BY BRIANA GORMAN

bgorman@heraldsun.com; 419-6668

CHAPEL HILL -- Earlier in the season, North Carolina coach Roy Williams did something he almost never does.

"For some reason, I looked at this point and said, 'Boy that's going to be a tough stretch right there,' " Williams said Wednesday.

That tough stretch includes two straight road games and a home matchup against rival Duke, and it tips off tonight when the Tar Heels travel to Virginia Tech (9 p.m., WRAL).

UNC (13-8, 2-4 ACC), which went 2-5 during January, is looking for a fresh start in a new month and needs to win at least five of the remaining 10 conference games to have a shot at making the NCAA Tournament.

"Everybody knows the situation we're in," sophomore Larry Drew II said. "Nobody's ignorant in here. Everybody's pretty aware of what's going on and the magnitude of the whole situation. ... We're not going to quit."

Drew said one of the best times to get better is on a road games -- even though the Tar Heels are 2-5 away from Chapel Hill this year -- and he pointed to the victory over N.C. State to end a three-game losing streak as an example.

"[The Hokies] probably think we're down, and we've just got to go in there and fight," Drew said.

It may help that one of the Tar Heels' two conference victories was against the Hokies (16, 3-3 ACC) on Jan. 10 in the Smith Center.

Williams has praised UNC's defensive effort in the second half of that game, as his team held the ACC's leading-scorer Malcolm Delaney to just six points. Delaney did finish the game with 26 points, but the Tar Heels' effort in the latter part of that game has been lacking the past few weeks.

"I don't think anybody's effort right now is where it needs to be for us to be the team we're striving to be," Drew said. "It's definitely showing out there on the court. We just have to play harder."

While Drew said the players need to step up, Williams again said he needed to do a better job of coaching.

After the loss to Virginia on Sunday, Williams said that the things he has done during his 21 years of coaching are not working with this team, so he's been trying new concepts. UNC has tried running a zone defense on inbound plays underneath the basket, used different free throw set ups and tried playing all five freshmen at once.

Williams even thought about not flying to some games.

"And somebody said, 'Would you bus?' And I said, 'No, we may hitchhike,' " Williams said jokingly. "That would be a heck of deal. ... We'll sign up 16 players, see who gets a ride. And you know why we won't do that? I'd be afraid somebody wouldn't pick my butt up."

While Williams found something to laugh about Wednesday, there have been few joking moments during the past month. Williams said he's been frustrated and disgusted and all the other words in between, but he's not blaming the players. He said he's not giving up on this team, and they're going to keep working hard.

"I'm not going to let them get the best of me, I'm going to try to get the best out of them," Williams said.