Tar Heels push past Braves

North Carolina men’s basketball coach Roy Williams hasn’t been shy about his plans to shake up his starting lineup in early games.

The growing pains associated with those unorthodox changes were on full display in UNC’s 82-63 exhibition win against UNC-Pembroke Friday night.

“It’s hard to throw a lineup out there,” Williams said. “Poor Isaiah (Hicks) has never played the three-spot in his life and we’re trying to get him some minutes out there. James Michael (McAdoo) never played the four the entire game.”

With the absence of P.J. Hairston, Leslie McDonald and J.P. Tokoto, all of whom missed the game to sort out a variety of NCAA eligibility issues, Williams had the task of finding creative ways to fill the holes vacated by his wing players.

For most of the game, Williams ran his oft-discussed two-point guard lineup, featuring varying combinations of the team’s traditional point guards in the one and two spots.

With the addition of highly touted freshman point guard Nate Britt, Marcus Paige, UNC’s returning starting point guard, often shifted down to the off-the-ball guard — a role that caused him to make a few major changes to his game.

“It’s different,” he said. “I’m used to having the ball in my hands a lot. But Nate (Britt) did a great job tonight, he’s going to help us out a lot, and I’m not going to have to do it the entire year.

“It allows me to be more aggressive but I have to remember not to be a stand-still shooter when I’m the two. It’s an adjustment but it’s kind of fun sometimes.”

Paige wasn’t alone in settling into a new spot, McAdoo played in a guard spot for his entire 27 minutes on the court.

McAdoo, who traditionally plays in the post, spent the game adjusting to guarding smaller players and being farther away from the basket.

“There’s only so much I can do in practice to kind of get used to playing a new position,” said McAdoo, who ripped down a double-double, scoring a team-high 19 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. “I enjoyed it. I’ve got to limit my turnovers, that’s kind of the biggest thing.”

The lineup shifts resulted in a few miscues for the Tar Heels, including a glaring 23 turnovers.

“I think we had some sloppy possessions overall as a team — it was like the ball was greased up before the game or something,” Paige said.

Even Paige, whom Williams credits as one of the brightest basketball players committed his share of transgressions.

“Marcus Paige is one of the smartest basketball players I’ve ever been around and he went brain dead for some time period,” Williams said.

Both Paige and McAdoo, Williams’ only set starters, committed five turnovers — accounting for nearly half of the Tar Heels’ 23 total turnovers.

The damage from those turnovers could have been much worse for the Tar Heels, but UNC-P only scored 12 points off of the miscues.

With the official season opening in a week and the fates of McDonald and Hairston still in the hands of the NCAA, the Tar Heels will have a few days to stretch out the growing pains and prepare for Oakland.

“There were things that helped us a great deal,” Williams said. “I’ve always called this a gloried practice, and I think a glorified practice is the correct terminology. And that’s not a slight against Pembroke in any way but it was an opportunity for us to get better. I think we will gain from it.”