Last weekend, North Carolina (13-7, 3-4 ACC) continued its 57-home-game win streak against Clemson. Today, The Tar Heels will look to stretch another streak against N.C. State (14-7, 4-4). UNC hasn’t lost to the Wolfpack in Chapel Hill during coach Roy Williams’ 11-year tenure. UNC has also defeated N.C. State 14 of the last 15 meetings and 20 of the last 22.
But for the second week in a row, Williams wouldn’t address streaks.
“I take pride in beating anybody anywhere, anytime, anyplace — that kind of thing,” Williams said Friday. “If I didn’t say anything at all, nothing, not one word, about 56 in a row (against Clemson), why do you think I would say something about whatever? There’s a long way between 10 and 56. I didn’t say anything about that and never will … I birdied the last hole I played this fall, and that’s not going to make one daggum difference the first hole I play this spring, either.”
Though the game against N.C. State isn’t UNC’s primary ACC rivalry, it still means a lot to Williams.
“I’ve always appreciated the rivalry,” Williams said. “I’ve enjoyed it. I think it is a big rivalry. It probably means more to me than the typical North Carolina fan just because of the closeness, and I had a couple of buddies who were North Carolina State students when I was in school. It was a personal thing. Again, if that had any effect on tomorrow’s game, I would be even more appreciative of it.”
Stopping Warren
UNC will face a Wolfpack squad that has the ACC’s leading scorer in T.J. Warren.
Warren is coming off a 30-point game in a win against Florida State earlier this week, and he averages 22.5 points per game. The forward is incredibly efficient, shooting just more than 51 percent from the floor.
Sophomore guard J.P. Tokoto, who Williams calls one of his best defenders, will start out guarding Warren.
“(Warren’s) a scorer,” Williams said. “He’s really a scorer. He can drive it to the basket, he can pull up, he can shoot from three, he gets fouled and goes to the free throw line and makes his free throws, he can score in traffic. We recruited him very hard, and there’s a reason.
“You can talk to kids about being an all-around offensive player, but I think it’s something he learned a long time ago and has continued to work on it day in and day out. He’s understood that it makes him awfully difficult to guard if he can do everything.”
Big Mac Attack
Junior forward James Michael has come on strong in the last few games. He’s averaging nearly 15 points per game and scored 22 against Clemson. Wednesday night, McAdoo dropped 17 against Georgia Tech, despite foul trouble.
McAdoo has made 33 of his last 55 field goal attempts, something that Williams praised him for Friday afternoon.
“I look at James Michael’s percentage much more than I do the shot attempts — much more,” Williams said. “I want him to be aggressive, I want him to be active, but I look at field goal percentage. He might have been shooting the same amount of shots earlier, but I know his field goal success was not near what it is right now.”
McAdoo believes part of his recent success comes from being in the right place at the right time.
“The biggest thing is my teammates are just finding me in good locations on the court as far as where I feel comfortable at scoring,” McAdoo said Friday. “And I’m still trying to remain aggressive for 40 minutes, even though that doesn’t necessarily mean taking a lot of shots. On the defensive end, (I’m) just doing a lot of talking and communicating, and that really just helps on the offensive end.”
Though Williams was pleased with McAdoo’s ability to finish shots through contact and draw the foul, McAdoo is still struggling from the free-throw line.
Against Georgia Tech, McAdoo converted only five of nine shots from the charity stripe and is shooting under 40 percent for the season.
When asked about his confidence at the free-throw line, the big man simply replied:
“It’s great, thanks for asking.”
Long distance woes
The Tar Heels have struggled from 3-point range, shooting a dismal 33 percent — good for 12th in the ACC.
But with a 29 percent success rate from behind the arc, N.C. State is dead last in the conference in 3-point field goals.
N.C. State scores more of its points from non-3-pointers than any team in the country. UNC ranks second in that category.
With the departure of its top 3-point threat, Scott Wood, N.C. State’s leading long-range scorer is Ralston Turner. Turner is 40 of 104 from 3-point range.
Sophomore Marcus Paige and senior Leslie McDonald are UNC’s leading 3-point scorers, but the two are 19-for-57 from behind the arc in the last five games.
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