With an away matchup against Duke looming, North Carolina men’s basketball head coach Roy Williams is not lingering on the mistakes UNC made on its way to a buzzer-beater overtime loss against its rival back in February.
“After the game, the next day I said, ‘Guys, they made plays,’” Williams said. “We had some opportunities to make those plays not be as big as they were, but we didn’t do it.”
While Williams admitted that a loss against the Blue Devils always stings, he said North Carolina wouldn't fall victim to sulking over the blown lead from the last meeting while preparing for Saturday’s rematch in Durham.
Duke trailed most of the game against the Tar Heels in the Smith Center, but a heroic effort from Tre Jones and an acrobatic tip from Wendell Moore at the buzzer sealed the game. Jones finished with a conference season-high 28 points in 42 minutes, and his intentionally missed free throw with seconds left allowed him to sink a game-tying shot at the end of regulation.
“Tre was phenomenal down the stretch, and we couldn’t stop him, he made every shot,” Williams said. “We could say all the things people say, ‘Oh, lucky.' It ain’t luck. I’ve never won a game on luck, and I’ve never lost a game on luck. They made plays, and we didn’t.”
While Duke has faltered over the last few weeks, with the team losing three of its last five games and falling out of the top-10 for the first time this season, all of its recent losses have come on the road. For Saturday’s game, the two blue blood programs will square off in the confines of Cameron Indoor Stadium, where the Blue Devils have only dropped one ACC game this season.
Williams noted the pageantry of the North Carolina-Duke rivalry, citing it as a reason that his UNC teams have never had a problem getting motivated before a trip to Durham.
“I probably do fewer things to try and get them ready to play Duke than anybody else, because everybody else makes it to where I don’t have to,” Williams said. “The second game you always try to make amends, whether you win or lose. One team always loses, so they try to do a better job in the second game.”
Heading into Saturday, North Carolina is riding its first three-game win streak since November. Williams credited UNC’s recent improvements to an increased level of efficiency on the offensive side on the court and a greater confidence when the Tar Heels are shooting the basketball. Over the last three games, the team is averaging 90 points per game, shooting more than 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range.
