UNC-Duke Postgame Quotes

North Carolina 82, Duke 78 • February 8, 2018
Postgame Quotes
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams

Opening Statement
"We feel great. Winning is a lot more fun than losing. There's no question about that. So many big plays that you could talk about, but we had a three-point lead and usually I'm not even watching the clock but when it gets down late in the game I watch the clock and the score, too. We had a three-point lead and we missed about 77 shots in a row it seemed like. You run a set play and don't get anything out of it, but Kenny [Williams] penetrates and hits Cam [Johnson] out on the left wing across from our bench, and he made the three and I thought that was huge for us. To give us a little space to breathe, a little bit of feeling better, and we did get a stop on the other end as well. Theo [Pinson] going in and missing the dunk, I didn't want him to shoot that one unless he was going to make it, and Kenny going in and shooting the ball way too soon. We had some brain malfunctions at that point, but we were able to live through it. Look down there and we had four guys in double figures and 15 assists, two turnovers. We've been talking about trying to stop turnovers and all that kind of junk. I think that we did a better job there. Didn't shoot the ball exceptionally well but made shots when we had to."

On change in turnovers in second half
"Well, no. It wasn't a tactical change. It's just something we preach all the time and at halftime we talked about defending, rebounding, and playing with a great deal of effort. That's the three things we push, but the first half we outscored on second chance points six to five I think, but they had more offensive rebounds, seven to five. I always talk that you gotta go box out, but you can't just slightly box out. You gotta box out and try to rebound the ball in front of you or rebound the ball straight over your head because the taller guy is going to have a better chance to get it. So we talked about junk like that because I gotta talk about something at halftime, but I just think we were more effective and except for that stretch of about five or six minutes when we didn't score, I thought the second half was really good."

On 23-4 run
"Offensively we were really efficient, except for shooting the ball in the basket. Kenny [Wiliams] made two or three threes, made a nice drive during that time period. We probably shot a really high percentage during that time period. I'd say that's what it was. We were efficient and they were missing some shots as well."

On preparing Cameron Johnson
"I just kind of let him go. I told everybody it's a different kind of thing. It really is, no question. It's the only time we play a game where we have two networks doing it. We tell them a little bit about that, but it's Duke."

On piecing together a great game
"I wish I knew what made it happen so I could keep it going, but we really did. Early in the game they were killing us on the backboards and with their size it felt like, but the numbers didn't show it. But we still need to do a better job, and Grayson [Allen], we didn't shadow him on one of the plays and he made a three. We didn't shadow him once in the second half and he made a three. So the things that we've been talking about all the time, for the most part we did a better job of."

On contributions from the bench
"Sterling came in and made four free throws. The third one didn't look pretty but it ended up bouncing in. Still they're hard to guard. They went really big one time, they went with three bigs so we ended up having Cam trying to guard Bagley. They're really good. I mean 15 and 16 from Bagley, and O'Connell was the star of the show coming off the bench for them so I am sure they are happy with what he gave them."

On impact of the game
"I told the TV guys today at shootaround, if we win they aren't going to give us a trophy. If we lose they hopefully aren't going to fire me. It is one game, but it is a really big game. I always say it's the biggest game because, and the players repeat to me, it's today's game. And you don't have to say any more than that about the Duke game. We have, I have, and the team has so much respect for them. I was sick when they lost to St. John's because I knew they would be even more fired up, but our guys were pretty fired up too."

On the next few days
"It's the hard part of the schedule now. Duke, NC State, two of the teams that we are closer to than anybody else, and then Notre Dame where we were as lucky as you could possibly be and win. It's not a good situation but it's what the schedule says. I told them they better be in class tomorrow and get some rest and we will get them together tomorrow and go over a few things and show them some clips. I'll go recruiting and then we'll come back and take a nap and play on Saturday."

On postgame locker room atmosphere
"It's happy. Everybody is jumping around. I took my coat off just in case they wanted to throw water on me. I'm one of the best celebrators in the world. I can enjoy it."

Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski

Opening Statement
"It was really a hard-fought game. I thought our kids responded really well from a really bad performance on Saturday. I mean the first half I thought we played a little bit better than they did, and we fouled right at the end of the half a couple of times. I thought we should have been up by about eight. We were playing that well. Then the start of the second half, they played great, and we were awful. Even after calling a timeout, we were not good and so they got that double-digit lead. I think it was a 14-0 run and then you are playing behind and our kids play hard to put us in a position a couple times when you have the ball and you are three points down. We just weren't able to convert. I think the story through the last 15 minutes of the game was defensive rebounds by us. They had 15 offensive rebounds in the second half. That was an incredible stat for them. It shows how hard they were going after it. We knew that coming in. That's what they do, even their perimeter guys. They rebound well. The initial defensive is actually pretty good and then you give second chances and that means that they are on defense for a long time. You play defense and then you are on defense again, but they played an excellent game. We had our opportunities. We just weren't able to capitalize."

On playing three big guys to help with rebounding
"We tried to look at that at practice. We would have looked at that earlier if Marques [Bolden] wasn't hurt for that long, not a long look, but something that might be a light different for us."

On staying with this lineup
"We'll see. We are trying a few different things. Marques did well. He gave us a huge lift in the first half. He still isn't in the optimum playing shape that he hopefully will be in soon. He did a good job for us."

On his team's defense
"Well on defense you have to rebound the ball. It's the completion of the play. Even sometimes when they got the rebound, we protected the rim well and got huge blocks to cut the lead and maybe take the lead and maybe win the game. The big story was their offensive rebounding."

