University of North Carolina Athletics
Williams, Player Quotes
December 31, 2003 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 31, 2003
UNC head coach Roy Williams Quotes vs. Coastal Carolina, Dec. 30
"I'm very pleased with our intensity, very pleased with our effort. I
think we set the stage early with our defense and hit them pretty hard and
they weren't able to bounce back from that. It does help to make shots,
Rashad (McCants) making threes like that early in the game, needless to say,
did help. I thought Reyshawn Terry gave us a lift except for his free
throws. I thought David Noel did some nice things. Melvin (Scott) got some
minutes at the one and I thought he played better at the point than he has
in any other game this year as the one-man.
"The biggest thing was our effort defensively and what we did sharing the basketball. I can point to two or three shots that I didn't like and the rest of the time we shared the ball really well. Early in the game we turned it over a couple of times running the break and I told them just to be more fundamentally sound with their passes.
"We're more gifted than Coastal and when you add the effort and the intensity and the concentration to it, it makes for that kind of game. But I was really pleased up and down the line, playing without Sean (May) and Jawad (Williams), our leading scorer and our third leading scorer and the only two guys on the starting five that shoot over 50 percent. It's a blow to not have either one of those guys, much less both of them. Again, I thought defense was the key and I like the percentage we shot from the three-point line."
On playing without Sean May (sprained ankle) and Jawad Williams
(concussion):
"I told them a lot of times it makes teams band together a little bit
more. I said to every player, you don't have to play better than you are,
you don't have to play over your head, but I need you to play as close to
your potential as you can, particularly on the defensive end of the floor."
On whether May and Williams will play at Kentucky on Saturday:
"It remains to be seen. I think that Sean will play and it's 50-50 on
Jawad. I don't think we'll know until Thursday afternoon."
UNC Player Quotes vs. Coastal Carolina, Dec. 30
David Noel on Rayshawn Terry
"Rayshawn played great tonight. He got a lot of offensive rebounds, a lot
of
put-backs, and he made some great moves in the post. He did the things
we've
been working on all of practice, I think he's getting more comfortable with
the
offense. He's coming along just like we thought he would."
David Noel on playing without Sean May and Jawad Williams
"I can't say it's good to play without them. But we responded great.
We didn't
have our two leading scorers and guys stepped up and did what they had to do
to get us a win."
David Noel on his recovery
"I feel great. My thumb is all the way healed but I still have to play
with a brace
which kind of hinders me from doing the things that I want to do. But other
than
that I feel like I'm totally back now."
Raymond Felton on playing without May and Williams
"It just shows me and my team and coach and everybody that we're a great
team. Without our two leading scorers we can still do good things. That
just
shows how good of a team we are and how we can bring it together. It's
definitely going to help when we get them back in the lineup because it will
give
the other guys some confidence."
Raymond Felton on Kentucky
"We're just going to have to go out and play hard and try to get a win. I
know
Kentucky's a great team. They've got a great coach and some great players
who will be ready to scrap. It's their home place and it's going to be
crowded
and loud and intense but I think my teammates and I can handle that."
Rashad McCants on coming out strong
"It's always important to come out strong. The total focus on any team is
to
come out and hit them in the mouth right away and hit shots and play
defense.
That's what we want to do."
Rashad McCants hitting his shots
-,,I feel that my shots are always going to go in but sometimes they do and
sometimes they don,t. I need to get more consistent in hitting my shots and
keeping my legs stretched and stuff like that. ?/??
Rashad McCants on doing too much lately
"I felt like I needed to hit more shots. I was missing little layups. I
needed to
refocus and let the game come to me."
