University of North Carolina Athletics
Q & A with Roy Williams
January 21, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 21, 2005
What have you done since returning from Clemson to make sure there won't be a repeat of that first half? Can you do anything?
"Yeah, I think we can. I think that one thing, maybe I didn't explain that, but we weren't lacking in effort. It was just that the intensity that Clemson had got us back on our heels and we gave into it as opposed to matching that intensity. I think our kids tried hard, and little bit of it to me was their physicalness, they got us again back on our heels and maybe that's a better word as opposed to intensity. But I think they were the aggressor and we were not and we were making silly decisions with the basketball. Those were the things that really upset me more than anything by far. And I think that we addressed that at halftime and I think we came out and played much better with a more aggressive attitude and a more aggressive position with the basketball, not being so careless with it."
Miami seems to run the ball very fast up and down the floor. Would you rather face fast than physical?
"Oh, I don't really care. Except for one part of it, you've heard me say this, I'd rather win a game in the nineties than in the sixties but we've got to be good enough to win it in the fifties or sixties. We are averaging 92 and I think we can play a lot faster than that. I do think they are athletic as all get-out. And the amazing thing is that the guards are getting all the attention and I really like both the big kids. Their big guys, in conference games, they've got two out of the top eight rebounders in the league on the same team. I like their team; I think they've got good balance inside and outside."
What is the difference between how you guys are guarding people defensively and what you think these guys need to be doing?
"If you sit and watch a game, if somebody takes a shot and it's not over somebody's hand, than we're wrong. You can run triple post, you can run student body left, student body right, it makes no difference. If you take a shot and I'm not there to challenge the shot, we've made a huge mistake. If you watch the game and the guy takes the ball 25 feet from the basket, like Chris Paul did twice with five defenders in front of him and he lays it up, I mean you don't have to be nuclear physicist to figure out that that's sorry defense. If you allow a team to shoot the ball and get a rebound, shoot and get a rebound and shoot it again, your not finishing the defense so to me those are the three main areas, you have to challenge shots, control dribble penetration and you gotta finish the defense. So, we need to do a better job in all of those. In the Wake Forest game, the dribble penetration just killed us."
How is Raymond Felton doing? It looked like he was cramping up during the Clemson game.
"Yeah, he cramped up at the end. He didn't appear to have any problems with the cramps yesterday. We held him out a little more yesterday but you know when you get to this point in the season, every team in college basketball is banged up. You show me a team that has everybody 100 percent healthy and not having aches and pains, they're probably not very good because they haven't played very hard."
Do you anticipate having more trouble this year getting Sean May rebounds against Miami than last year's game?
"He had a great game, I know Anthony King was on the team but he didn't play but nine or ten minutes something like that [last year]. Our emphasis is going to be getting Sean the ball inside, Sean and Jawad and Marvin. They are going to be faced with a bigger challenge because I think that Anthony needless to say is playing much better than he did last year. I do think it will be much more difficult for Sean but we are still going to try and emphasize it."
Are you surprised how well Miami is doing?
"You know, I am not surprised but yet I try not to think about the other teams. In the Big 12 and Big 8 the coaches had votes in the preseason ... and at the end of the season coaches voted on all-conference and coach of the year and all those things. So that made you, because I took it seriously. So I tried to know a little bit more about the teams before the season started. Since I'm here and we don't do that, I try not to form opinions whatsoever until the season starts. But I've known Frank [Haith] for a long time, and I knew Frank would do a good job. I still stick with my story I never think about those other teams, I never look down the schedule and determine how we can be, so I certainly don't that that with other teams."
