CHICAGO -- North Carolina coach Roy Williams has a bit of the Grinch in him, as of late.

Williams has had his players running more, pushing their intensity in drills and practicing longer in the past week than he had been doing. Sophomore forward Kennedy Meeks didn’t downplay the difficulty of the practices, either, and described it as a "tough" week for him and his teammates.

Williams, of course, has his reasons. He had high expectations for this season’s team, and it wasn’t meeting them through 10 games. They picked up quality wins against Davidson, Florida and UCLA but struggled in losses to Butler, Iowa and Kentucky. He publicly questioned his team’s maturity and knocked its decision-making and rebounding leading up to Saturday’s game against No. 12 Ohio State.

The Tar Heels responded positively, for the most part, in an 82-74 victory over the Buckeyes. Williams wasn’t especially pleased with how his players performed at the end of each half, and they still made some decisions he might never understand, but he could at least joke about it, having won the game.

"I’m extremely relieved," Williams said. "I’m not sitting up here saying I’m as happy as I can possibly be. I don’t hear the happy song in my ears right now. We stunk it up down the stretch, and I think we’ve got to get better there."

Williams’ players were singing that same tune.

North Carolina junior guard Marcus Paige can see the potential of his team. When he’s knocking down shots, Meeks and Brice Johnson are working off each other in the paint, J.P. Tokoto is influencing the game in a variety of ways, Justin Jackson is getting involved and the bench is contributing, the Tar Heels look like a team that deserves all the hype. The problem is all those elements haven’t exactly clicked consistently for North Carolina.

"We have a long ways to go, in terms of reaching our ceiling," Paige said. "It’s not even close because you see how we played today. We showed flashes where we could be a really good team and kind of had a mediocre trot through the second half and barely get the win. We can’t have that."

Paige took some of the blame for North Carolina’s inconsistencies Saturday. It wasn't exactly a memorable trip to Chicago for him. He shot 4-of-12 from the field and 2-of-8 on 3-pointers and committed a team-high four turnovers. Williams nearly lost his mind when Paige shot a 3-pointer with six seconds left, and Ohio State scored to end the first half after Williams stressed waiting for the last shot. In the game’s final two minutes, Paige missed a wide-open layup and missed two consecutive free throws. He finished with 16 points and four assists.

If Paige had that stat line against any other solid team earlier this season, the result wouldn’t have likely gone in North Carolina’s favor. He shot 5-of-17 in the loss to Butler and 4-of-16 in the loss to Iowa. On Saturday, he didn’t need to carry the load, as five other players scored eight or more points and Johnson, Tokoto and Meeks combined for 30 rebounds. Defensively, the Tar Heels held Ohio State to a .347 shooting percentage from the field. The Buckeyes came into the game with one of the country’s best shooting percentages at .537.

"You see now with the transformation of Kennedy and the maturity of Brice that I don’t necessarily have to [have a great game for us to win]," Paige said. "I still have to play better. I didn’t play very well today."

Williams doesn’t expect Paige to have that type of game often.

"I’ve never seen Marcus Paige miss as many open shots as he did in the second half -- and two layups," Williams said. "But I still think that says a lot about how good we can be because eventually he’s going to start playing."

Paige’s teammates have high standards for Paige as well, but Saturday proved they can get by against a ranked team without Paige having to go off.

"If it’s not his day, it’s not his day," Johnson said. "Somebody else has to step up. That’s just one thing we’re going to do. We just have to help him out some games. Some games he’s going to turn up and be able to knock down all his shots. Those games when he doesn’t, myself, Kennedy, J.P. and the rest of the guys, we have to be able to cover up for him and let him be a facilitator during those games."

Williams began his postgame news conference stating he was just glad it was the Christmas break, and they could all go home. It’s not as if the Tar Heels should anticipate a happier coach when they return, though.

Paige said the Tar Heels were OK with that, as well.

"We haven’t been busting our rear ends on every play, every possession," Paige said. "That’s on us. Coaching by fear gets you to that level. If he’s going to run us an entire practice, I think our incentive to play harder is going to be higher. I mean, it works. ... If he’s going to have to coach like that, honestly, I’m all for it."