UNC-Boston College Quotes

North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement:
"Well, needless to say I feel a heck of a lot better today than I have the last two games. I thought we had to do two big things. One, we had to show the guys we didn't play as well as we wanted to play so we spent a lot of time on Florida State and Virginia both on the tape. Showed them a lot of plays, showed them plays where we didn't have the heart or the brain, either one involved so we needed to play better and then there is also no question that a lot of people are going to struggle trying to win at Virginia and at Florida State so we had to make sure they didn't think that the Titanic was going under. I put something up on the board, I wrote last year we were NCAA champs and we lost at Virginia, maybe worse than we did the other day. And last year we were NCAA champs we also lost at Miami and we don't play at Miami this year, we played at Florida State so we lost in the state of Florida. We checked two of those suckers off our checklist now we can move on. You can't panic or anything like that. I thought a couple of things, I thought our defense early was pretty good. I thought Joel [Berry] set the tone. Ky Bowman, those three guys, Jerome had 15, Bowman had 21, Jordan had 11, those guys are really something. I remember Coach Fedora calling me and telling me they had a commitment from a receiver down in Havelock and I said I love that area. Wanda's family is all from Newport so that is right around the corner. He said he is supposed to be a good basketball player and I said well tell him he can play basketball for us. He could. But I wish somebody from Havelock would have called and said he is really really good in basketball too but I don't think he signed until late but I love their team. Jimmy has really done good job. The last couple of years, what he has had to fight with has not been fair. I like his team. But we were pretty much focused better than we have been recently. Luke was sensational to say the least. 32 and 18. He had three turnovers and I got on him about that but he did tell me that he thought he won the tap which I don't think he did because they got the ball. We didn't make many shots. 2^nd half we missed a couple two or three feet from the basket. Didn't make many threes. Nine for 27 but other than a couple of stretches there I thought we played very very well. We shot the ball really well early. We attacked them early and got some points in transition early. We got some offensive rebounds early. 58 to 23 on the backboards is about as big as you can get."

On changing the starting lineup:
"We got beat twice in a row and we weren't playing well so I decided to do something. We might go back big next time, who knows? The other thing is even Steffon [Mitchell], he was two for four from the three-point line as a four man so going small was better for our matchups. We decided to go small and change something. It was a good team to go small against."

On rebounding with small lineup:
"I basically told them if we are going to play small you better rebound. We ain't going to play small. It is pretty simple but it started off good. We missed the first shot and Cam [Johnson] I think got the offense rebound and dunked it back in. We needed a bounce back and I think that was a good one."

On telling Cam and Theo to attack the basket:
"Well we were trying to, the offensive emphasis today was attack attack attack. It is what we tried to emphasize during pre-stuff yesterday, trying to get ready for Boston College. They don't have one of those 7 foot one guy with one eye in the middle of his head either so we tried to challenge the basket a little bit more against them.

On Luke Maye:
"Everybody around here if things go a little bit south everybody starts worrying and worrying and worrying. I've got really good kids. They care about what people think. I tell them to shut up and play. I think they started to feel a little pressure. I told Luke you don't have to be anybody else, just be Luke. What changed from five games ago? You go back maybe four, five, six games ago and he was being talked about one of the breakout players in America and the last three or four games he has played like Barry Jacobs. He came back into Luke. I like Luke a lot more than I like Barry.

On difference in energy:
"You watch the tape the last two games and we didn't have a high energy level then. Like I said the focus is we've got to play harder and we've got to play smarter and see if we can get a little more energy than we had the last two games."

On recruiting Jerome Robinson and Ky Bowman:
"Ky Bowman wasn't at all. Larry Fedora called me and said that they have a receiver that's committing and he wants to play basketball and I said, 'Great.' I don't know the story, but from what I have heard at that point the football signing period was in February and he got started off playing in November and December and was playing great. And everyone was like, 'Are you sure you just don't want to play football.' And then the offers just started coming in. I wish someone from Havelock would have told me he was playing that well. Robinson, I did not know."

On what contributed to the fast start from Luke [Maye]:
"I think it is just what is in between his right ear and his left ear. He really is a good basketball player who has worked so hard. He deserves to have this kind of success. He has done some good things in the last three or four games. I will say this I have already hurt [Joel] Berry's feelings, but as bad as Luke's number have been they still have been better than what Berry's have been. Perhaps the small lineup helped him some, but ask him he will give you a great answer."

