Williams speeds Heels’ recovery

Carolina Blue has become a blur.

Coach Roy Williams has restored No.9 North Carolina’s luster faster than a Tar Heels breakaway. North Carolina (10-2, 1-1 ACC) visits Maryland (9-3, 0-1) in a nationally televised game tonight ready to prove the program can regain its glory after losing 36 games over two years.

“I’m not here to just coach a basketball team,” Williams said. “I am here to rebuild a program and try and put it at the level where it was at one time.”

North Carolina reached five Final Fours in the 1990s, plus another in 2000. The Tar Heels won four ACC titles over the decade, plus the 1993 national crown.

But the post-Dean Smith coaching era has been merely good — and that’s not good enough for the Tar Heel faithful. No matter that North Carolina reached the ACC tournament final last year en route to the NIT quarterfinals. North Carolina was only 19-16, 6-10 in the ACC. Despite the team’s rebound from an unimaginable 8-20 in 2001, coach Matt Doherty was fired and Williams was lured home after taking Kansas to the NCAA finals.

North Carolina was 275-61 with three ACC titles and the 1982 national championship while Williams was a Smith assistant from 1978 to 1988. Williams then led Kansas to 418 victories and four Final Fours over 15 years while earning three NCAA coach of the year awards. The lure of returning to his alma mater, where Williams played on the 1968 freshman team, was too much, however.

It has been a happy homecoming — mostly. The Tar Heels beat then-No.8 Georgia Tech 103-88 on Sunday and No.11 Illinois 88-81 on Dec.2. However, North Carolina is only the third best team in its state, and that’s not what the Tar Heels alumni want. No.4 Wake Forest beat North Carolina 119-114 in triple overtime at the Dean Smith Center. No.8 Kentucky defeated North Carolina 61-56 on Jan.3. With two dates coming up against No.2 Duke, plus a rugged ACC schedule with no breathers, Williams knows North Carolina won’t skate into March Madness.

“I can’t believe anybody in the world, not just the United States, is facing as difficult a schedule as we are facing,” Williams said. “We have already won some games where we didn’t play that well, we were just more gifted. There will not be another game on our schedule that we can win unless we play really well.”

Williams didn’t panic after earlier losses. Any man who stocks Coca-Cola in his office refrigerator to remember the days when he couldn’t afford one after playing youth pickup games in Marion, Ga., doesn’t surrender easily.

Williams didn’t recruit one player on his roster, but there’s plenty of talent. Center Sean May (17.1 points, 10.3 rebounds), guard Rashad McCants (17.2), forward Jawad Williams (15.3, 7.2) and guards Melvin Scott (11.8) and Raymond Felton (11.8) are as strong as any ACC starting five.

However, Jawad Williams may miss tonight with a broken nose and the Tar Heels’ depth is thin, so North Carolina will rely on its fastbreak offense fueled by turnovers. The Tar Heels already have hit the century mark four times this season. The 89-point average is two points behind North Carolina’s highest-scoring team (91.3 in 1986-87).

It’s not surprising the Tar Heels are balanced considering Williams despises selfish players. Guard Jesse Holley and McCants were sent to the locker room against UNC Wilmington on Dec.28 when they didn’t stand and applaud the reserves during a timeout.

“Great players are the ones that fight selfishness off if it’s hurting their team,” Williams said. “And that’s the challenge of what we’ve got with this team. … I know what kind of kids we have. I can go in that locker room right now and look at every kid and tell them that I love them. I don’t have any problem saying that whatsoever.”

May has been the cornerstone. After playing 11 games last year because of a fractured foot, he keeps defenses off-balance by kicking out passes to guards when he is unable to score underneath.

“May changes that team,” Maryland coach Gary Williams said. “You have to put attention on May because he’s so good, and that opens other areas. He’s not just an inside scorer — he can pass, has great hands. He’s made a big difference in their team.”

Maybe enough of a difference to return North Carolina to postseason prominence. For now, though, ACC opponents won’t yield. Roy Williams must prove that the early revival can survive the 16-game ACC regular-season grind.

“Their early success gives them reason to feel good about themselves,” Terrapins forward Nik Caner-Medley said. “[But] what they’ve done only matters so much when it comes to just getting between the lines and playing.”