University of North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams met with members of the UNC Rams Club during a luncheon on Tuesday at the Rock Springs Jockey Club.

Williams, the reigning Atlantic Coast Conference and national coach of the year, sat down with longtime Tar Heel broadcaster Woody Durham for a short interview on stage before taking questions from some of the more than 250 people attending the event.

Rhett Butler/The Daily Reflector (ENLARGE)

NORTH CAROLINA BASKETBALL COACH ROY WILLIAMS, right, speaks with UNC broadcaster Woody Durham during a Rams Club luncheon on Tuesday at the Rock Springs Jockey Club.

Among the topics discussed were the young Tar Heel team which exceeded the expectations of many last season, next season's incoming freshman class which has been rated the best in the country by most recruiting sources and the expectations of Williams for his team next season.

Following are some of the comments from Williams, who will be entering his 19th year of coaching next season:

On his feelings of coaching an inexperienced team last season which had lost seven players from the 2005 national championship squad:

"It was really a lot of fun. My old high school coach, who's still extremely important to me, told me before the season that I would enjoy practice more each day than I had the previous year. And I said, 'But coach we won the national championship last year.' He told me that may be true but I would still enjoy practice more, and there was some truth to that. Now as he said, you don't always enjoy the game nights as much, but I think I did enjoy practice more."

On last year's freshmen class:

"It was just a marvelous group of kids from the first day. Whatever we asked them to do, they did it to the best of their ability. They cared about the name on the front of the jersey and not the name on the back. And we were very fortunate because so many of the kids were from athletic families so they had talked about discipline, they had talked about poise and those kids knew about those kind of things. Those freshmen were ready to play every game. It was a very special freshman class."

On the importance of senior David Noel to last season's team:

"I've said this before and I don't think anybody will ever make me change this. David Noel meant more to our basketball team than any player who has ever played at Carolina. I don't care if we're talking about Billy Cunningham, Michael Jordan or James Worthy. No one has ever been as positive or meant as many positive things to a basketball team as David Noel did for us. Even when he was struggling, he never let it affect his leadership qualities."

On the highly-regarded incoming freshman class:

"They're not characters, but they have great character. In my opinion, Tywon Lawson was the best point guard prospect out there and we got him. In my opinion, Wayne Ellington was the best off-the-ball guard in the country and we were able to sign him and I thought Brandan Wright was the best power forward prospect in the country and we signed him. We've also got William Graves from Greensboro who I really like a lot. And then Deon Thompson and Alex Stepheson out of California are both big guys who are talented as well."

On what he expects from next year's team:

"I want to be able to get up and down the court quickly and I think Tywon, who is a very quick guard, will help us do that. Pace of play is very important to me. When I was at Kansas we averaged more than 90 points a game one year, and two years ago we averaged nearly 90 points. I want to do the same thing next season. And our guys better be ready to get up and down the floor. Because if they're not, they'll be on a track scholarship during the spring to work on it."