CHAPEL HILL — The Tar Heels played a closed scrimmage at Vanderbilt last Sunday; NCAA rules prohibit teams from revealing specific details about workouts against other Division I schools, but coach Roy Williams said "we just didn’t play well at all."
"We were just ugly. We were yucky," Williams said Thursday. "Since then, we've gotten a lot better. I think the seriousness has hit them, the recognition of how good other people are that they might not have ever heard of. I think that was a good slap in the face for us, as opposed to waiting until the season started.”
INJURY REPORT: Sophomore forward Ed Davis was expected to return to contact practice Thursday after injuring his shoulder on Sunday. UNC plays an exhibition game against Belmont-Abbey on Friday.
“He’s been cleared, they’ve done all the tests, but it’s probably a little sore,’’ Williams said. “He didn’t do anything in a contact way the last two days, but he will today.”
Meanwhile, wing Will Graves continues to have a sore back. “Will’s going to have back issues for quite a while. He’s had four shots … in the back, and he’s got the vicious cycle, again. His weight is up so he can’t condition, but is the back hurting because his weight is up? So it’s a little bit of both, there. … He’s just got to fight through it, lose some weight, work through that part of it every day. There’s no question he was a better basketball player at 239 last year than he is at 254 right now.”
Robbi Pickeral has covered ACC sports for The News & Observer since 2003. She can be reached at 
