Williams proud of UNC's tenacity

Considering all of the problems during last year's 17-loss campaign, it's hard not to compare this season's North Carolina team to last season's.

But coach Roy Williams -- who was guilty of it after Saturday's win at Virginia, when he said he hadn't seen that kind of toughness out of his team in a long time -- said today it's time to give these Tar Heels their due, sans comparisons.

"This year's team didn't fold their tents, this year's team kept competing, kept trying to make a play, kept trying to find a way, and I think that's a credit to this year's team -- and that's the way I've got to talk about them, instead of making reference to last year, and I hope everyone else will get to that point, too," Williams said during the weekly ACC coaches teleconference.

"This year's team, as all of them, are unique in their own way, their own personalities, their own character, and I was just proud of how things were ugly, things weren't smooth, things weren't going well, but we kept plugging along, plugging along, making a basket every now and then, making a basket every now and then, and then putting ourselves in a position to win at the end. So I was really proud of them."

Williams said that sometimes you have to win ugly to have a great year. And that victory certainly qualified as homely, considering UNC went about nine minutes without a field goal, and both teams shot worse than 30 percent in the second half. The Tar Heels came back from 11 points to win their ACC opener.

"We didn't shoot the ball well, we didn't defend as well as we wanted to … there were a lot of things that weren't going well for us, but we kept plugging along," Williams said. "And I think the tenacity, the stick-to-it-tiveness … that is something I was really proud of. And I wish I could tell you what it takes to get to that point, but this year's team did have it on Saturday, and we're going to need to have it throughout the course of the season."

-- Robbi Pickeral