University of North Carolina Athletics
Quotes From The Win Over Virginia
February 16, 2005 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 16, 2005
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North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement
" I feel very good. I don't feel good physically at all, I feel terrible physically. But mentally, I think to go out there and go against the spread [offense], a very confident Virginia team that has won three in a row, a different style and without Marvin [Williams] we've been beat up, a little sick, a little tired recently, and with three straight games on the road. It has been a big road for us. To go out and be able to chase people like that and do the job we did, I feel very good. About Sean May, I told him jokingly, part so, he almost had the first triple-double of any player I've ever coached. He had 17 points, 16 rebounds and eight turnovers. We don't need that eight turnover part. Marvin spoke up because I did see Marvin play a high school game where he had a triple-double in the same categories. To shoot 54 [percent] and hold them to only 38 [percent] and do the job on the backboards and to be willing to play defense for 30-35 seconds is what I was pleased with. I was happy to see Rashad [McCants] made a bunch of shots. I never lost confidence in him for one second. But again Sean, Jawad, and Raymond I think really did some nice things as well. Seventeen points and 16 rebounds, I don't usually politick, but I was surprised when somebody told me today that we have not had a player of the week in the ACC a single time. I thought after Sean had 31 rebounds in two games that would at least deserve something.
"But I told Pete I think that was a great game plan. I told our team that I thought this would be good for us because we've got to be able to play against different styles. Overall I was very pleased. I want to get Marvin back out there. They are calling it turf toe. He did a few things yesterday at practice but wasn't very comfortable and if we had a game yesterday he wouldn't be able to play. So in my mind I didn't really think that he would play today. He came over a little early and [trainer] Mark [Davis] put the pad back in his shoe and let him do a few things. He just didn't feel like he was going to be close to 90-95 percent or anything like that, so I thought it would be best to let the pain tell us to not play him. He take the day off tomorrow and hopefully be a little better on Friday. We do realize that things usually hang around. He's a tough youngster and will probably be able to play with it, but it is going to be quite painful for him."
On what was learned from the recently completed eight-game stretch:
"The toughness. I believe that eight-game stretch was very good for us. Six of them on the road, including the last three, all against quality opponents. We are never satisfied, we'd like to go 8-0, but it would take a really, really good team to do better than what my club did. I like our toughness. I think that is one area that we are vastly improved over last year."
On Sean May's turnovers:
"I think it's just tonight. I don't know what he had Sunday. Virginia just decided they were going to make it difficult for him to do things inside. Every time he got it, he had three guys around him and he didn't do a good job passing. There's no pattern there. It's not North Carolina dominating the world. Sometimes you have to give credit to the other team."
Virginia Head Coach Pete Gillen
Opening statement:
"There's a scoreboard for a reason, you have to put the ball in the basket. We couldn't do that today. We shot 29 percent in the first half. I think the tone was set when we had a wide-open lay-up early in the game and we missed it. We just couldn't put the ball in the hoop. Nobody shot the ball. We had one guy who played well and that was Gary Forbes. When your good shooters don't shoot the ball against a great team you have trouble. I thought we had a lot of good looks; we had too many turnovers and guys got a little undisciplined in what we wanted to do and made us pay. We had some good looks but if you don't put the ball in the basket against the highest scoring team in the country you're going to have a tough night. We have good shooters but they didn't shoot the ball well tonight. Sure, part of it was their defense, but I thought we had a lot of good opportunities and we missed them and had too many turnovers. We had some chances but unfortunately, if you don't put it in the basket it's tough to win."
On J.R. Reynolds shooting struggles:
"We watched it and right now he's really having a tough time. He's a terrific shooter but he's had some games in a row where right now he's really struggling. We know he's better than that. We're doing extra shooting with him, we're talking to him to be confident and to keep shooting but he can't buy one. Nobody shot it well except for Gary [Forbes]. We see something's technically wrong. We talked to him about it and we want him to keep shooting. It's like in baseball; you have to keep swinging the bat when you go in a slump. You can't talk too much, you have to just keep getting extra batting practice and keep swinging. He's doing extra shooting, and he's a good shooter, but right now he's in a tough struggle."
On the T.J. Bannister's point guard play:
"He had a tough night, he had a very tough night. He got a little out of sync, he took that three, that bomb three, and he doesn't shoot threes, so he got a little out of sync. He's a good player, but he didn't have a good night tonight along with a lot of guys. He's got to take care of the ball better and make better decisions."
On how they fought back to a 12 point game in the 2nd half then missed a lay-up:
"That took some air out of the balloon. We were within the distance and Devin [Smith], who's a good player, missed the put back and then we were like 'oh man'. They came down and scored maybe a 3-point play, so that was a tough stretch. You've got to put the ball in the basket. Our defense wasn't great, but it was decent. Our execution was decent, but we just had shots that you've got to make and be able to put in"
