CHAPEL HILL
Will Graves has transformed his body at North Carolina, and he also is changing the way he plays.
Sometimes the process flows smoothly. Other nights can be troublesome for Graves, a 6-6 junior from Greensboro and former player at Dudley.
"Like I'm always saying, I'm trying to do the little things," Graves said. "It starts on the defensive end. It's just hustle plays, anything I can do to ignite the crowd or ignite the team or ignite the game."
Graves will go to work again today against Virginia at the Smith Center at 7:45 p.m.
Graves is known for his 3-point shooting. He lost weight to move into the playing rotation last season before being suspended, and has dropped 13 pounds this season.
UNC has a rebuilt lineup, and Graves has been asked to do more and is averaging 9.3 points a game. His average of 4.6 rebounds is tied for third on the team.
Nothing has pleased Coach Roy Williams more than Graves' progress on defense, however. Twice Graves has earned the team's defensive player-of-the-game honor, first in a win at home against Virginia Tech and then in a road loss against Clemson.
"The more success you have, you're investing more," Williams said. "If you participate, you're investing more. He is maturing, and I told him that. I'm still challenging him and pushing him."
Graves said he is paying more attention to detail this season.
Injuries have forced Graves to play more on the inside. He has filled in at power forward because of the absence of Tyler Zeller, who has missed the last four games because of a stress fracture in his right foot.
In the 77-63 win against N.C. State, Graves didn't need to worry about the scoring load with Deon Thompson and Larry Drew producing points, but he grabbed nine rebounds.
Davis did not play in a loss at home to Wake Forest. Graves contributed 16 points and eight rebounds then. He had 24 points and seven rebounds in a loss to Georgia Tech, when Davis injured his ankle in the second half.
Graves' outside shooting was on display that Saturday afternoon in the Smith Center. He had two points at halftime, but hit five of seven 3-point shots in the second half and helped UNC charge from behind and take the lead.
Down 60-44, UNC generated a 20-3 scoring run that was sparked by Graves' 11 points.
"I told him that was a big-time shooting exhibition, and that I was proud of him," Williams said. "I told him it was about time because I didn't want him to get fat and happy."
Williams thought that Graves might have been too preoccupied with helping inside early in the game, when UNC fell behind 29-9 and trailed 42-28 at halftime
"I'm excited on the court, at any given time," Graves said. "I'm mad on the court when we're not doing right. I'm always going to be a Carolina fan at heart, and I'm always going to bleed blue."
Graves lived in a family of UNC fans. Family members would get together just to watch UNC games. Graves still remembers sitting at home and watching Jerry Stackhouse do a reverse dunk at Duke in the 1995 season.
"I have voice mail on my phone and after our games the whole family is yelling and screaming during the game," Graves said. "It's tradition. It's tradition here, and it's tradition in our family.
"It would be 10 or 15 people. It would depend on where we were. We'd all be on the phone calling and saying, ‘Did you see that?' It was a connection with Carolina basketball."
bcole@wsjournal.com
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