Boston College Head Coach Jim Christian
On being surprised by the small starting lineup
"No, I thought there would be some tweaks. The small lineup made them a little bit quicker on defense but it was rebounding. They missed 20 shots in the first half and got 13 of them back. That's ridiculous. It's our fault. We didn't play physical enough, we didn't hit people. We had been a really good rebounding team. We had been a really good defensive rebounding team and tonight we were actually awful at it."

On what happened after pulling back at the beginning of the second half
"They out toughed us… Luke Maye made some plays and they out toughed us. They out toughed us on the glass…We took a couple bad shots. We started taking really good shots at the start of the half and then we went a little too much one on one. Guys started to try to make too many plays. It was defense. It was defense the whole night. It was defensive rebounding. We did an awful job guarding the ball. We did an awful job rebounding the ball. We did an awful job at rotations. I give them full credit. They came ready to play. They played fantastic. Luke Maye was phenomenal. Cameron Johnson was phenomenal. I always give them credit because they deserve credit, but that's not the team we have been and that's not the team we need to be."

On keeping the team's confidence after today's loss
"After watching today, if they have some pride, they will step up and play harder. I don't have to worry about that, if I have to worry about that we have big problems. But I'm not. It was one game and we didn't play hard. They need to look in the mirror, we all need to look in the mirror, and grow. It's got nothing to do with one game. When you lose by one or thirty. Our effort was bad tonight. Our defensive effort. Our rebounding effort. Our commitment of doing what it took to win this game was bad and that's what we need to learn from."

On the impact of Jerome Robinson being from Raleigh
"I don't need to get him up to play against anybody. He is one of the best players in the country. Obviously, any time your family can watch you play I am sure that you have a little more drive, but it's not like because we are playing in North Carolina he is going to play harder. He's a really good player. He plays really hard. He's had a phenomenal season, as has Ky [Bowman] and some of the other guys on our team but I'm sure they didn't want to play the way they played today here."

Luke Maye, Junior, Forward
On stellar performance
"I came out and made my first couple of shots. I need to start realizing that whether I start the game well or not start the game well, I have to keep the same mindset. I have to be there for my team. The last couple of games I have kind of gotten down on myself, but I haven't been the same person. I really came out tonight and wanted to, no matter if I made twelve or missed twelve, play the same way. I kept telling myself to continue to work hard. Work to continue to get in the right spot and my teammates found me. The basket was pretty big tonight, and it was a lot of fun"

On tonight's energy compared to last two games
"When you lose twice with our coach, it is never going to be easy. He really challenged us. He challenged us older guys as well. He said we needed to lead, needed to set the tone better for the guys coming off the bench. I thought Sterling [Manley] and Garrison [Brooks] came off the bench and gave us some great minutes. It was a really exciting game, and we have to get ready for Notre Dame which is a really tough team and a road game. It is going to be a lot of fun!"

On playing the "five position"
"I feel like every time we get out there more with Cameron [Johnson], he is such a great player and knowledgeable guy, that we are going to play off each other. We are starting to get more comfortable with him. It is a lot of fun when we are out there hitting all of our shots, playing together and making a lot of plays. When Cameron [Johnson] started the game off with a dunk, he is not the most high-flying guy, but it was a lot of fun to be out there with the guys. It was a great team win!"

Cameron Johnson, Gr., Guard
On rebounding with a small lineup
Coach [Williams] said we can't go small unless we rebound, so I think we did our best to rebound. We got them 58 to 23. Obviously with the small lineup it's an emphasis. We're saying 'Okay, if we play this lineup, we have to defend and rebound'. Luke had 18, Theo had eight, so everyone contributed on the glass.

On his conditioning
It's getting better now. It's definitely improved over the last couple of weeks. I'm getting back to where I was before the injury. It's just a matter of practice and playing in the games. It's definitely coming back to me now.

On how much he wants to continue to start
"As bad as anything. I want to be out there as much as I can to help my team in any way that I can. I'll come out next game and try to rebound the same. I'm sure everybody else will too. And I think it's not just a matter of us rebounding because we want to play the small lineup. I think it's us rebounding because that's what we're supposed to do."

Theo Pinson, Senior, F/G
On if Coach Williams wanted him to take the ball to the basket more
"This was just me. I needed to change. I needed to play better. That's when I'm at my best, when I get to the cup and make plays. Tonight I did, took the easy play, made the right passes and stuff like that so it helped out a lot."

Players Mentioned

Cameron Johnson

Luke Maye

Theo Pinson

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