much as possible push it back at them.”

That’s easier said than done. UNC hasn’t scored more than 74 points – a low number, given the Tar Heels’ preference for scoring in the 80s and 90s – against Virginia since 2013. In three of UNC’s past five games against Virginia, the Tar Heels have scored 64 points or fewer.

One of those came about 11 months ago: the Tar Heels’ 61-57 victory against the Cavaliers in the ACC tournament championship game. It wasn’t exactly the kind of game in which UNC normally thrives. It was a slow game, a grind-it-out game. One in which UNC beat Virginia at its own game.

This story was originally published February 17, 2017 at 6:25 PM with the headline "UNC wants to play fast, but not against beating Virginia at its own game."