Coach Roy Williams isn't going to panic about North Carolina's manhandling by Florida State and record-setting loss last Saturday, but that doesn't mean his displeasure has subsided.
He still trusts his team and is confident that its mistakes can be corrected, but he said work had to start with Monday's practice, UNC's first since the 90-57 loss — the most decisive in Williams' nine seasons.
"I don't want to overreact, but that was just a real butt-kicking that you can't ignore, either," Williams said Monday during the ACC coaches' weekly teleconference. "There is nothing related to Saturday's game that I liked.
"The smartest thing I've ever done as a coach is to not say too much to them or not say anything to them until today. That's given me 48 hours."
Williams was looking for one sign in Monday's practice to indicate that his shellshocked team was recovering and getting ready to play Thursday at Virginia Tech.
"To see if we live," he said, without even a slight hint that he was kidding.
Williams said the remark needed no elaboration.
"Even when we were winning nine in a row, I wasn't always saying glowing things," he said. "I kept saying our team's got to get better. It's the same party line today, but it's just that it hit the kids between the eyes a lot more than me saying it."
The players and coaching staff met Monday morning for the first time since the loss. Williams said he didn't see any encouraging signs on the flight home that players would easily put the loss behind.
He also said he didn't see any signs that the loss damaged UNC's confidence beyond repair or that recovery wouldn't be possible.
"People will say, 'Oh, they're going to bounce back.' It makes no difference," Williams said. "We could go up there (to Virginia Tech) and play well and still not be successful. We've just got to do a heck of a lot better job."
The loss at FSU ended UNC's nine-game winning streak — with all of those wins at home. Deividas Dulkys scored 32 points and hit eight 3-point shots for FSU, a school record for an ACC game.
Dulkys had scored 32 points in his previous nine games combined. FSU was shooting 30.2 percent from 3-point range and was last in the ACC in that category. But it made 12 of 17 3-point attempts and battered UNC with a 30-8 run to open the second half.
Dulkys is known as a shooter, and Williams praised him for his aggressiveness. Williams was slightly puzzled by the Tar Heels' perimeter defense, which he didn't consider a problem all season. But Saturday, UNC repeatedly left Dulkys and other FSU shooters open.
"We've got to have great practices this week," Williams said. "We're not going to go up and beat Virginia Tech just because we lost on Saturday."
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