UNC keeps Clemson winless in Chapel Hill

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CHAPEL HILL - Given his matter-of-fact nature, it's safe to reason North Carolina coach Roy Williams has never been a huge fan of soap operas. Suspense and melodrama, after all, aren't exactly the lures that hooked Williams into coaching.

Yet heading into Tuesday's game against Clemson, so many attention-grabbing plotlines were swirling at the Smith Center and so many questions waiting to be asked, it was hard to know what to focus on.

Could North Carolina extend its home winning streak against Clemson to 55 games, keeping the Tigers winless in Chapel Hill since the dawn of time?

Indeed. The Tar Heels won Thursday night's ACC clash 75-65, extending Clemson's frustration for at least one more year and climbing into a four-way tie for first place in the conference.

Would Tar Heels coach Roy Williams finally make a change to his starting lineup, inserting Kendall Marshall as his point guard and benching junior Larry Drew?

Indeed. In a move Carolina fans have seemingly been clamoring for since "Late Night with Roy" in October, Williams finally made the Marshall-for-Drew swap and wound up getting solid play from both floor generals. Solid enough, anyway, that the Tar Heels never trailed in the game's final 31 minutes.

Finally, did UNC have the energy and resolve to bounce back from Sunday evening's embarrassing 78-58 loss at Georgia Tech, a surprising wreck that brought back nightmares of the anxiety and doubt that ruined last season?

Yes, once again. Thanks to a gritty defensive effort late in Tuesday's game, the Tar Heels forced Clemson to miss 13 of its final 14 shots and outscored the Tigers 12-2 over the final 5 minutes.

For one night anyway, order was restored with Williams feeling as if he had gotten a vital message through to his players.

"I think we had that emotional feeling out there tonight," he said. "I told the guys (Monday) in practice, you can change your way of thinking and you can change your way of acting by changing your attitude. We have to be more aggressive. We have to be more into it on the defensive end."
Bench work

After Tuesday's loss, Clemson (13-5, 2-2 ACC) has now come to Chapel Hill 55 times since 1926 with 14 coaches and never once left with a victory. The Tigers lost three times at the Tin Can, 15 times at Woollen Gymnasium and 14 times at Carmichael Auditorium. Now, they've now dropped 23 straight at the Smith Center.

Don't think that 54-0 mark wasn't in the back of many of the Carolina players' minds heading into the night. Yet when the action started, the Tar Heels instead set the early tone with a renewed aggressiveness and got their offensive spark from freshman Reggie Bullock.

With Leslie McDonald, the team's top 3-point shooter, sidelined with a back contusion, Bullock came off the bench and responded by burying three first half 3-pointers and scoring 16 of his game-high 18 points before the break.

"I was just knocking down shots," Bullock said. "And I was finding points as easy as I could get them, whether that was going to the boards, getting rebounds or playing off my teammates."

That much-needed production propelled UNC to a 46-38 halftime lead. It didn't hurt that sophomore John Henson was active on both ends, finishing with 14 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots.
Attitude check

As for the point guard subplot, neither Marshall (five points, five assists, three turnovers) nor Drew (eight points, one assist, two turnovers) provided anything spectacular. But both point guards were sturdy enough to allow UNC to retain its assertive edge from start to finish.

Marshall said he learned of his promotion Monday evening. Drew, however, didn't get the word until early Tuesday, news that initially shook the junior leader even if he is determined to wear a positive face publicly.

"I'm trying to go about everything in a very professional way," Drew said. "I still consider myself one of the veteran leaders of this team. So I need to stay as professional as I can. I just want to win."

Williams confessed after Tuesday's game he had intended an even more dramatic change to the starting five, wanting to insert McDonald and Justin Knox in place of Dexter Strickland and Tyler Zeller. But McDonald's injury ultimately nixed that plan.

Still, such a significant shakeup at this stage of this season wasn't just a strategic maneuver for Williams. It was a motivational tactic.

"Ultimately, what Coach was saying is that, just like last year, we can't, expect other teams to just lay down for us just because we're North Carolina," Drew said. "We have to go out and hit people back as they're hitting us. Or bob and weave or do something. Instead of going out and letting teams attack us, we have to attack them. And once they're down, put our foot on their throat and never let them back up."

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