University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC vs. Kentucky Postgame Quotes
December 4, 2004 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 4, 2004
Roy Williams QUOTES
Opening Statement: First of all, we were really very happy about the end of the game score. We were very, very happy about the way we played during stretches of the game, and you have to congratulate Kentucky, too, regardless of what the score was. 21,750 going crazy, they kept competing, but that's what you're always going to find by a team coached by Tubby. But they made two or three threes in a row there and made us a little more uncomfortable than I had hoped we were going to be, but I can't say enough about Sean May. He had a game Wednesday night, going back where the people were very difficult. He didn't get as many breaks with those close calls that can go either way. I'm really happy for Sean. He had a tough game Wednesday night and made some big plays for us, but when you look down there - 14 points, 19 rebounds. You know he had nine rebounds in the first half, just dominating on the boards, and then he turned around in the second half and got 10. Rashad made some big shots for us. Yesterday he couldn't make a shot in practice, so I felt like he would make some today. We didn't make very good decisions with the ball a couple of times, and I look down there - 18 assists, 20 turnovers - that bothers me. But we jumped on them early, had a pretty good working margin. We turned it over three times in a row and they got lay-ups on the other end, and then right before the half I think we made some good plays to take it back out to 15. They came out in the second half and hit us hard, seven or eight in a row, and I liked the way that our guys didn't lose their poise. We kept attacking. Sean got two or three lay-ups inside in a row, two or three dunks. You know it's very difficult on Raymond right now with all of that cast, or whatever you want to call it, on his hand. He's not handling the ball as well as he usually does. But this will be a good week for him; he's going to study extremely hard for his exams, and that's going to make it better for his wrist. We've given him a lot of time off this week to get ready for exams, and hopefully it'll be a chance for Melvin to get a little healthier and for Raymond to get a little healthier, and those kinds of things. But you look down there, I thought David Noel was a big force coming off the bench, and Rashad shooting it in, Sean on the backboards. A key play for us is they cut it to seven one time I think or eight, and we missed a freethrow and Jawad tips it out, and Rashad gets it and gets fouled and makes two, and puts it back in double digits. We'd like to play a little better, there's no question about that, but again you've got to give Kentucky a lot of credit for coming in here and continuing to push us.
Are you starting to see Sean get more baskets in transition? It's something that every team I've ever had always does. We've done it in some of our bigger games this year. In Maui I thought our big guys did a nice job running the floor. Even at the end of the game, we always say look down the floor and keep trying to attack. We'll always take lay-ups. But I think our big guys can run and do run, and I'd like them to do run, run, run every play. That song's too old for some of you guys.
What's the difference in this year's team holding off a team like Kentucky? I think our maturity, the familiar attitude of what we want to do. We are pretty much a veteran team. 'Q' and Marvin, it's a little bit at a time for them, and they're going to be big time players, I truly believe that, but I think that the veteran guys understand how to play better. We do want to keep attacking. I've always said that if another team makes a run at you, the best way to take care of that is to attack, not get tentative, and I've always found that our team did a good job of continuing to attack and not getting to a tentative stage. You look down, and I'd like to have made one more, so we shot 50 percent. I think we could have broken, Tubby's got a streak of about 800 games that everybody shot below 50 percent against them. But I do believe that we should continue attacking when the other team's making a run.
Because of what happened last year, is this game extra special for Rashad? I don't know about Rashad, but it was for Roy. I was really ticked off because I thought that last year at Kentucky was the least competitive, the least focused, the least energized of any team I've ever had going into a big environment. So I remembered it, and I told the guys that last year I didn't think we competed. I think Rashad was focused. He had 20 at halftime and 28 for the game, so he accomplished more in a few minutes today than he did last year in the whole game.
Three years ago you were talking about playing seven games against competitive teams over a 16-day period that you learn a lot about your club. What do you think you've learned over the last 16 days? I think we're more competitive than we were last year. We're more attentive. I do believe we have better depth, no question about that. I think that it is a pretty good run. Seven games in 15 days is what I thought it was, I may be wrong, but against a pretty good schedule. We stunk it up the first one, and since then I've been very happy with how well we've attacked people, and we're getting better defensively. I think there's hope for us defensively. We've got a long way to go, but there were times last year I thought we had no hope. We're going to do what we can do defensively to keep everybody's field goal percentage down and try to get them to turn it over as well.
KENTUCKY HEAD COACH TUBBY SMITH
Opening Statement "I talked about being tested today and we failed this test. A lot it has to do with UNC; North Carolina played their game. We allowed them to control the tempo from the start. The biggest thing we concentrated on was transition defense and we were very poor at that all day long giving up lay-ups after lay-ups. We gave up a lot of second shots. I don't think I've ever had a team get out-rebounded by 21. "North Carolina was ready. You could just see the difference in their physical play. They took us out of it early, but we kept fighting back. I know we're a better team than we showed today. You always believe that you're never as bad as you look and never as good as you think you are either. It's something we have to go back home and evaluate."
On Rashad McCants's improved play from last year's UNC-UK matchup: "He's playing a lot more comfortable in his second year under Coach Williams. He's understanding where to take his shot and he's patient. We didn't really have an answer for him. He got to the free throw line when he wanted to. That was our biggest problem just fouling people down low and not containing people off the dribble. He's a great player.
