University of North Carolina Athletics
Roy Williams Press Conference Quotes
December 2, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 2, 2005
Roy Williams Press Conference Quotes
On the challenge Kentucky's backcourt presents:
"Well, I think their whole team presents a great challenge. Rajon [Rondo], he's an amazing, amazing youngster. I think having a point guard averaging 10.8 rebounds a game is unbelievable and [he] has so much speed. He gets the ball off the boards and it's a one-man fast break. I watched a little bit of the Iowa game last night, at one play, he got the ball of the board and he dribbled past four Iowa defenders as they're trying to run back. [Patrick] Sparks is a fantastic shooter who's made some big-time, big-time shots for them and I think they're going to present a big-time challenge for us."
On his biggest concerns of going on the road for the first time with this team:
"Well, I think the crowd, always I've said, does more to fire up your defense than it does anything else. We'll try to make sure that we maintain our poise when we're on the offensive end and hopefully their defense won't be so much quicker to the ball and be much more aggressive and everything else. For me, I enjoy playing on the road. I think you can learn a great deal about your basketball team, and that's part of what you're doing. It's early in the season. We played on the road already down in Nassau, but it wasn't exactly a neutral or it wasn't a home court advantage for the other team. We had as just as many fans as they did. The travel itself- getting on the bus, getting on the airplane- that's not going to be the problem. The crowd in Rupp Arena is going to be the problem, and [so is] Kentucky's team."
On what he learned about his team's resiliency during the Illinois game:
"I think we've got a bright bunch of kids who really do care. I've always felt that I was fairly competitive and tried to make sure that our kids understand that regardless what happens, we're still going to be playing as hard as we can possibly play. I think these kids either have that already, or have picked it up very quickly because I think they competed and kept doing that till the final play."
On what he learned from his team's performance against Illinois that he will take on the road:
"We learned we can't turn the basketball over. We had four straight opportunities down two and you don't get a shot or get a score. I think just maintaining our poise in front of a hostile crowd is going to be a big challenge for us. There were several times out there the other night we had four freshmen out on the court by themselves at times. I think it's a big challenge, and it's something, again, we're looking forward to it."
