Roy Williams Has Never Had a Thinner Rotation at North Carolina

The Tar Heels rank 310th nationally in bench minutes.

Nell Redmond | USA TODAY Sports

Asked whether he’s ever been in a situation that his rotation was this small, Roy Williams didn’t take long to consider the question.

“No,” he said, replying immediately.

After beginning the night with four players on the bench in suits —Jeremiah Francis, Anthony Harris, Sterling Manley and Brandon Robinson — North Carolina lost Armando Bacot to an apparent head injury just before halftime in its 78-62 victory over UNC Wilmington.

In all, four Tar Heels got 32 or more minutes, while Andrew Platek (27) and Christian Keeling (23) were the only other players to get more than 10 minutes. Brandon Huffman’s seven minutes were most among the reserves.

“I think it is going to be something we have to deal with all season and it concerns us a great deal, but they don't let us go out and draft and there's no list that we can take anybody off the waiver list,” Williams said. “It's who we have.”

Bacot’s status for Carolina’s matchup with Gardner-Webb will be decided in the coming days after the big man took a shot to the head and never returned to the bench.

If he’s out, that leaves the Tar Heels with a rotation of seven players — much shorter than the 9-10 that Williams typically prefers to play.

“I can play eight or nine, easily, and sometimes even 10 and give them enough minutes, enough playing time that they're satisfied with it, but you've got to have depth in this game,” he said.

So far, Carolina’s starters have played 79.6 percent of the minutes through two games, which would easily be the highest total since KenPom began tracking the stat in 2007. Previously, the high number was 72.7 percent, which happened in the 2018-19 and 2011-12 seasons.

There is some hope that will begin to change in the next few weeks, as Brandon Robinson shed the boot he’d been in since spraining his right ankle in the season-opener and didn’t require aid getting around.

“He got off the cute little scooter pretty quick,” Williams said. “Got out of the boot today and we're thinking probably down around Nassau time, but hopefully something else earlier. Just have to wait and see.”

Elon visits Chapel Hill on Nov. 20 before the Tar Heels travel to the Bahamas to meet Alabama on Nov. 27 in their first game in the Battle 4 Atlantis, followed by two more games over the next two days.

Of the trio that has been battling injuries for all of the preseason, Williams believes Harris will be the first to debut.

“I think more than likely Anthony Harris will be the first guy of those guys to get back for us — and he's a freshman, so we don't know what he's going to do — but we'd like to get him back as soon as we could, too,” he said.

As for Huffman, who had a solid four-point, four-rebound performance in seven minutes, Williams said he’s not quite there yet for consistent minutes.

“No, I mean, he played today because Armando was out,” Williams said. “He played better, but Huff's going to get some chances, but I don't have a plan. I don't say 12 minutes for this guy, 13. If you play and you do things well, you get to play more, and if you don't do things well, you don't get to play as much.”