University of North Carolina Athletics
Heels Meet Miami in Orange Bowl Basketball Classic
June 21, 1999 | Men's Basketball
June 9, 1999
CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO FROM THE PRESS CONFERENCE
UNC men's basketball head coach Bill Guthridge participated in a media teleconference on Wednesday to discuss this year's HIP Health Plan Orange Bowl Basketball Classic, in which the Tar Heels will face the University of Miami.
The tournament, held on Dec. 18, will be expanded to a triple-header for the first time this year. The other games are Florida State vs. UMass and Florida International vs. St. Bonaventure.
The HIP Health Plan Orange Bowl Basketball Classic will be held at the National Car Rental Center (capacity 20,184) in Fort Lauderdale. Game times and television coverage are still TBA.
The Orange Bowl has also added a women's basketball tournament this year. On Dec. 19, the Orange Bowl Women's Basketball Fab Four will feature Miami vs. NC State and Florida International vs. Notre Dame. The event will be hosted by Florida International at Golden Panther Arena.
COMMENTS OF UNC HEAD COACH BILL GUTHRIDGE
"We're looking forward to playing in the triple-header at the Orange Bowl. I've known Leonard (Hamilton) for a long time and have always liked him and thought he has done a great job. When he was an assistant coach and I was an assistant coach, we'd run into each other when we were recruiting. I think he has done an outstanding job at Miami, to have the type of year they had last year.
"They lose (Tim) James, but they have everybody else back. I think we'll be competitive again. We have everybody but Ademola Okulaja back next year. We were a very young team last year, probably the youngest team North Carolina has had for years. But we will be more of a veteran team next year and we're excited about it and looking forward to the competition. I think it'll be a great game.
"I think Miami is going to be one of the best teams in the country next year. They gave Connecticut their first lost last year. They lost (Tim) James, and he was a great player, but they have all of their other contributors back, and Leonard does a great job. He's done an unbelievable job of building that program, from where they weren't playing basketball and then Bill Foster came in, then Leonard has taken over and I think done a tremendous job."
(On the return of point guard Ed Cota)
"We're thrilled that Ed Cota is going to be back this year. I think he's one of the best point guards in the country. He's been a great leader for us, ever since he was a freshman, and I think he will have a great year. He came to me the first week after the season was over, as we were investigating whether he should go pro a year early, and he said regardless of where he would be drafted that he wanted to come back and finish his degree this year and compete. He had some things he wanted to take care of, and we're thrilled that he's back."
(On UNC's return to pressure defense)
"The last three years, we haven't done the pressure that we normally do, but this spring in our individual workouts we started putting it back in. We are going to go back to our pressure defense that we have done for so many years. Our other defense was very sound and we had good success with it. But the pressure defense is more fun to coach and I think it's more fun to play, and that's what we're going with.
"We have a veteran team back, but they have never played pressure defense, so that will be a major change for them. In the past, we'd build on what we'd done. It'll be interesting. I think they really enjoyed the drills that we added in the individual workouts in the spring. They're working on things, knowing that we're going to go back to the pressure this summer. When we start again in the fall, we'll see how it goes. We obviously won't be as good at it early on, but we've always been a multiple-defensive team. We're certainly planning on playing full-bore with the pressure."
COMMENTS OF MIAMI HEAD COACH LEONARD HAMILTON
"Obviously we are excited about the growth of the Orange Bowl Classic over the last several years. The Orange Bowl Committee has done an outstanding job of trying to promote college basketball in south Florida, and the fact that they have been able to attract schools the caliber of the University of North Carolina means that it is destined to get better and better each year.
"We are excited about having the opportunity to compete against the University of North Carolina because they represent college basketball in so many positive ways. They are one of the winningest problems in the history of college basketball. They represent a position that we are trying to get to. Their kids graduate, they do an excellent job coaching their kids, they represent the ACC in an outstanding way, and they have a tremendous about of tradition. We're trying to build. We feel very fortunate to have this opportunity to compete against teams of that caliber. If we are going to continue to build our tradition, we need to take advantage of these opportunities."
