University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Miami vs. UNC
January 22, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 22, 2005
Roy Williams QUOTES
Opening Statement:
"Frustrating times, but it's also a W. In this league you better be happy with
that. I talked to our guys before the game and said, 'Buildings don't win
games. Players do.' I loved Sean Mays work on the boards. 17 points, 15
rebounds - that's a big time play. We didn't shoot the ball in the hole. We
were 1-11 at half from the 3-point line and 5-20 for the game. We're one of
the better shooting teams in the country. But give Miami credit for it.
They were aggressive, they did some nice things, and they made us miss some
shots. We turned it over more than I wanted to, and didn't make all the
shots to say the least, but in this league you better be happy about any win.
We're in the middle of a stretch here in the league it's extremely difficult.
We had a home game and now we go back on the road for one or two. For us,
it's a win, it's a win in a great league. Again, Sean on the backboards was
probably the most pleasant thing. And I look down there and see five guys in
double figures and feel very good about that. I felt defensively at times we
were really sharp, but we've got to get better and that's what we talked
about. We've got some time this week - we'll let some aches and pains to
heal a little bit. Probably take tomorrow off and practice Monday, take
Tuesday off, light practice run and shoot Wednesday, and try to have a full
practice on Thursday and Friday."
Can you talk about getting their big guys in foul trouble early?
"It was one of the keys that we put on the board before the game started.
We've got to get the ball inside and get it where we want to get it. I think
it was important for us to get them in foul trouble because they're such a
good rebounding team. They were number one in the conference in offensive
rebounds, and when those big guys are on the bench it's a lot harder for them
to get offensive rebounds. At half it was 20-20 on the rebounds, and we ended
up winning that battle 44-33. I do think that was big for us. Sean was able
to get some fouls in there. I thought it was good."
With 8:38 left you took a timeout, but you didn't talk to the team, Coach
Robinson did. What message were you trying to send?
"I wasn't [trying to send a message], I was just about to explode. I thought I better let somebody else do it instead of looking like an alien creature over there. Sometimes it's best just to not say anything if you can't say anything positive my mom told me a long time ago. I went in and said a couple things, they weren't very positive though. Turned around and went back."
At the very least they did follow the plan by getting the ball inside?
"That was what we talked about, and it was good. And I think at times
defensively [we did well]. But we turned it over dribbling it into a crowd.
We take a bad shot and it gets blocked. We miss an open shot. We come down
and shoot one with one pass. That's four straight possessions. They score a
three, they score a basket and get fouled. They get another open one and we
foul them. That was a bad stretch there. Rebounding the basketball was
important and I think we did a good job there. Early they got some second
shot opportunities. I think they had seven points at half on offensive
rebounds. They had eight offensive rebounds at half and ended with 10, so we
did a much better job in the second half with that. Defensively I think we
did some nice things. Diaz made some shots. I guess he had 24 in the second
half. But we did a nice job on him in the first half and he made a couple of
tough shots in the second half."
MIAMI HEAD COACH FRANK HAITH
Opening Statement:
"I think the last four minutes of the first half was the difference in the game. It's a four-point game with 3:45 left and I didn't realize the number but I think they went on like an 18-1 run. We turned the ball over a couple times. We put them on the free throw line quite a bit and they were very effective. They made their free throws. We were not as aggressive in our attack offensively and that hurt us. But, they're a good team and it's going to be tough for us on nights when Anthony Harris and Rob Hite go 4-26. Those games are going to be tough for us to win against a quality ball club like North Carolina."
On what the team learned from this game:
"Well I think in the last two ball games we've done a great deal of learning. The margin of error is very slim. In our execution we've got to work to get open. We've got to screen better. We've got to time our cuts better. We've got guys whose timing isn't good. We had screening action happening and the ball wasn't in an area to be passed. I think that hurts your continuity. That hurts your flow offensively. I think that's something we've got to get better at."
On Miami's defense:
"Defensively, I thought we were doing a nice job there. In the first half our zone was good and then they just got it going. There at the end they made shots but the game was out of hand. But, I thought for the most part there was a stretch there other than the last three minutes of the first half that we were playing good basketball defensively. We turned them over a couple times. We got our hands on a lot of loose balls. But we were turning the balls over ourselves, offensively, so that kind of negates it. Our offense was not good. But I thought our defense kept us in the game up until the last four minutes of the half"
On Robert Hite's performance:
"Those are things you can't really pinpoint right now. I thought he had a lot of good looks tonight and he just missed some shots. I thought he had some good looks tonight, I did. He just missed the shots."
On keeping the team motivated:
"Well we've just played two top five teams. They're great basketball teams... well coached . . . great talent. We're still developing. We're still growing as a basketball team and as a program. We know where we're at. I do think there's room for improvement. There's room for us to get better. I think we just have to move on from the past two games. We just have to throw this game away and go to work on Clemson."
On Rashad McCants:
"He's a great talent. We played him last year and I think he had 25 on us. He's a tremendous talent. He played with poise today and he's a great player."
On Guillermo Diaz:
"He had a career-high, 30 points. He's playing outstanding. We just need some other guys to get on the horse with him. I'm proud of him. He's not missing a beat."
On the Smith Center being an intimidating place to play
"Intimidating? Well, you know, we've played at Florida and that's a pretty tough place. We've played a lot of different places that I think are tough. The history here. There's a lot of mystique here. They had a great crowd, an enthusiastic crowd. I would hope that this late in the season we wouldn't let that effect us."
UNC PLAYER QUOTES
On team's defensive job on Hite and Diaz:
"Those guys take the majority of the teams shots so we just had to stick with our defensive principles and make sure when they took a shot we had a hand in their face."
On Diaz's 30 point performance:
"Me personally, I don't want you to get above 10. He shot the ball well so you can't take anything away from him he did a great job."
On Coach Williams frustration:
"Coach is not looking at today's game, it's a game we have to focus on, but he's also looking at the big picture. We have got to execute. We can't go on these dry spells and think we're going to get out with that."
On inside play
"It's a whole lot different inside now than a couple of years ago. I am getting double teamed a lot more this year, but tonight they really didn't double team me and I was able to attack and get to the free throw line a lot."
On his individual performance
"I played well, but I could have played a lot better. I had a lot of dumb turnovers throughout the game. Maybe I was over-passing while they were laying off, but I was just trying to get everyone involved. Anytime I get a double double I am pretty happy. They are hard this year with less minutes and Marvin coming in.
On team's performance:
"We did a great job of not letting them get back into the game, but it just wasn't pretty. Coach wasn't too happy, but we did get a win though that's all that matters. There are still a lot of things we need to work on because we are still not where we need to be."
On team's poor shooting performance in 1st half:
"It just shows we can win ugly games. We've yet to play a good game this season as a team collectively that's what's so scary because we have just been blowing teams out. Once we start playing well it will be really exciting."
On team not putting together a complete game yet this season:
"We had a bad offensive game tonight and we haven't a game yet where everyone is clicking and dong what they are supposed to do. We are in the heat of the season, so we still have some time to grow. The sky is the limit when we finally play a complete game together."
