CHAPEL HILL CHAPEL HILL — North Carolina coach Roy Williams on Thursday issued a statement apologizing for comments he made earlier in the week that compared his disappointment in his struggling team's season to the suffering Haiti.

At the conclusion of his post-game Saturday press conference, he brought up the subject again, chastising the media for misconstruing what he said.

“Guys, you don’t have to write anything; it’s your choice. But c’mon now,’’ he said. “You guys know the other day, when I said that about disappointment and catastrophe, c’mon, there’s a huge, huge, huge, huge immeasurable difference. Us playing basketball at times is a disappointment. What’s going on in Haiti is just awful.

“But everybody that sat here, in my opinion … there’s not one person sitting in here that heard me say that that really took it that way, but I’ve been blasted by saying that I compared our basketball season [to it]. I never said that. What they’re having is unbelievable. What we’re doing, we’re playing a game. Know why my job is? Think about it, it’s entertainment.

“And hopefully we’ll help kids get a college education and do those things. But I don’t really think that was quite right -- I won’t say fair, because I don’t need to pick fights; you guys have got more ink than I’ve got. But let’s be honest, if you heard me say those things, you knew I wasn’t doing that.”

ZELLER, WEAR LIKEOUT OUT FOR GEORGIA TECH: Without starting forward Ed Davis (broken wrist) and back-ups Tyler Zeller (broken foot) and Travis Wear (sprained ankle), freshman John Henson – who began the season playing small forward – made his first start of the season at power forward on Saturday. He also spent some time at center, while Will Graves – the starting small forward – also spent some time at power forward.

And they’ll likely have to do it again Tuesday at Georgia Tech. Although Zeller has been going through limited practice, coach Roy Williams said he doesn’t expect the sophomore to be ready to play against the Yellow Jackets. And, “my guess is … is that we’ll get Z back before we do Travis,’’ he added.