University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Penn Player Quotes
November 18, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 18, 2002
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UNC Head Coach Matt Doherty:
"I thought our kids played extremely hard. Everyone who played, I thought contributed. Our defense was fabulous, I was excited to see that we held them to under 30 percent from the field - 13 percent from the three-point line. Their three-point shooting scared me."
"I thought we did a good job causing some turnovers and igniting some breaks, and, as a result, we shot over 50 percent."
"Our unselfishness was impressive, I thought we distributed the ball."
"I was responsible for that screeching halt with about 11 minutes to go. I want to make sure that we are able to play with a [lead], and I think I probably over coached there and put the brakes on them. And then, finally, with about five minutes to go I said, 'just go play.'"
On Carolina's defense:
"I think we did a good job of shutting out some passes, keeping them from running their offense. They had to go one-on-one, and Watkins is pretty good one-on-one - he's a good player."
"I was real proud of our defensive energy."
On when he decided on this starting lineup:
"I went with that sometime this afternoon. I thought about it more when I thought there was a chance that Will and John weren't going to play."
"I was concerned about having such a young group out there. Will gives us a lot of stability, but Rashad is a pretty explosive player. As a result, we got off to a 20-6 lead, largely due to [Rashad's] ability to put the ball in the basket. I thought he did a good job defensively and also on the boards."
On the debuts of Raymond Felton and Sean May:
"They are talented kids; they are talented basketball players. They listen, they're coachable, they're unselfish, they're a joy to be around - I'm fortunate."
On his excitement level during the game:
"I'd tried to make a conscious effort this year to calm down a little bit. I think with my size, I don't want to be a distraction to our players or to the referees. And I couldn't help it.
"It has been a long off-season. My insides were bursting; I wanted to play a game. I had no idea how we'd do, I had no idea how Penn State would do. So, I was excited. I liked our defensive energy. I probably need to go run a marathon before games so I can calm down a little bit."
Player Quotes:
Sean May:
"We just came out with a lot of energy. When we lost to Nike it hurt. It was an exhibition game, but it hurt. And I think we don't want to go through that feeling again. We came out with pep in our step and we got after it from the beginning."
On his double-double and expectations for the game:
"I just knew. I wasn't worried about numbers. Go out play hard and everything will take care of itself. You do the things that Coach D asks and your numbers will be fine. Double-double my first game? It's a great feeling, personally, but I'm not letting numbers bother me at all."
On playing with his injuries:
"I expected to play this many minutes. I'm playing through a lot of pain right now. I've got two knees that are pretty banged up, a groin that's pretty banged up and a thumb injury. But everyone has injuries and no one really cares about an injury. Your opponents don't care. So I just go out there, and if Coach D says you've got to play tonight - I've got to play. I can't worry about my injuries."
On how it feels to play:
"It's a dream come true. I wasn't nervous - I was more ready to play than anything. This is my first college game, it's something I've always dreamed about and have worked hard for my entire life. I mean it's great - it almost brought me to tears. I love my parents to death. I couldn't do anything without them - they're the reason I'm here today."
On the win:
"It's upping our confidence, but we've always had confidence. We came in knowing that we could win, and that's what we proved. We're ready. I thought we were going to come out and play a great game and that's what we did. We won by 30 which is great, and we could have easily won by ten. But we won by 30. I mean, we've got to win. It was great. I was trying to get the crowd into it, get my teammates into it - you try to get everybody into the game. I'm trying to be a leader on the court, which I am - I'm the point guard. I'm trying to get everybody involved and trying to get a win."
On being a freshman:
"We have to come out and play hard. We are freshmen, but that doesn't mean that you're going to come out and not play well - so you just come out, play hard and play the game. Everybody that you play against - they have two arms and two feet just like you."
Rashad McCants:
"We want to play hard, we want to win. We kind of slowed down, but coach got us back rolling. He's a great coach. We got back rolling and we won by 30. We've been running all year long. We're in such good shape - we train, train, train."
On a nickname for the "fab" three:
"We don't know about that. But we'll probably work on a nickname for the national championship. We'll try to win that."
On his energy during the first half:
"That's just me. I'm the guy that plays hard every second on the court. Day to day - I play hard all the time. The confidence stays with me all the time."
On the coaches being nervous:
"Coaches are supposed to be nervous, coming off a bad season like that. Doherty's a great coach. He knew what he was doing, he just wanted to see how we would react to the crowd and everything else."
On playing college basketball:
"It's beyond my wildest dreams just to play in uniform. Just to play, just to be out there in front of the crowd. Just to be out there."
On feeling pressure from last year:
"We definitely did not. With struggle comes progress. Everybody struggles, everybody gets better. This is not a rebuilding season. We're sustaining a legendary program. It's not rebuilding. They had a bad season - so what? This year we're going to take it back to the top. We didn't play for expectations. We played for what we were ready for, what coach Doherty prepared us for. We just did what he said and you saw the outcome. It was more fun than it looked."
On the team's defense:
"We work on it everyday. Day in and day out we're getting better defensively. We just want to shut teams down defensively and Coach Doherty really sustained that with us."
On setting the scoring record for the first game:
"I really wasn't paying attention. I just wanted to know if we won or not. That's all I'm about. Winning."