(On the rise of Miami basketball)
"We feel that we've made considerable improvement over the last four or five years. We've elevated our status in the Big East. In the last two our three years, we've been one of the winningest programs in our league. Maybe in the last four or five years, we've elevated our status from being at the bottom to at least the top four. We feel that in order for us to continue building tradition, we need to go back-to-back-to-back and keep stacking on good years.
"College basketball has improved (in south Florida). I think we have a lot of fans here. We're getting ready to put an arena on our own campus, where we can develop our own fan base and schedule when we want to. It's only going to enhance (the growth). I just want to congratulate the Orange Bowl Committee for putting so much time, energy and money into promoting college basketball in south Florida. Our teams are getting better -- FIU, the University of Miami. Our teams are improving, and before too long, I feel we should be able to compete with anybody in the country."
(On building a basketball program at a school known as a football powerhouse)
"I think that was probably the most appealing thing about the challenge here at the University of Miami, was to go in and build and do something that hasn't been done. It's not necessarily easy to maintain tradition -- I'm sure Coach Guthridge can tell you that it's hard work. But it's even more difficult to go in and build and go something that hasn't been done in many, many years. So that presents more of a challenge, but what excited us was the fact that it was a tremendous opportunity.
"We have worked hard, trying to concern ourselves with the things we can control, realizing that any time you are without basketball, like Miami was for 14 years, you lose so many of the intangible things that sometimes you just take for granted. We recognized that it wasn't going to be a quick fix, that we had to keep working at it, stay positive and keep moving our program forward. I think we've done that and I'm very proud of the staff and the kids and the University for helping us get to this point."
(On playing UNC)
"I think any time you can play a quality team like North Carolina in an event as special as the Orange Bowl Classic, it generates enthusiasm, fan support and interest. It improves the quality of your program as well, and the perception that your program will have in the college basketball community. It has nothing but pluses. Then to have a quality opponent like North Carolina -- sure, you'd like to win the basketball game, but having the opportunity to compete against an opponent like that can't do anything but help your program. If you win, obviously it's special, but if you don't, there's no disgrace. We want to win every basketball game, but we want to be able to compete against those people. You're going to win your share and you're going to lose your share. You just have to take advantage of the opportunity."
(On facing the Tar Heels, as a native of North Carolina)
"From a personal standpoint, being a college coach, you can't allow yourself to get all caught up in your personal emotional involvement in a game like this. Last year, we went up to play the University of Kentucky, and I had so many phone calls from people asking me about how special it felt. Well, that was a business trip for me, going up to Lexington. Even though I have a lot of friends there, once the game started, I felt that I would be cheating my team and my university if we didn't stay focused.
"Obviously, I've competed against Carolina while I was at the University of Kentucky and I respected them for what they've been able to accomplish, and I'm sure there will be a small amount of emotions that will flow through me, because of the fact that I am from North Carolina. This will be a special game because of the respect I have for them, the quality of their program and the opportunity that our program will have to compete."
(On the departure of Tim James)
"Obviously for us, to lose a player the quality of Tim James is going to be something we'll have to contend with. We're not sure we can replace him, but we're going to ask all of our players to kind of step it up a notch, and hopefully we will get more productivity from different players. We have a couple of new kids coming in, and we need them to come in and maybe not play as much like freshman as kids have in the past. They need to make more of a contribution. And we need our three seniors to give us tremendous leadership.
"We feel we have a chance to have another good season. Last year, we won quite a few games by close margins. We feel what we have to do is continue to keep working hard, continue to keep doing what we've been doing in the past, and hopefully that will mean that we'll have another good season, because I do feel good about the quality of the talent that we have returning."
(On how going to the NCAA Tournament has benefited the program)
"Going to the NCAA Tournament two years in a row for our players gives them an opportunity to start feeling some pride and some confidence in what we're doing and each other. That's part of building tradition, for kids to have a certain amount of success and enjoy it. That serves as a motivator, for kids to work harder in the preseason and postseason and during the summer, to maintain that focus. They realize now that we have had success and we need to do it again. To be considered one of the better teams in the Big East keeps our kids motivated to work even harder."