On Chuck Hayes's foul trouble: "It just took him out of things. He was really pumped up to play. His game is all about being physical, aggressive, and rebounding. I'll have to watch the film to see if he was really fouling as much as they said he was fouling."
On keeping confidence with such a young team: "You can see the confidence come through since we didn't give up. In the end, they got a couple of breakaway lay-ups which was par for the game. We got it to six then came down and took some ill-advised shots that were not part of our offense. The leadership we needed at that time just wasn't there. What I mean by that is we needed someone to say, 'let's bring it out, let's set it up and execute it.'"
On rushing shots: "That is the sign of a team that is not quite poised enough because you think you are making a run back. You can feel the momentum start to shift and that is when you have to have leadership. There were a couple times when we called plays and just didn't execute. In fact, we ran something else. But a lot of it has to do with North Carolina's pressure, pushing us out, forcing us to put the ball on the floor, taking us out of our patterns."
On the play of the freshmen: We didn't panic, especially the freshmen. We came back; we had people come in the game like Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley. They stepped up, even Rajon [Rondo]. The freshmen shot the best. Other than Kelenna [Azubuike] , our four freshman stepped up. You know Randolph [Morris], he has his hands full down inside. Otherwise, I'm not happy with losing, but we learned a lot and you can see this is a game that prepares us for future games. "
On the step up in competition from the first four games: "Well obviously we didn't do well. We didn't handle it well because we didn't win. But overall in an environment like this, you're not going to find many places tougher than the Dean Dome to play in. We play a lot of tough places in the SEC and around the country. Going on the road for the first time, I hoped we would have played with a little more poise. Again I think North Carolina was on top of their game today. I've never seen a team get as many lay-ups against us. There had to be a breakdown on our part. That can really take the wind out of your sails. We kept trying to put different people into the game and everyone gave us something positive."
On Sean May and his 19 rebounds: "He's just that good of a player. Plus we didn't box out."
On Patrick Sparks's play: "Patrick shoots quick. He's a guy who has to get it off quick. He's a small guy who has to pick his spots. He had five assists which is fine. We have to look back at the coaching and evaluate who needs to be out there at a certain time."
UNC PLAYERS
On how the game went. "Well the first half was a little slow for me, but I'm happy with how we played. I don't care how I did, I was pretty happy I got 19 rebounds, I've been rebounding the ball like I should have been. But we got a great win against a great team tonight. I'm just happy we got a W."
On having the last seven games and 15 days over with. "Yeah we've been talking about it. The last couple of days the guys are a little tired, little banged up. You know Raymond [Felton] needs some time off, Melvin needs to get healthy; so these next couple of weeks will be good for us. I think we have six games in like 30 days; something crazy like that. It will be a good chance to get some time off."
On beating Kentucky after losing four straight. "Yeah we talked about that. Coach was the only person that had ever beaten Kentucky at pre-game today and he said "it's about time you get one. It's going to be tough and it's not going to be easy by any means but you guys are capable of doing it." So we just tried to keep that in the back of our minds and they came in my freshman year and beat us by twenty and they destroyed us the year before that and then last year was just ugly and we just tried to keep that in mind."
On Rashad McCants knocking down the shots in the beginning of the game. "It cuts the down on the team's momentum. Just like if the opposing team hits threes on us, it's going to stop our momentum. Rashad hitting threes helped us out a lot."
On the feeling of the last three games and finally getting one. "I'm happy. I'm happy. It was a tough game though. We knew coming in it was going to be tough, but I'm glad to get that win."
On impressions of their freshman. "Their whole team is good; especially their point guard."
(On the pressure taken off of Sean May after the Indiana Game) "I wouldn't say he had any pressure taken off of him or anything. He's got a job to do every time he comes on the court when the lights come on and that is to get a win, and I think everyone has the same goals and dreams to get to the National Championship. So we know what we have to do every game."
(On the tone being set for the game from the very beginning) "We wanted to make the statement early that that loss to Santa Clara, you know, wasn't suppose to happen, but it did. And we had to bounce back really quick, and so we wanted to come out and jump on them early let them know that our pressure wasn't to be reckoned with."
(On how much he thought about the game from last year) "I really didn't think about it at all. I mean [there's] nothing you can do about it from last year. I think this year we just wanted to let everything else just disappear. We really can't think about the last 3-4 years that we lost to Kentucky."
(On how important it was to shut down Chuck Hayes) "It was very important because we know he's their inside force, and by shutting him down, we knew they had to take a lot of threes. And Coach always says 'Live by three, die by three,' even though they made a lot of them."
(On what it means that Coach Williams says that the team is competing better) "It means we're showing a lot more heart. We're not going to back down from anybody; we're not going to give in when people are making a run on us and things like that. It's helping us out a whole lot to keep winning."
(On the difference between this game and last year's game) "They played a great game last year, and we didn't too well. Rashad didn't play very well at all, and for him to come back out and have the type of game he had this year, was real key."
(On how happy he is for Sean May for having such a good game after Indiana) "[I'm] real happy. 19 rebounds, yeah that's impressive. I'm glad that he got away from that game, just put it in the back of his mind and let it go and came out and played today."
