news-record.com

CHAPEL HILL -- North Carolina shook off N.C. State and the ACC's latest attempt to stop the Heels as they get ready for what's looking like a national sprint to the finish.

And then Roy Williams cussed.

Carolina withstood a miracle performance by Javier Gonzalez and took down the gnawing Wolfpack 89-80 on a lukewarm Wednesday night in the Dome. The 24-2 Heels won their 10th straight ACC game as they continued to create running room in the league and the country. As the muddled national picture clears slowly, Carolina appears to be back to the form that made it a prohibitive favorite to win the league and national title earlier in the season.

It looked easy again, though Tyler Hansbrough said Williams has been using bad words a lot in practice lately, a lot more than we realize.

With four games left on the schedule before the ACC tournament, the Heels have distanced themselves from the two January losses and the doubts that began to creep into the Carolina psyche. Weeks removed from the realization that senior Marcus Ginyard won't return and the suspension of Greensboro forward William Graves, the third-ranked Heels have discarded much of the psychological baggage that had weighted them down after they fell from the top ranking with losses to Boston College and Wake Forest.

The grinding win Wednesday was similar to the grinding win over Miami on Saturday, and a loopy Williams said he was happy about most everything with his team except the pressure defense.

And then he cussed.

He let slip a word that he said he normally reserves for 5-putts.

"We stink at it," he said, explaining his team's full-court press.

Williams went into a lengthy description of his team's current psyche, a rambling discourse on the flu and the Miami game and Carolina's practices and the fact that the Tar Heels have become an offensive team that stinks at pressure defense.

Asked if he knew the reason, he snapped.

"If I knew the answer to that do you think we'd still be (expletive) stinking?" he asked.

Then he begged forgiveness, knowing full well the comment went out over the North Carolina airwaves in front of television cameras and just out of earshot of his wife.

"Everybody strike that F-word," he pleaded, later apologizing in another rambling discourse on golf and a particularly bad hole on which he carded a 22. He eventually mocked his team's sometimes effeminate style of play.

It was a strange post game.

It was a strange game.

This is the time of year when coaches sometimes go nuts making final adjustments. Carolina even inserted another player when 7-0 center Tyler Zeller returned in the first half to a long standing ovation from the crowd. He'd been out since breaking his wrist in the second game of the season.

The other parts of Carolina suddenly seem less delicate.

Concerns over the state of the team were never about winning games in the regular season, though.

Hansbrough's chase of cherished records will continue, but the prize will come in early April and it will have nothing to do with February wins over 14-10 N.C. State.

The creeping doubts of Hansbrough's health seem distant now, though he played Wednesday with the effects of what team trainers say was a "possible concussion" suffered against Miami. The concerns over Wayne Ellington's defense seem forgotten as Carolina has finally embraced the concept of simply outscoring its opponents no matter what kind of game evolves each night.

Without their sheriff, the senior Ginyard, the Heels have no lock-down defender.

With so much energy expended on offense, Carolina sometimes has nothing left to play full-court defense.

Williams has come to grips with the fact that his team is better at full-court offense than defense, but it might be taking a toll on him.

"Am I happy with our team?" he asked rhetorically. "Darn right. We started out 0-2 and everybody was abandoning the ship. These kids were tough enough to handle the adversity, handle the adversity of injuries early, handle the adversity of injuries late. I'm as proud as I can be of everything except our press."

Carolina has come to terms with most everything now, and Williams can begin to turn his attention to the bigger picture.

The Heels are back, though before they can get ready for postseason they'll have to get through what comes next.

That would probably be YouTube.

"I still can't believe I said that," Williams said.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com