University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes
February 17, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 17, 2002
UNC head coach Matt Doherty
"It is nice to stand before you after a win."
"We had a group of about 15 former players come back that I introduced to the team before the game. They wanted to come back to show our players that they are behind them."
"There had been a comment from a player that they felt they were letting the former players down. It is amazing that the [former] guys stepped forward. It was really a neat experience, it really tells you a lot about Carolina basketball."
"Adam Boone had a special night. I really admire him coming back after some tough plays down the stretch [against Virginia]. He put us in position to beat Virginia, but then he made a couple mistakes. He did not hang his head, we talked about it a little bit, and he came out and had an awesome, awesome game."
"[Adam] and Kris and Jason obviously had the numbers with points, but everybody contributed."
"Obviously, we are still hustling and, obviously, our attitude is still pretty good. I really admire the character of our players."
"Jason Capel has gone through a very difficult time-not only the season, but more personally with the passing of his grandmother. It is more devastating than maybe some people realize. It put him in a little bit of a funk for a week or a week and a half. He was out of that funk tonight. He was laughing, he was having fun. He was making those little plays, the tip plays, the diving-on-loose-ball plays."
"[Jason] was really into the game. It was fun. It was a fun game to be a part of. The crowd was awesome and our guys played with great confidence."
Florida State University coach Steve Robinson:
(opening statement): "I think certainly you've got to give a lot of credit to Carolina for the way they shot the basketball in the second half. Every time we tried to make a little bit of a run or had a chance to build on it, they had some guys to step up and really make some tremendous shots and plays. Going 7-of-10 from the 3-point line is a good offense. Guys really made some baskets. We didn't play bad. I thought, we shoot over 50 percent from the floor, we did a pretty decent job of taking care of the basketball, but couldn't get enough stops when we had to have them. We just couldn't slow them down."
(on UNC's Adam Boone and Kris Lang combination): "No question that that combination worked well for them tonight. You're either going to not double down and then Lang has 30, maybe. Or you try to double down and make them make an extra pass, kick it back out and then Boone winds up with 28 and hits 6 3-pointers. That's the risk you have to take in terms of trying to decide how to defend those guys and what you need to do to try to slow them down a little bit."
(on UNC playing better entering the game): "They've been playing better. They've been playing better for this last four or five games, I thought they had done a much bettter job in dangerous games. We've lost five in a row. We're coming in on the road and haven't won a road game, I think that we're probably the team that is probably the underdog in this basketball game. It's an important game, but every game you play in becomes even bigger and bigger because of where you are in your season."
(on Monte Cummings): "I think Monte going basket-for-basket and the way he was getting baskets requires a lot of work. He had to come at it pretty hard in order to do that. They went zone late in the basketball game which is probably why he didn't get as many touches late in the basketball gamebecause now all of a sudden we're in a big hurry to try to get out there and get the ball up to the basket because we're down by 10 points most of the last two minutes of the game, we're just trying to get some penetration of their defense which would lead to kick outs. But certainly when they were playing man-to-man we were able to get the ball in his hands. I that's evident by his point total for the game."
(on Anthony Richardson): "I think he's going through the same thing that most guys are going through. I think in playing, sometimes you're having some success and sometimes not having quite the success, and early in the game he got in there and never could get his rhythm going and some of the upperclassmen that were playing seemed to be playing well and it got a little bit hard for him tonight to get back on the floor. But there's a lot of basketball in Anthony's career and Anthony will do just fine."
UNC Forward Jason Capel:
"I thought we did everything pretty well. I thought we played pretty good defensively. We shot the ball well and we tried to limit our turnovers but, overall, it was a good team effort."
"We knew something was going to pay off sooner or later and we were glad it was today."
"It feels good. It's a relief. We haven't had a happy locker room since, I think, Clemson. So, it feels good. It feels like a big weight has been lifted off of us. But we've got to continue to work hard. We've got a couple games left."
"I think we're getting better. I think we reaped the benefits today. I think our point guards played good. Adam Boone had a great game and we had a great balanced, team effort out there."
"Adam (Boone) has continued to get better. I think Melvin (Scott) is getting better. Everybody's getting better, we're just working hard and playing together, and if you do that, good things are gonna happen."
"We're looking forward to finishing out the season strong. In the tournament, anything can happen. Win three games and we're right back in the mix of things. Just keeping the attitude and going out and executing."
"It's been a long time. It's a great feeling, it's something we've worked hard for, and I'm just glad it's here today."
"I think today we played very confidently. We were able to come out and take good runs from them, but hang in there. Sometimes we falter when teams have given us a good run but today we were able to hang in there and play good basketball."
"I think it's a definite start when your point guard plays well. But we still have things to tighten up. We had nine turnovers at the half. We definitely have a ways to go but it's a good start tonight."
"I definitely think that it's a start for us. It's the end of the year. We have to start playing well at this point. And we understand that. This is what we've been working for, to definitely to be playing our best basketball now. And we're getting there."
"That's one of the things that I think, as a team, we've been doing very well. We remain positive. The leaders of our team, Kris (Lang) and Jason (Capel) have kept us there. We haven't really gotten down on each other, and that's one of the bright spots on our team."
"We understand the alternative is to give in, and nobody wants to see that out of us. We understand that our results will only get worse if we give in, so we were able to keep our heads up and keep fighting. We were able to win today, and that makes it a lot easier to go out there and keep doing the same thing."
"Now that we've adjusted to the ACC level of intensity, hopefully we can bring that on Wednesday and it'll help us get a win there. We understand what we have to do next in order to keep playing at this level."
"It's definitely a building block for us. I think any time you win, especially the way ours have been spread out this year, we need to build on it and come back strong Wednesday."
"We definitely still have faith. We're trying to get a storybook ending. Coach inspired us. The former players came back and inspired us."
"We shot with confidence tonight. We swung the ball and we got the ball in the guys hands that were hot."
"We're just playing with tremendous confidence and believing in each other. We have each other's back. I think that's the key for us."
"Every opponent, we just want to go out and play hard. Pile up wins to get our confidence going into the ACC Tournament."
