Roy Williams can frequently be found at UNC basketball games. He’s frequently with his wife, usually in a seat close to courtside, and, based on the amount of air time he gets from ESPN and other networks, somewhere that it’s easy for TV cameras to find.
Since 2021, however, you haven’t been able to find him standing in front the Tar Heel bench. Never is that more obvious than when the opponent is NC State.
Ol’ Roy made no secret of his distaste for NC State, nor of his joy in beating the Wolfpack. Williams had a record of 33-5 against the Wolfpack while at UNC, leaving a trail of broken NC State coaches in his wake.
Herb Sendek was 0-6 against Roy. Sidney Lowe was 1-10, Mark Gottfried, 2-10 and Kevin Keatts 2-6.
Now that Williams is sitting with the fans, however, it’s a different story. Davis and the Heels won their first three matchups with the Pack, but since then, things have evened up. Keatts and UNC coach Hubert Davis have split the last four games between the teams.
In other words, in a 12 and a half-month span, Davis had as many losses to State as Williams did in his first 11 years on the job. (Roy went 23-2 against the Pack to start his UNC coaching career.) In March, a win over the Tar Heels helped propel State on its miracle run to the Final Four. It was the Wolfpack’s first ACC Tournament win over the Heels since 1987.
The rivalry gets renewed for its traditional early-January meeting between red and blue this Saturday, at PNC Arena. Both teams enter sorely in need of a win over anyone, and desperately trying to avoid taking a loss to “those guys”.
Heading into a Wednesday home game against Notre Dame, State was riding a two-game losing streak, falling on the road to Virginia and Wake, the latter by 18 points after falling behind 19-4 to start the game. State has lost three of its last four and six of nine since Thanksgiving.
“I think we lost our intensity,” said Keatts. “The Wake Forest game was very similar to the Kansas game (the first of the current 1-3 stretch). You get down 13 to 15, and then you battle back, and in both games, it was a six-point game at halftime and an eight-point game at halftime. We just have to get past the stretches where we don’t play well. If I could cut out those stretches, then we’d be undefeated right now.”
One bright spot for the Pack in recent games has been Dontrez Styles. A Tar Heel from 2021to 2023, Styles scored six total points in three games against the Pack. Keatts hopes to get more than that from him as he becomes the first basketball player to suit up for both sides of the rivalry since players were coming back from serving in World War II.
“Dontrez is a really good basketball player,” Keatts said, “and what we’re trying to get from him is for him to feel comfortable both on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively, and trying to fit him into what we’re trying to do. And one of the things we’ve asked him to do is to be really aggressive.”
Meanwhile, things are only marginally better for Styles’ old team. The Tar Heels had a comeback, last-second win over Notre Dame, 74-73, over the weekend to avoid a two-game losing streak heading into a game against SMU on Tuesday. UNC lost to Louisville by 13 on New Year’s Day, collapsing down the stretch, and they looked less than impressive in a win over UCLA just before Christmas.
Carolina’s biggest problem has been the absence of Seth Trimble. The junior has been a 14.8 point scorer and a defensive stalwart for UNC this year, but Notre Dame was the third straight game he missed with an ailment that’s only been described as “upper body injury.” Davis said that Trimble returned to practice Sunday, participating in full-contact drills, but his status was still uncertain as of press time.
Trimble’s absence has underscored ACC Player of the Year RJ Davis’ shooting slump. The fifth-year senior is hitting threes at a .268 clip, down 130 points from last year. He was held to eight points and 0-for-3 from three against Notre Dame. It was his first time failing to score in double figures in 22 games and the first time he hasn’t hit a trey in 16.
“Everywhere he goes, they’re putting a bigger defender on him and bodying him coming off screens,” Coach Davis said. “And if he comes off the screen, boom, they’re putting two on the ball.”
Still, increased attention is nothing new for Davis, who has been UNC’s most reliable scorer for the last four-plus years.
He’ll certainly be the focus of the Wolfpack’s attention when the two old foes meet again on Saturday, in a rivalry that’s gotten much tighter of late.
