UNC coach Roy Williams

CHAPEL HILL — Before Thursday’s practice, North Carolina coach Roy Williams gathered his players at midcourt and reminded them where the Duke game ranks.

"'This is just a basketball game,'" Williams said. "It's a big game, it's a game that’s going to get a lot of attention, but it’s still a game…'"

He and his team had recently learned of the murder of student body president Eve Marie Carson, who was shot early Wednesday and officially identified only hours before the top-ranked Tar Heels' practice.

Williams said her death made an impact — and that Duke has agreed to observe a moment of silence before Saturday’s game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

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“It has an effect; we have a couple of the guys who knew the young lady,’’ Williams said, declining to identify the players. “Any time you’re talking about a college community, you’re talking about a small group, a small family, a small village … and when somebody breaks into your home – and some of you may have had that happen – you feel sort of violated, that sort of thing. And when something like that happens on your community, it does hit you.”

Williams said the headlines in Friday’s edition of the school paper, The Daily Tar Heel, particularly touched him.

"It said she loves the quad in the spring and the arboretum in the fall and I love Roy all the time. I mean, you’re talking about a young person," he said. "And we as old people, we're supposed to die before our children, not have our children die before us. And I can't imagine what that young lady's family is feeling and thinking."

Once the moment of silence is observed and the game starts, Williams said the team will be doing everything it can to win. "But there's no question you think about, 'are there more important things?'"

03/07/08 at 21:12
As I watched the candlelight vigil for Eve Carson on Thursday night I could not have been more proud or more sad at the same time. As a UNC alumni I felt the vigil was not only a tribute to Eve Carson but a tribute to the students at UNC Chapel Hill in that they were able to put together such a meaningful and heartfelt tribute in such a short period of time. I was sad because it is inconceivable that something like this could happen in Chapel Hill.
This random act of violence is such a waste of a young, promising life. The vigil was evidence that this young woman had all ready made her mark in this life and on the lives of others.
As a parent of a child getting ready to attend college in the fall I cannot even begin to imagine how this girl's family is feeling or dealing with this tradegy. My thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends. We can only hope that the person that committed this terrible crime will be found and brought to justice.