Jan. 11, 2007

By Adam Lucas

The mere mention of his comments from earlier this season caused Danny Green to wince.

Way back in late November, Green met with the media and dropped the following gem in a press conference:

"It's been a little confusing for some guys. Some guys are confused about what kind of roles they have on the team. We don't have a real set rotation, everybody doesn't have a set time that they're going to play."

The assembled media pounced on this quote like free Dove bars at the ACC Tournament. It was picked up by sideline reporters, dissected by fans, and eventually trickled back to Roy Williams.

Predictably, he was not pleased.

Despite running one of the nation's best college basketball programs, Williams believes in an extremely simple approach. Playing for him is easy: do what he asks, your minutes increase.

He is not big on defining roles. He does not have hour-long meetings throughout the week to discuss how players can contribute in upcoming games. He prefers just three assistant coaches sitting next to him, not six.

Before a practice soon after Green's comments, Williams faced his team with a perplexed look on his face. "Tyler, have I ever told you what your role is?" he asked Tyler Hansbrough.

The big sophomore answered in the negative. The question was repeated for several other players, with the consensus response that no one had ever had a specific responsibility outlined by the coaching staff. The role description for everyone was the same: be a basketball player. A smart, heady basketball player.

Green got the message. And for the record, he says he misspoke.

"I didn't mean that guys didn't know their roles," he said after Carolina's halting 79-69 win over Virginia. "I meant guys had to adjust to their roles. A lot of guys weren't used to playing the way they were playing. But that was early in the season. Now everyone has adjusted very well."

Carolina basketball observers devoted significant preseason time to figuring out who was going to start. Two months later, that talk seems silly--the real question is who's going to finish.

Wednesday, in one of the first late-game tests this team has had, Williams substituted 12 times in the final 2:25. In came Marcus Ginyard for defense. Out went Wayne Ellington. In came Green for free throw shooting. Out went Brandan Wright. With Ty Lawson in foul trouble, in came Wes Miller.

Williams made all his moves with a detached cool that suggested he already knew how things would work out. And, maybe, he did. Television cameras usually catch him when he's at his most volatile, like when he removed his jacket after a dubious charging call on Reyshawn Terry. But in the closing minutes, he has the best qualities of his mentor, Dean Smith. Remember Smith settling everyone on the sidelines in the closing seconds against Georgetown in 1982? Williams was one of those who had to be settled.

Those days are over. None of the 12 substitutions were made with any stomping. There was no screaming. Williams was at his most demonstrative when Virginia countered with a substitution and the Tar Heel head coach made the "Talk" motion with his right hand to make sure everyone knew which man they were guarding.

"He's at his most calm when the game is crazy," Bobby Frasor said. "I always think back to the game at Duke last year and how calm he was. When the other team is making runs, we look at our bench and see a leader who has faith in us and faith in the guys on the court.

"He's always thinking. Always. No matter what's going on he is thinking, and to have him is a huge advantage for us."

It's an advantage because Williams knows how to use his pieces. He has three point guards. He deployed new fan favorite Quentin Thomas late in the first half. The stat sheet said Thomas had two turnovers and zero assists during that stretch, but he also earned a longer stint by playing solid defense on previously hot Sean Singletary.

Then, with 34 seconds left and the game tied at 37, Williams called timeout. He inserted Miller.

This is obvious, right? The Tar Heels were going to run the play that has worked so many times just before the half, with the point guard penetrating and kicking to Miller for a 3-pointer.

That's what Virginia thought. After all, they had seen it on film. They stuck to Miller on the wing. But when Lawson penetrated, he instead passed to Terry, who flicked it to Wright, who dropped in a 3-footer for a two-point halftime lead.

So maybe they don't have rigid roles. But with a 15-1 overall mark and 2-0 in the league, most of the Tar Heels have identified their own best qualities. No one had to meet with Ginyard to tell him he's a quality defender and offensive rebounding igniter. No one needed to inform Hansbrough he should pound away inside. And no, no one needed to tell Green he's the designated offensive sparkplug off the bench.

Everyone looks at the talent on the roster and thinks Carolina is a team of stars. In wins like Wednesday's, though, they look like a team of--sorry, Coach Williams--role players.

And what about those roles, Danny? Did you and your teammates ever figure them out?

"Right now, we don't really have any roles," he said. "We're just playing basketball. Just go out there and be a basketball player."

And what happens when everyone does exactly that?

The same expressive face that was wincing just minutes earlier now showed a wide smile.

"We get some wins."

Adam Lucas's third book on Carolina basketball, The Best Game Ever, chronicles the 1957 national championship season and is available now. His previous books include Going Home Again, focusing on Roy Williams's return to Carolina, and Led By Their Dreams, a collaboration with Steve Kirschner and Matt Bowers on the 2005 championship team.