University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes
January 7, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 7, 2006
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Roy Williams
UNC Head Coach
Opening Statement:
"I just feel fantastic. It was a great, great finish. First half I thought three things: that we had turned it over too many times; they had too many points on the offensive rebound and, their ability to make three, three pointers at the end of the first half. We guarded the three and tried to make that tougher for them. We did a good job. I think they are one for eight. But I think they made their last three at the end of the half. I talked to our kids about taking better care of the basketball, and raising our intensity level even more. I'm pleased with the defense. One of the biggest, if not the biggest play of the game was when David Noel didn't panic when the shot clock was going down. He made the bounce pass to Tyler and Tyler dunked it. I congratulate our kids because we made good free throws down the stretch. If you break down this North Carolina State team, they shoot the three p0int so well, but they make you pay for every shot they take. But you know I can hear coaches, announcers saying we need to take a time out. I made a conscience decision that if it had been 44 to nothing, I wasn't going to take a time out. My team is so young, they have time to grow. At the TV timeout when it was 11 to zero, I told them I have confidence in them and they need to learn. I know my team, and I think that it's better in the long run if they fight their way out.
On if they used their whole body tonight:
"I think they used their brain except we had two turnovers on the initial offensive pass. But I'm ecstatic about every part of our team.
On if Hansbrough did any extra free throw work:
"No, our whole team has. During the break we had modified two-a-days. We come in the morning for thirty minutes and shoot free throws. I saw Tyler play in high school, and he didn't miss a shot.
On Ginyard's defense:
"His defense in the last game was awful but he's learning, and I think that's the key. Good defensive players learn from their mistakes. In the second half he was really good. I said hundred times since we have recruited him he's going to be really good defensively.
Herb Sendek
NC State Head Coach
Opening Statement:
"I thought both teams played exceptionally hard this afternoon, and unfortunately for us we did not execute the last four or so minutes offensively nearly well enough. We didn't capitalize on some opportunities at the free throw line. We had some key turnovers that put great pressure on our defense so that's an area that we certainly have to look at. I thought North Carolina did a tremendous job on defense this afternoon and really played with great effort."
On what NC State failed to execute in the game:
"I could recount some of the possessions off the top of my head. We had a side out of bounds where we missed an open man. We got impatient and tried to thread the needle on a tight cut on another opportunity...we had a corner three and a transition three that were as good as any shot that we had this afternoon and we didn't make those. We had the ball inside and we caused the defense to converge and we didn't kick out. So a combination of maybe not making some plays with some shots and maybe not making some reads. Having said all that, it would be also important to give North Carolina great credit because I thought their defense was outstanding and our defense was not as good in the second half as it needed to be."
On how much the dunk by Tyler Hansbrough with two seconds left on the shot clock deflated the NC State team:
"That was just one of those things. That was a possession where I think we played very good defense and sometimes the ball doesn't bounce your way. It was kind of a broken play -- a bounce of the ball type of thing as far as I could tell and it resulted in a dunk at the end of the shot clock. That's part of the game, but that's certainly not the reason we didn't win the game this afternoon. Those kinds of plays, it seemed down the stretch, are why we're sitting here with a loss right now."
On what he will tell his players after the loss in preparation for the team's next game:
"Well we talked about what I just shared with you - about what we need to do in terms of execution down the homestretch, and making the right plays and decisions. We focused on those kinds of things in the short time that we had together."
UNC PLAYERS
On the rivalry:
"It's probably more than I thought it would be. I didn't know how hyped up it was until I came here."
On what he was thinking when NC State went up 11-0:
"I was like, `we've got to pick it up. We've got to get after it.' I didn't want to get embarrassed. I thought we were getting embarrassed in the first couple, five minutes."
On how Carolina fought back into the game:
"I think Bobby played real well. He probably had his best game of the season as far as I'm concerned. I think our defense started picking it up. We didn't let them knock down the open stuff and that was real helpful."
On his improved play in the second half:
"I got frustrated at myself with the turnovers and just wanted to come out and start being aggressive. I was really casual and not aggressive with the basketball. Then, I came out and started attacking the basket and got some open looks."
On Carolina's ability to get the ball inside:
"I think we got the ball to David and he made a couple plays. I got Tyler a bounce pass late in the game for a dunk. I think that was the biggest play, it kind of got us going. Just, getting the ball inside and moving on the perimeter opened the inside for us."
On the team's freshmen maturing during this game:
"They grew up big time, in a matter of a couple seconds. I told them on the sidelines, I said, `look, we still got time,' and I told them about some of the plays that they usually run during the closing parts of the game and we were able to stop them. That definitely helped us out a lot."
On NC State's 11-0 run to start the game:
"Coach Williams never really panics about using timeouts, especially early in the game, because you can go on runs like that. He always says, `we got ourselves in that situation, so get out of it.' That's what we did. We went on a 16-4 run and were able to get back in the game. From then on, it was just about us continuing to make plays and that's what we did."
On his windmill dunk:
"Basically, big-time games is when I want to pull out my better dunks and this was a big-time game. I got an opportunity and I did it."
On playing smarter:
"The two days before this game, in practice, we were definitely working on trying to play smart and just being where we're supposed to be and doing what we're supposed to do versus just giving our all out there and doing what we can do. We still need to go hard out there, but we just needed to play a lot smarter. That's when it gets done.
On NC State's lead and Carolina's comeback:
"We let them get away from us a little bit. We weren't playing like we had practiced. But, then when we came back and started playing like we had been practicing, playing smart, they couldn't do anything with us."
