North Carolina coach Roy Williams' top goal this season was to make his team tougher.

Williams re-instituted the same exhausting preseason conditioning program he enforced as a UNC assistant coach in 1981. When players dared to grumble, Williams had one instruction: "Shut up and run."

"It's easier for me to be demanding when we're better," Williams said. "...You can only beat somebody up so much. If they're not having success out there on the court, with the results, and for a coach to come in and beat them to death every day too - that's not a very good experience.

"Even last year, going 20-17, I didn't want my players to feel like, 'I don't want to do this.' I didn't want my players to feel like, 'I can't play for him.' I didn't want my players to feel like, 'This is not worth it.' ... But at the same time, you can take the whip to Secretariat a lot more than you can the opposite of Secretariat, because Secretariat can dig deep and respond in a positive way, and a jackass can't do that."