University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams Press Conference Quotes - March 29, 2005
March 29, 2005 | Men's Basketball
March 29, 2005
On where the pressure lies going into the Final Four:
"I think when it gets down to this stage, there is the same amount of pressure on everybody. Somebody's going to win two games, who is it going to be? I don't feel any pressure more than Bruce (Weber) probably feels and I don't necessarily feel that Bruce feels that much more pressure than we do...I personally don't feel that any one of us has the much greater or lesser pressure than anyone else."
On the development of Sean May:
"I think his growth has been the un-growth part, because he's taken certain parts of his body and moved them around to different parts. I think the physical makeup of his body right now is a direct relation to how hard he worked in the off-season. He's a little lighter, his percentage of body fat is lower, and that's helped his stamina, his bounce. He's able to jump higher and jump quicker. He's made plays this year that I don't think he ever would have made last year. That physical work that he has done has made him a much better basketball player in every area."
On learning from the wins over Villanova and Wisconsin:
"I said after the game that our toughness was the most impressive part of it. Things weren't going as well as we wanted them to go several times during those two games. It wasn't that pretty, run up and down the court, slam dunk-high five, "How do I look, mom?" kind of look. Both of them were grind it out affairs, and you have to be able to do that, and you have to be able to step up and make plays when the game is on the line. I think our kids did that in both games."
On the team's various injuries:
"Raymond rolled his ankle in the practice between games. I was worried about it before the (Wisconsin) game, it's one of the reasons I took him out a little earlier before the half that I normally would when a player has two fouls.
"Jawad - it was his knee then it was his hip flexor, so he's had a combination of things that have been bothering him for a couple of weeks. I did tell him that you've got to get your legs underneath you, get a little more bounce, get the ball up in the air, because one of the 3's he shot was just as flat as it could be."
On responding after losses this season:
"I'm dumb, I think that you can learn just as much and still win. I like it better that way. But I think the team has responded very well. I don't want to try it again with this particular team, because we have no chance to bounce back. If we lose now, we go work on our golf game. I think the idea of seeing their mistakes and being willing to work at it to correct them has been important to us. And also just to realize that that one loss didn't mean something negative was going to happen the next time, that we could learn from it, that we could gain from it, that we could change it. We never felt like the sky was falling."
On the Final Four experience:
"My favorite day in coaching is Friday. It's the best day to be a college coach ever. Because you are practice in front of the public, the coaches' convention is going on, and there's a lot of guys sitting up in the stands. And I've been up in the stands looking down at those dadgum guys, and saying `Boy, I wish I was you.' It's a great day for coaches. The first one was a little unique because I'd never gone through it before. We've been very fortunate three of the last four years, and they've all been marvelous, wonderful, fantastic, whatever you want to call it.
"It's what we play for, it's what we coach for, it's what we work for, it's why you make all those recruiting trips, all those calls, all those letters. It's the reason you get mad and scream, and rant and rave at halftime. It's the reason you stay out and run extra sprints. It's the reason you do two-a-days during the semester break and Christmas time. The fact that it's at North Carolina, everybody's trying to make that an extra deal. But how much better can you feel when you feel great?"
On expectations for Rashad after returning from his intestinal ailment:
"I didn't know what to expect. When he did come back, I was probably a little pleased, maybe even a little surprised that he jumped back in as quickly as he did. He'd played four games when he wasn't feeling comfortable, and you add the four that he missed, and now you are up to about four weeks that he didn't feel very good. He jumped back in pretty doggone well. I think that he's got a problem with me, because every time he shoots it I think it's going in. That's a good problem for a player to have a coach feeling like that. He's still got to continue to work on the defensive end, and I think that's the part of his game that has come back the slowest to him. At the same time, he made a huge block for us on Sunday."
