University of North Carolina Athletics
Quotes From Roy Williams' Press Conference
January 9, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2004
Q: What are your thoughts on Jarrett Jack and the rest of the Georgia Tech squad?
A: He has a 91-35 assist to error ratio. He's averaging in double figures. He shoots a good percentage. He really does so many of those things that helps them win. The biggest thing with me when I look at them is that you can look down the line at their players and they're a team. I think that is the most difficult kind of opponent that you can have, one that truly is a team. They have four guys that are averaging in double figures, the players know their roles, they are competitive as all get out, they guard you and cause teams to shoot 35 percent against them from the floor. They are beating people 20 points a game, and it's not intramural teams that they are playing. They beat Connecticut and they are ranked number one in the country, and they beat them by 16 and that was as close as it was in the second half. They beat Texas Tech by 20, and the guy who coaches at Texas Tech is pretty good. They played at Ohio State and win by 20 at Ohio State. We went up there with a Kansas club, a couple years ago, that was pretty good and they had a chance to win the game at the end, but we squeaked out by two and ran out of the gym as fast as we could. Even though [Jarrett Jack] does so many tings, you still can't talk about just one guy-B.J. Elder, Jarrett Jack, Mohammed, Marvin Lewis. They can score, defend, pass, rebound; I think they are the best team that we have played so far.
Q: Why is the ACC Conference so good?
A: I think it's the players that have made it so good. What we have done as a league in the non-conference games against other very good opponents is proof of how strong the league is. Once you get into league play and start to beat on each other, it's hard to stay up there in the top three or four because you're going to have some losses. I can't see anybody having a stronger league than what we have-Wake Forest, Georgia Tech, Duke, Maryland--it's a heck of a league.
Q: What does the team need to do to win on Sunday?
A: After last Saturday's game, I was as frustrated as I have ever been as a coach, and yet, we had good meeting and practices, and in the Miami game we showed tremendous effort. I can live with a lot of things, but I can't live with bad effort and that is something that we have got to understand and have a total commitment to playing with that kind of intensity and concentration, and if we do that we can beat anybody. I'm hoping that we learned from that. The way that they played against Kentucky was embarrassing for them to sit there and watch it. But I love how they bounced back for the practices on Monday and Tuesday and did some nice things on Wednesday. I think we will play unbelievably hard on Sunday, and hopefully we will play unbelievably well. We have a chance to win if we do both of those things.
Q: Do you do things in games that might not help in the current game, but help later on in the season?
A: Yes. What I always hope to do is change some things, where the positives, the fruits of the labor might not come until down the line. I hope you don't have to take a loss, or go through pain to go that. I do know I have never thrown a game to prove a point. But, some people said the other day that I took all those guys out to make a point. I wasn't trying to do that, I took them out because I was trying to get them to play better, that is the reason I kept putting them back in. Some guy even said it may have cost a win. I think in the contrary. The guys that I put in, they were playing better. Probably putting guys back in was the reason we lost. I probably should have stuck with those other guys, but there is no question I may try and do some things that may help us down the line.
I'm not here to just coach a basketball team. I am here to rebuild a program and try and put it at the level where it was at one time. It is about building a program, not just coaching a team. I'm particularly not concerned about points and rebounds and how many wins I get this week, because I have never been the kind of person that wanted to coach for just now. The only time that it has changed is we have been fortunate enough to get to the Final Four a few times and twice been fortunate enough to play for the national championship, and I didn't try and show anybody some lessons at those times. We were just trying to win the game.
