University of North Carolina Athletics
Roy Williams Postgame Quotes
November 1, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 1, 2006
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Roy Williams Postgame Press Conference, Nov. 1, 2006, vs. St. Augustine's
Opening Statement
"I think we gained some things tonight. There's no question we enjoyed playing against somebody else instead of beating up on each other like we've been doing for the last three weeks. At times I was very pleased, but at times I didn't think we played with the pace or the intensity that we need to play with. Brandan [Wright] got us off to a good start early in the game. In the first three minutes, I think we scored two points, but in the next five or six minutes we were really effective. We had 12 guys get double-figures in minutes. I decided just this afternoon that I was just going to rotate in units. I don't know if I will do that the next game or not. I did that today to give everybody a chance to see what it felt like to get out there.
"Tyler [Hansbrough] only gets four shots, but does get 11 free throws, so that's a pretty good option right there. I think everybody did some good things at times and everybody did some things that they have to improve on. The staff will stay here tonight and grade the tape and we will have the tape ready to show everybody something tomorrow. Hopefully we can teach them some things off of their own mistakes. Hopefully we will get better between now and next Saturday."
On his 5-in, 5-out substituting pattern:
"The only time I have ever done it is when I am really ticked like last year in the Duke game I took five out and put five in. I've never substituted like that and I probably won't this year. I'm not comfortable with it."
On the play of Brandan Wright:
"I hope [he's pretty good], I went to Nashville four times his junior year. If he's not good I look pretty stupid. Late in the game his leg started cramping. We had a scrimmage Sunday night, our first real scrimmage with officials, and his leg started cramping up then. I asked him, `I thought you had to have muscles to cramp?' He does some outstanding things. The best thing about him is he has been a really quick learner. Out of everything we try to do, of the freshmen, he's probably picked up things quicker than anybody we have."
On the difficulties of meshing such a deep team:
"I think in some ways it probably is more difficult, but as I have always said I just look at exhibitions as glorified practices. We weren't trying to beat State, Wake, Duke, Kentucky, Arizona or anything like that, tonight we were just trying to get our team better. We were trying to learn some more things about ourselves. To see how we react and taking the things we do in practice from drills to a game situation."
On his philosophy of playing certain players together:
"From my own viewpoint, combinations are overrated. If you can play, you can play. If you can play, I can play with you. If you're a dog, I can't play with you. If you are talking about Ty and Wayne or Bobby and Marcus, then no. Everybody has a job and if you are where you are supposed to be, and if your teammate is where he is supposed to be, then combinations work themselves out."
On utilizing the press and attacking defenses more than in past years:
"I have said since the summer, we are going to try and play at a faster pace. We have to try and speed the game up and get more possessions. We had 53 possessions in the first have and I said we wanted to average 100, and it's hard to do."
