Roy revisits Jayhawks
ST. LOUIS — The toast was sitting there at the table on Saturday morning, and not a single North Carolina player knew whose it was. They yelled around the lunchroom, casually searching for the player with the missing breakfast.
But Stilman White wasn’t paying attention.
“I was kind of into my iphone game,” he said later in the day. “I was working on a high score, so I had to wait until I finished that round before I picked my toast up.”
Moments such as those cause North Carolina coach Roy Williams to call his erstwhile backup point guard “a weird dude.” But when t he top -seeded Tar Heels face No. 2 Kansas in Sunday’s NCAA Midwest Region final at the Edward Jones Dome, Williams may have no choice but to entrust his offense to the unassuming freshman with the computer-game obsession.
The Tar Heels (32-5) will likely be without sophomore point guard Kendall Marshall for the second straight game. Marshall missed UNC’S 73-65 overtime win over Ohio Friday night with a broken right wrist, an injury he sustained last Sunday against Creighton.
The ACC’S assist leader went through non-contact portions of practice on Saturday, “the first day he shot a ball” since he suffered the injury, Williams said. But the coach was still uncertain about whether the true triggerman of the Tar Heels’ offensive machine would be ready on Sunday.
“There are two things that have to happen,” Williams said. “One, he has to feel comfortable that he’s not hurt, and two, I have to decide, can he be effective in a game with his situation.”
This is hardly the way that Williams wanted to prepare to meet his old program. Sunday’s game will mark just the second time that the Tar Heels have faced the Jayhawks (306) since 2003, when Williams stepped down after 15 years as Kansas coach to take over at North Carolina.
The last time these teams met, in the semifinals of the 2008 Final Four, the Jayhawks crushed the Tar Heels, 84-66. Now, North Carolina enters the game with an in experienced point guard and plenty of offensive questions.
The Heels’ high-powered offense ground to a halt in Friday’s nail-biting win. White earned raves for his six-assist, no-turnover outing, but a disorganized Carolina offense committed 24 turnovers in a performance that Williams called “pretty damn ugly.”
Now, UNC faces a Bill Self-coached Kansas team that has scrapped its way to the Elite Eight. The Jayhawks have shot less than 40% from the field in their last two NCAA Tournament victories, but they have won by stopping opponents in crucial moments. Center Jeff Withey, who blocked 10 shots in Friday’s Sweet 16 win over N.C. State, believes he can handle UNC’S Tyler Zeller inside. And point guard Tyshawn Taylor, one of the finest on-the-ball defenders in the nation, plans to attack whoever the Heels line up at point guard.
It will be up to White to keep Carolina under control. And the rest of the Heels are preparing for a l ow-scoring affair.
“The team that’s gonna win is whoever’s going to have the most hustle plays and whoever rebounds the best,” said UNC’S leading scorer Harrison Barnes. “Whoever has the most intensity, that’s who’s gonna win.”