In Rutgers' 60-36 home win Monday against Columbia, there was little reason for Waters to pull out its entire offensive and defensive arsenal.
"There's one positive," Waters told The (Newark) Star-Ledger on Tuesday. "I literally only did a few things, so Carolina couldn't see all the stuff we have. So that's good. So when we go down there, whatever we want to throw at them, we can."
The Scarlet Knights (1-0) did, however, show a little bit of what they want to do for the rest of the season Monday. Waters' team pressed and trapped their Ivy League foes into submission, forcing the Lions to turn the ball over 27 times.
Rutgers returns four starters from a squad that finished 18-13 last year and tallied wins against ranked Big East foes Connecticut and Georgetown.
Guard Jerome Coleman scored 18 points to lead an inconsistent Rutgers offense. The Scarlet Knights made just one of 12 3-pointers and shot 40.6 percent overall.
Like the Tar Heels (1-0), the Scarlet Knights lack a big interior. Like UNC, Rutgers gets its points from its guards.
But hosting Columbia can't prepare a team for a road trip to play a team with equal, or better, athleticism.
"We didn't find out anything new (Monday), but one thing that stood out, to me, was the heart," center Kareem Wright told The Star-Ledger. "Playing defense and shutting down the opponent is what we want to do.
"We know it's definitely going to be tougher against North Carolina, but we learned that we won't underestimate anybody, no matter what name they've got on the front of their shirt."