On his players getting tired
"I don't think so. You get tired of them getting offensive rebounds, I will say that. When you have to play that long on an offensive possession over and over again. I thought Alex [O'Connell] did a good job coming off the bench for us. And we were in a little foul trouble."

On freshman shock for the Carolina-Duke rivalry
"I don't think that was our problem because it would have happened in the first half. You are concerned about it. It is the first time for a number of these kids. At times this year when we haven't played well we haven't executed what we have diagramed. At the start of the second half we did not execute what we had diagramed at half time. Then boom, boom, boom. When you don't that means you get confused because what you said you were gonna do you're not doing and all of a sudden that can lead not only to a poor offensive possession but poor defense and transition. Especially in younger guys. And they hit everything. They are fast. Really fast pushing the ball down the court. They always have been but with that line up they're really fast in doing it."

On the defense on Grayson Allen
"I thought they played good defense. Grayson had to handle the ball a lot, so then you know where he is instead of bringing him off the ball and off things and stuff like that. There are number of things we can do better but I thought we played a lot better, a lot harder and a lot more together. Good bench stuff. We just have to keep working at it.

North Carolina Players

Kenny Williams, Junior Guard
On knocking down shots
"All of the shots that I took, except maybe one that I can remember, were pretty much wide open. So, I was just taking what they were giving me, and I knocked them down tonight."

On if he felt like he couldn't miss
"Oh, I did. I did. I shot 12, made six. So I made some, but yeah, to start I felt like I couldn't miss, and once I got going I think that got the rest of the team going, and we just built on that momentum."

On really hitting the boards
"We made that a point of emphasis. They had those two monsters down low, so we wanted to emphasize boxing them out and getting to the boards. That's just what we do every day. Our biggest emphasis is just getting to the boards. So, that's nothing new for us."

On the feeling seeing Theo Pinson with the dunk at the end
"I just yelled. I yelled and ran back down the court because I think that put us up seven with 11 seconds left. It's hard to come back from that, so I just let it all out."

On how this one feels
"It feels great, man. With everything we've been through the last month, coming off the three-game losing streak, to come in here and have everybody behind us, have all the fans as loud as they were, and then to play at the level that we played, it feels great."

Luke Maye, Junior Forward
On if it was frustrating to go up against the Duke bigs
"They're good players, and I got in early foul trouble. I committed two fouls that I shouldn't have done, and I'm going to learn from it. I'm going to watch the film, and I'm going to work in practice on getting better, move on and continue to try to play my game."

On the threes the team made to start the game
"To have Cam [Johnson] and Kenny [Williams] both go 50 percent from three, I mean, huge lift for us, and they were just shooting with confidence. And I'm just so excited to see them play like that, and it's going to be a huge part of our success down the road."

On the run to start the second half
"It was never over. That's for sure. I mean, they're a great team and just getting on that run to start the second half was huge for us, and I can't think of a better way to start the second half. To hold them to 29 points in the second half with a team like that offensively is really big for us. I'm really proud of our team."

Joel Berry II, Senior Guard
On turnaround after halftime
"We knew that they like to switch a lot, so we just wanted to get stops and be able to run and get out on the break and get easy baskets in transition. They went on a run, but the biggest thing for us was just getting stops and being able to attack in transition and not have to against their set defense."

On out-rebounding Duke in the second half
"We just had to get in there. One through five had to rebound. We weren't as big as them, but I think everybody did a good job of trying to get in there and at least get a hand on the ball. I know a couple of times we were fighting for the ball, but we would rather that than them just get an easy offensive rebound and either kick it out for a three or have one of their big men get an easy basket. Everybody did a good job of just getting in and helping out the bigs rebound."

On his matchup with Trevon Duval during the game
"I'm a competitor and I take pride in this rivalry and I take pride in any game that I go out there and play. He [Trevon Duval] went down and dunked it and even though it might've been my fault, it might not have been, I just don't want to see that and that's why I started picking him up full court and letting him know that you're still a freshman, I don't care how good you are, one and done, that doesn't scare me. I'm a competitor and I'm going to come and compete each and every day."

Cam Johnson, Graduate Guard
On what happened at halftime
"Coach told us to play with our heart and our brain both. I think at times in the first half we were playing hard, but we didn't quite use our brain fully. So I think when we came out in the second half, especially in the beginning, we kind of put it all together. And especially on the defensive end, we did a much better job of defending them in the second half. Even when we missed shots, I think we stayed focused on the defensive end and it paid off for us."

On if he can now grasp the UNC/Duke rivalry
"It was everything that everyone said it would be. It was honestly an unbelievable experience. A really big shout-out to the fans, they did a great job of not letting me hear my thoughts at any point during the game. I was really excited and it was an honor to be out on the court today. I thank God for the opportunity, and I really appreciate the effort of my teammates. It paid off for us in a big way today."

Theo Pinson, Senior Forward
On if he ever gets a chance to look around and appreciate the game
"Yeah, tonight was one of those nights. You know you're going to miss this. It was just one of those nights. Especially when you win it. Everybody played well, everybody played together and it was a fun night.

On if this was his favorite UNC/Duke game in his career
"The one my sophomore year to win the conference was probably the best one, but this was right up there. This is probably tied."

On how winning felt
"It was amazing. Just that fact that people doubt us. I'm pretty sure nobody picked us to win this game except our fans. It was just a big-time win for us."

Players Mentioned

Joel Berry II

Cameron Johnson

Luke Maye

Theo Pinson

Kenny Williams

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