CHAPEL HILL — Reclining in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head, Roy Williams leaned back and cut a relaxed figure after his North Carolina team’s last game, as he considered the continued struggles of Caleb Love and RJ Davis.
“I think I’ve been the most patient I’ve ever been in my unbelievable life that I’ve had,” the Hall of Fame coach said, the ease in his voice masking for a moment the recurring issues at hand. “I’ve never been this patient.”
The highly touted freshman guards perhaps could be starting to wear on the tolerance of the Tar Heels, who meet visiting Syracuse in Atlantic Coast Conference basketball Tuesday night at the Smith Center, the make-up of the postponed game between the teams originally scheduled for Jan. 2.
Love and Davis combined on 2-for-14 shooting from the field and were charged with seven turnovers last week at Miami, a frightful stat line, though the only attempt Love connected on during the game — he shot 1-for-9 — emerged as significant, a 3-pointer in the final three minutes that pulled rallying North Carolina within one.
Williams said as North Carolina (7-4 overall, 2-2 ACC) climbed out of a double-digit deficit in the second half and put together its 67-65 comeback victory that night against Miami, he gave some thought to relieving Love and Davis of the point guard duties they share and going instead with versatile 6-foot-8 Leaky Black at the lead guard position.
“Those guys are going to be really good basketball players,” Williams said. “They’ve got to decide to do it before I die, hopefully this year. But they’re going to be really good basketball players. They’ve just got to start making better decisions with their turnovers, and at the same time make some more shots.”
While the junior swingman Black is scoring at his best rate across three seasons with the Tar Heels, freshman forward Day’Ron Sharpe is developing into a double-double machine and freshman guard Kerwin Walton has supplied sorely needed 3-point capability, Love and Davis, both McDonald’s All-Americans in high school, have lagged behind expectations.
Love, the five-star recruit, arrived ranked as the best prospect among North Carolina’s six-player freshman class. During the preseason, Williams likened Love’s burst in the open court and athletic qualities as a point guard to Ty Lawson, the former Tar Heels star who became ACC Player of the Year and a first-round pick in the NBA Draft.
But that comparison has yet to emerge. Love has more turnovers (37) than successful field goals on the season (35), his performances riddled with poor shooting and errors in decision-making that haven’t inspired confidence or efficiency.
Williams removed Love from North Carolina’s starting lineup for the Dec. 30 loss at Georgia Tech and Jan. 5 victory at Miami. In between those games, the coach didn’t start Davis in the team’s Jan. 2 squeaker past Notre Dame.
Davis, billed as a combo guard with a knack for scoring, has gone just 9-for-38 from the field across the last five games. He’s shooting 32.3 percent on the season. Love checks in even worse at 27.6-percent shooting on the season, and his 127 attempts from the field are the most for the Tar Heels.
Through 11 games, the assist-to-turnover ratios for both freshman guards have been undesirable. Love has 38 assists and 37 turnovers, while Davis has 26 assists and 25 turnovers, each player having totaled one more assist than turnover on the season.
“They’ve got to stop turning the ball over, that’s the biggest thing,” Williams said. “They can both be good defensive players, so they’ve got to stay in front of the basketball. I’ve always said if my point guards would stay in front of the ball and not turn it over, I can stick with them through anything.
“They’re both shooting the ball terribly, and they’re good shooters. Well, this is not kindergarten basketball. I can’t say, ‘Oh, you’re doing great, you’re shooting 28 percent, god that’s fantastic.’ Sometimes you’ve got to man up and start making shots, and that’s what they have to do to get their entire game going because they focus so much on their shots going in.”
TIP-OFF
Who: Syracuse (7-2, 1-1) at North Carolina (7-4, 2-2)
When: 9 p.m. Tuesday (ACC Network)
Where: Smith Center, Chapel Hill
Series: North Carolina leads 13-5 and has won nine of the last 10 games. Syracuse trounced the Tar Heels 81-53 in the last meeting between teams, March 11 in the second round of the ACC Tournament last season. That became the final game of the tournament with the quarterfinals, semifinals and championship canceled due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
Tip-in: On Tuesday night, North Carolina becomes the first men’s basketball program to play 1,000 regular-season games in the ACC. The Tar Heels are 707-292 across their 999 regular-season games in the league, with those 707 victories marking the most in ACC history.
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Are struggles of Caleb Love, RJ Davis wearing on UNC’s patience? Roy Williams assesses freshman guards.
