Tar Heel Blues: North Carolina has dug itself into a big hole; Williams vows to keep working

CHAPEL HILL

A sign held by a Clemson student at Littlejohn Coliseum on Jan. 13 describes North Carolina's first month of ACC play.

The sign read -- "No Hansbrough, No Ellington, No Lawson, No Chance."

UNC's problems continued in Wednesday's 82-69 loss to Wake Forest. The Smith Center is no longer a safe haven. The Tar Heels (12-7, 1-3 ACC) lost at home for the second time in five days, and their losing streak reached three games, a high for the Roy Williams era.

UNC has plenty of time -- it still has 12 ACC games left -- but right now, it's the defending NCAA Tournament champion in name only.

Without a strong turnaround, the possibility of UNC missing the NCAA Tournament will increase each week. The demands won't ease -- UNC is winless in three road games, and has seven ACC road games to play.

"We're extremely disappointed, and we're extremely frustrated," Williams said. "It's something that we haven't been through. It's something we're not enjoying going through."

Williams said that his team has to improve in many areas to end the losing streak. The Tar Heels have no game scheduled this weekend, giving Williams five days of practice before the next game, Tuesday at N.C. State.

Williams would understand if anyone thinks UNC's season is falling apart but would disagree with such an assessment.

"They could, but we can't do anything about that," he said. "We're going to go to practice and work extremely hard. Other people's outlook, we can't control that. We have a tough time controlling our own outlook.

"It's what it is. It's the ACC, and nobody feels sorry for you."

Wake Forest led for most of the game, as Georgia Tech and Clemson did last week. UNC was down 42-39 when freshman David Wear caught an inbound pass and took a 3-point shot from the right wing that missed. Ish Smith scored after the rebound, building the Wake Forest lead to five.

Wear and four other freshmen were pressed into extra action with big men Ed Davis and Tyler Zeller sidelined by injuries. All five tried hard, but repeated mistakes that Williams said shouldn't be made at this point in the season.

"We take the ball out of bounds and throw it in the corner and shoot a 3 on the out-of-bounds pass, which I say we should never do," Williams said. "It was something I don't believe in, but we did it anyway."

Williams wants to play at a pace that will put the score in the 90s and tire out the other team. UNC hasn't scored more than 78 points in an ACC game and has scored in the 60s twice. Larry Drew, in his first season as the starting point guard and playing with a reconstructed lineup, hasn't been able to create the tempo Williams wants.

"We're just looking for a way to make it right," forward Will Graves said. "We have to keep listening to Coach and keep the same approach. We've got to play harder."

Williams said in October that he was concerned about the lack of a dependable 3-point shooter. That has hurt the Tar Heels in almost every game. UNC was 6 for 26 on 3-point shots against Wake Forest and shot 36.6 percent overall. After UNC closed to 40-39, Wake Forest went on a 32-15 run in which it made seven consecutive 3-point attempts.

Graves said that the solution is to get in the gym and shoot. Williams isn't sure it's that simple.

"It's more than making shots," Williams said. "The quality of the shots wasn't that good. A couple of times we passed up open shots to pass it to a guy who took a bad one.

"I thought that Marcus, Deon (Thompson) and Will, three experienced players, took bad shots in the first half. Dexter (Strickland, a freshman guard) took one I thought was bad in the first half.

"And what to do about it? It sounds corny, but I don't have a potion that I can pour on them or anything. We've got to in there and practice, work on it, and try to be more fundamentally sound."

Davis, a 6-10 center, could return against N.C. State. Thompson is confident the season can be salvaged but also understands what will be required to dig out of a big hole.

"We've just got to keep fighting and figure out a way to come out on top in some of these games," Thompson said. "I definitely think guys care and want to win. This losing is definitely unfamiliar."

bcole@wsjournal.com