University of North Carolina Athletics
Quotes
January 11, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 11, 2004
Roy Williams Post Games Quotes - GT-UNC 1/11/03
Opening Statement: Great game. I like what our kids did, I like how competitive we were. We talked about how our effort had to match theirs. We couldn't have any loss on the effort points. We talked about one thing on the defensive end and that was a sense of urgency on everything we could do and try and eliminate their second shots. We had a very hard time guarding the dribble. Jarrett Jack was a load. We had a hard time staying in front of him. We felt like some of those times we were going to get charging calls, but it wasn't, we got blocks. So that made it difficult for the guys to stay in it. Offensively, the thing we were trying to do was attack. Attack and make good decisions when we got down there and make good passes when we got down there. I felt in the first half, we played for about the first 14 minutes and then in the last six minutes we were just sort of hanging on and we lost our intensity. They made a little run in the second half and cut it to nine or ten, and then I think we scored on the next three possessions. After that I think it was just how many guys were still going to be in there in the end. They had some guys foul out, we had some guys foul out and it was difficult for us playing without Jawad. They have a big-time basketball team. I really like their team. I think Paul has done a great job. I'm not saying that to make us look better, I thought we had to play by far our best game of the year or we wouldn't have won tonight and I think that was by far our best game of the year.
Q: How is the status of Jawad?
A: Basically they don't know. They don't know if his nose is broken or not, I guess you have to take x-rays to find that out. I asked our trainer if his nose was broken, and he said he didn't know. He's a little groggy right now, I have no way of knowing right now. I guess we will know more tomorrow afternoon, but it doesn't look good now.
Q: Are the guys getting closer to playing the way you want to play?
A: Well we are doing better, but we just made some silly turnovers. You guys saw it, we will just do some of the craziest things in the world. It is a work in progress. We are trying to get better. We have got do a better job guarding the basketball. Melvin and Raymond have great quickness and should be able to do a better job. But Jarrett Jack is a load, he is hard to cover.
Q: How did you feel about Raymond Felton's play tonight?
A: I thought it was Raymond's best game of the year. He was more aggressive and he had a 7-0 assist-to-turnover ratio in the first half, 9-2 for the game. I thought Sean May was big-time for us and I felt Raymond was big-time for us. In the first half I thought Jackie was big for us. I'll tell you something that surprised me; I felt Rashad McCants' defensive play in the first half, I told him it was the best defense he's ever even dreamed, much less played. I thought he was big for us.
Can you talk about the team's defense tonight?
"If we want to be known for something it has got to be our defense. We have to play like that the rest of the way out. For us to beat good teams we have to play good defense. We beat a real good team tonight because we played hard on the defensive end."
How does your ankle feel and when did it start bothering you?
"The ankle feels alright. I tweaked it a little bit, but I started getting cramps in the back of my calf and that is why I was limping out there. The ankle wasn't holding me back any but my calves were hurting a little bit. "
How physical was it out there?
"It was real physical. I don't think that anything is too seriously wrong with Jawad. He got hurt, Muhammad was banged up, Ray got banged up; it was real physical in there. I think that is part of the ACC. A lot of times people say that the ACC is kind of soft, but it is hard in there. "
Was this the most complete game that the team has put together this year?
"Yeah, I would say so. I think that on all aspects of the game we kind of had a complete game tonight, especially on the defensive end. Offensively we were flowing a little bit but defensively we really got after it. I think that this is going to be one of our best games of the year. "
Is that what Coach Williams wants, the defense to create the offense?
"Yeah. As you could see out there, we had a lot of fast breaks because of our defense. Rashad McCants, a guy that had been criticized for not really playing defense a lot, really got after it tonight and frustrated B.J. Elder early in the game. That really helped us down the stretch. "
Can you talk about your next game at Maryland?
"Maryland is a tough place to play. I didn't play there last year but the atmosphere was incredible. This team has got to really focus the next two days and get really prepared. We can't be satisfied with what we did tonight. We have to be ready to go tomorrow and Wednesday. "
At what point did you sense that Raymond was going to have a good offensive night?
"When they started pressing. I don't even see the point of running the press breaker with Raymond out there. He is a one-man press breaker. If you get it to him he is going to make something happen. I think that he had one turnover tonight in the press breaker and he came to us and said my fault. He came back the next play and got a lay-up. Raymond has incredible talent and he is going to be one of the greatest players to ever play here when he is done."
What did you learn about this team tonight?
"I think that this says a lot about our team, when one of our best players, if not the best player, in Jawad Williams goes down. He is having an incredible year and in the last two games he got knocked out against UNC-Wilmington and then he got hit again and had to have stitches against Miami. Then tonight, maybe he broke his nose, I don't know what he did but hopefully it is not too serious. For this team to come together tonight when he was out of the game shows a lot of maturity about this team."
