University of North Carolina Athletics
Roy Williams Quotes
November 15, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 15, 2006
By Lauren Brownlow
Opening comments:
We feel good to get that first one under our belts. We did some nice things at times. I'd like to congratulate Sacred Heart. They came out there awfully hot at the beginning of the game. I talked to our guys about trying to get there just a little bit better defensively over the course of the game; that would really help us. But they really came out and shot the basketball. Granato was really impressive.
We have a young team. We talked to them about what to do, getting down the court and making Granato drive. When you look down and count, that's 16 shots and 14 of them are threes, we didn't make him drive very much.
But I think it was a good opener for us. Tyler was sensational in the first half. I thought Reyshawn gave us a big lift emotionally with his play in the second half. He became so much more active and with his brain in there. That's what I tell my team all the time, is play intelligent basketball. I think we were much smarter with the ball with the things we did in the second half.
On how well the freshmen are picking things up:
I think Brandan and Wayne have really picked up on things quickly, maybe a little bit more quickly than the other guys. Brandan and Tyler and Reyshawn were the three easiest ones to write into the starting line-up. Wayne has really had some big-time competition from Wes and Marcus. They do some of those good things as well. But I think Brandan and Wayne, their learning curve has just been so much quicker than the others. Ty is going to be fine. He has an extra dimension that most people don't have with that speed, but he hasn't learned as quickly as the others. I'm out there tonight ranting and raving at him because twice he didn't box out. I don't care if you're 5'11'', 6 feet, whatever how tall he says he is, you've still got to go box out. So little things like that is something that Ty's going to improve over the course of the season, and he's going to be a big-time player for us.
Alex and Deon, they've never been pushed as hard as we're pushing them right now; they've never faced the kind of competition in practice like they have. But they're coming along nicely.
Will Graves, it was announced at some point today that he's going to redshirt.
On what Reyshawn gave the team in the second half:
What he tried to do is he tried to be player of the year in the entire world in the first half, and he just tried to do too much instead of just relaxing and playing basketball. I told him at halftime, you can't make a thousand plays in the first half. Just relax and play. I think he was pressing a little bit. In the first half, he throws it to Quentin in the corner, Quentin throws it back to him and he shoots the ball. He doesn't even get it to the other side of the floor and he had Brandan Wright wide open underneath the basket for a lay-up. Then he dribbles it down the court and people come up behind him. It's really a pretty easy deal - you're going up the court, you've just to see the defense, and you've got to count the number of fingers you have, one through five. If there's not five guys in front of you, they're not out in the concession stands, they're running behind you. So I think he was just pressing a little bit. Bobby made a really nice pass on the lob play and got it going and there was the steal a couple of minutes after that. I think that his activity on the offensive boards was the other thing that was important for us.
On why Sacred Heart was able to stay in the game in the first half despite Carolina outscoring them 32-8 in the paint in the first half:
They made outside shots. We were only up five at half, but we missed a dead lay-up. Marcus drive the baseline, misses a lay-up, that would have taken it to ten, and then they bank one in at the horn basically to make it five. It old them I wasn't concerned about that, but we've got to guard better. If we tell you your man and you think he's a good shooter, try to figure out what neighborhood he lives in and try to get close.
I like their club. They have strengths, and they played to their strengths instead of away from their weaknesses. They went small against us. A couple of times they had no post players out there.
On decision to redshirt William Graves:
I've been thinking about it, and William and I talked about it on Sunday. I told the staff that I was going to talk to him. He asked me if he could meet with me after practice, so both of us were thinking the same thing. It was sort of neat for him to come up and wants to talk about it, because he was a little embarrassed, a little nervous about how to say it, because he didn't want to sound like he was being selfish. He's just a great kid. When you look at him, he's got Marcus and Wes, Danny and Reyshawn, Wayne, those guys ahead of him at the 2/3 spot. There's not a lot of time left. If you think about it, almost everybody would be better off, a better player your fifth year than you would be your first year. Football does that all the time and generally it works out for them. I think he's only the third guy I ever redshirted, and all of them it was partially their idea.
On if he plans playing time ahead of time and if he worries about doling about enough minutes:
Everybody's worried about that except me, and that's the truth. The character of our kids, they're so good. You may have read the articles, in one paper Wes said, "I'll be happy as long as our team wins." That's the way everybody's looking at it.
The first two exhibition games, I wrote some things down about how I wanted to sub. These guys count, so I'm not going to make plans. I'm going to go by the seat of my pants. That's what coaching is a lot. But sometimes I'll take guys out; I took Bobby out tonight because he was just so soft. Two plays in a row, he didn't get back on defense and made a sloppy pass.
He's going to be important to us, as all the guys are. It's hard, and I told him this after the game, and I used Bobby as an example, it's hard so sit over there for quite awhile and then all of sudden I put you back in the game and you've got to have the intensity. As hard as that may be, that's what we're going to have to do. I know we're going to play a lot of guys. At times we went small, at times we played Danny and Reyshawn. That worked a couple of times.
On how much of the defensive problems was learning what to do and how much was lack of effort:
It's not effort, because they're trying to do it, but you've got to know how to do it. Everybody in here would try to hit the ball like Tiger Woods and they've got no freakin' hope. They know what to do, they've just got to build habits. In high school, they were so much quicker, more athletic, bigger, stronger, everything, than the next guy, they could loaf a little bit defensively and still keep the guy in front of them. But at this level, they're playing guys just as quick, just as athletic as they are. So they have to have great technique. But you have to keep practicing and practicing before it becomes habit. I think that's what it's going to be. Our guys gave the effort, for the most part, it's just got to be physical effort and mental effort.
