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It's never a good sign when the injury list is almost as long as the list of healthy players in the regular rotation.
That's the situation Carolina faces going into tomorrow night's game in Greensboro against Illinois, a nationally-televised game that matches the Heels against a red-hot Illini team that has won its first three games by an average of 22 points per contest.
This weekend rendered the already depth-shy Tar Heels almost completely depth-deprived. Already missing David Noel for several more weeks, the next blow came on Saturday night when Jackie Manuel sprained his knee against Cleveland State. Roy Williams said Monday afternoon the Heels' sixth man will not play Tuesday night and could be out for up to two weeks. The status of Manuel's fellow junior, Jawad Williams, is also in doubt. Williams suffered a hip pointer in practice on Sunday.
"If we were to play right now, he would not play," Roy Williams said. "We're hoping we will have him but he'll have to have some pretty significant improvement between now and tomorrow night."
Williams will not go through a full practice on Monday and will be reevaluated tomorrow.
Carolina now faces the one scenario they could not abide: injuries depleting the squad going into a game against an athletic, talented team that won last year's meeting between the two schools by 27 points.
