University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Comments On The Game
December 20, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 20, 2003
North Carolina Players' Quotes:
How difficult was it for you to have to guard Eric Williams?
"It was real tough, he is a big guy. We tried to simulate it in practice, as far as me guarding Sean and things like that. Eric is a more pound player; he likes to back you down, whereas Sean is more of a finesse player. At the same time, I tried to do my best and it just wasn't enough."
How do you look at a game like this?
"It was devastating to lose. Anytime you go into a game, you want to win it. Especially a game like this that can probably be an instant classic, you want to be the team on top. So, it is definitely a devastating lose."
When you look back on it, are there just so many spots that you guys can point to that could have made a different outcome?
"It is running through our heads right now as we are speaking. We could have boxed out because at halftime they had sixteen points off offensive rebounds. It is a lot of different things that as a group collectively that we could have done and individually. It is behind us now and we are just going to have to move forward."
Did you feel like you were shaking off some of the rust?
"At times because I couldn't really hold the ball like I wanted to. When I made my drives to the cup, the ball wasn't really in my hand like I wanted it to be, but that is no excuse. It was just a tough loss."
What positives can you take out of this game?
"I don't believe in moral victories, so I can't take any out of it."
How drained were you guys, especially in that second overtime when nobody could find their legs?
"We were pretty tired, but we should of had the confidence and the toughness to stick it out."
What did Coach Williams say to you in the locker room?
"We need to finish. That is true, we missed free throws and we had possessions where defensively we didn't talk and it cost us the basket."
How difficult is it to know that you could have possibly won the game if you had made your free throws?
"Very difficult. I know that myself and my teammates feel the same way; we had the chance to be the hero and we didn't do it."
What do you think the biggest missed opportunities were, the free throw line?
"Definitely, but we missed free throws and they missed free throws. They had some opportunities to close it out. Chris Paul could have ended the game for them in the first overtime period. I think that we have little break downs like rebounding and that was the biggest factor in the game."
Describe the feeling of sitting on the bench and seeing Eric Williams just continually getting the ball?
"Like I told my teammates, I feel like I let them down tonight. Eric played well and I didn't. He is playing real well right now and I have to step up. I need to stop saying that I let my team down and do something about it. I just want to apologize to them for tonight because I feel like I let my team down."
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams:
Opening statement:
"It's a very disappointing game for us to say the least, and it's got to be exhilarating for Wake Forest. We want to congratulate Skip and his staff and their players. They have to have a phenomenal feeling right now to go through that experience and end up winning. It's one of the great things about college athletics is you do get to have those kinds of feelings. There's another side though because our feelings are not that good.
"Both teams kind of squandered some things from the free throw line. We had a two-point lead and a two-shot foul; we just didn't make the free throws. The one thing we have to do is pull together and make sure we're focusing on what's going right and what's going wrong with our team, not with each one of us.
"One of the things you have to do is learn how to win. Learning how to win means making the correct plays down the stretch. Learning how to win means doing all the little things and doing them to the best of your ability at the end. Learning how to win is playing with poise and making those plays regardless of the score or how much pressure somebody may be feeling."
On the unusual game:
"I don't think I've been involved in a triple overtime game as a head coach. I'll remember this one for the rest of my life. The quality of the play at times was really amazing - shots they made and shots we made."
On the decision-making:
"We didn't make some very good decisions. We're very thin to begin with and then to have to play a triple over time game. For Jawad to pull up and shoot a three under pressure in front of our bench is not a good shot. David Noel's three that went in was not a good shot, and then he went to take another one and it was not a good shot. That's what I'm talking about. We have to make the right plays under pressure."
On Sean May fouling out and the inside game:
"Sean is our one true legitimate post player so (him fouling out) was a big loss for us. David Noel and Jawad are trying but I credit Wake Forest, they did a better job of getting the ball inside, they had better spacing than we did. We were trying to get the ball inside to Sean and didn't have very good spacing. We tried to get it inside to Rashad one time and Chris Paul came in and deflected it because we didn't have very good spacing. Usually in a game like that somebody can make a three. But you can beat people from the inside out and we were not able to do that effectively.
"For us, particularly after Sean went out, we have a hard time scoring inside, so we still wanted to look to run and hoped we could get some penetration and kick outside. You have to be prepared for everything, but normally not for a 55-minute game."
Wake Forest Head Coach Skip Prosser
Opening statement:
"If this game is a precursor of ACC basketball for the next 50 years, wow! First and foremost I want to give the Carolina kids credit; they made some unbelievable shots. Obviously I can't be more proud of our players. As I told our kids, I have been doing this for 30 years and I have never seen anything quite like that. We battled some adversity just as Carolina did. Both teams kept getting up off the canvas and again I could not be more proud of our kids."
Can you recall being part of a bigger game?
"As I alluded to earlier, no. I was a high school coach and we were fortunate to win a championship. We won a couple of a games against our cross-town rivals when they were number one in the country. Considering the caliber of the opponent and the difficulty of the venue, no, I have never been a part of a bigger game."
Talk about your bench play.
"Without the bench playing the way they did we had no chance and I would not be sitting here with a smile on my face. We were a little short handed. At the end of the game we didn't have a lot of old guys- anyway and we just ran out of guys. I mean what happens if Downey fouls out. We needed all our point guards tonight."
Concerning the officiating:
"I told the referees at half time, I thought this was a hard game to officiate. This was not going to be Pedro vs. the Rocket - this was not going to be a pitchers duel. It was going to be a high-scoring affair."
