UNC looks for improvement in off week

On the other side of the loss to No. 2 Syracuse, the North Carolina men’s basketball team looked at a week of empty dates.

There would be no shot at quick redemption, no immediate chance to rinse a bad taste.

But coach Roy Williams doesn’t mind the break in action. For the 63-year-old coach, the week is a chance to re-evaluate and heal his bruised team.

“If I were a player, I’d hate it. I’d want to get back out there and play somebody,” Williams said Saturday. “As a coach I like it because we’ve got to give them some time to rest their body and get some injuries to heal up a little bit.

“As a coach, it does give us some time to work on a few things. But as a player, I’d hate it. I’d be so damn competitive that I’d want to get back out there and kill somebody every day.”

Even though, as a player, forward James Michael McAdoo would like a shot at redemption, the junior agrees with his coach that the Tar Heels’ best shot at improvement might come from the confines of the Smith Center.

“Of course you want to get out there and play, but we’ve had our opportunities, we’ve had our chances,” he said Saturday. “You kind of just have to play to the cards dealt to you and learn from this, these three losses.”

Faced with an extensive list of problems after falling to the ACC’s basement, Williams isn’t concentrating his efforts on correcting one area.

“This would be the equivalent of taking your car in for a tune-up where they check everything,” he said in the ACC coaches teleconference.

“At the inspection, they check everything. You’re not going to just to get your teeth clean. You’re going to go get some work done on every tooth. If you’re taking the car in, you’re going to get some work done on every part of the car and make sure that you’ve got it in position that it can work effectively, and that’s what we’ve got to do.”

Williams began his week of rehabilitation with a film session Sunday night where the focus wasn’t solely on pointing out the negatives.

Williams praised his team for its first possession against Syracuse — one in which the Tar Heels moved fluidly after winning the tip off and finished with a jumper from McAdoo 23 seconds into the game.

Though there are many things on Williams’ to-do list — improve shooting, limit turnovers, increase movement — the 11-year UNC coach lamented on his radio show Monday night there are deeper problems than the shortcomings translated in the box score.

“The kids have to invest more,” Williams said. “I need to do a better job. But we’re not folding up the tents … I’ve got to figure out a way to get them to play harder. That’s my job.”

The week off is a time for improvement, a time for introspection, a time for healing — all things this Tar Heels team desperately needs to have a legitimate chance of climbing the ACC ladder from the bottom rung.

sports@dailytarheel.com