University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes
December 2, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 2, 2006
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement:
"Well, we're extremely happy with the W. It's one of the competitive, ragged, grind-it-out, ugly, you get to put your own adjectives that you want in there, except there not going to always be really pretty. There always not going to be finesse, running up and down, lob, dunk, high five people kind of game. I'm proud of our team, look at it, you rebound badly in the first half, and yet two of the bigger plays down the stretch, is I think we had two offensive rebounds for baskets in the last four of five minutes, which did not enable them to cut into the lead significantly. I thought Wayne made a big basket from the corner.
But it was very ragged, I look down and we have 20 assists and 9 turnovers, and I thought we were really sloppy with the basketball at the end there, too casual. We knew they were going to try and foul, because they had some fouls to give. Fortunately we were able to make some free throws as well. You know there's not many times you can shoot 37% and win and yet I'm very pleased with that. I've told all my teams about a team I had one time, we shot 29% on the road and won because we just out-competed the other bunch. And I'm not going to tell you we out-competed Kentucky because you don't do that to a Tubby team.
I really did like how we competed today and as I said during the press conference yesterday, I was concerned about a let down. I don't think we were emotionally into the game nearly as much as we were Wednesday night. The crowd definitely wasn't as emotionally into the game as they were Wednesday night. It's only the second time in my entire career that I've ever stood up and waved at the crowd, try and wake them up. But it's part of it, we told this team that we shouldn't wait for the crowd to get us going, let's get the crowd going. But we've got to do a better job in that, playing, coaching, cheering, standing up stomping you're feet, we've got to do a better job of everything.
Reyshawn, I was really proud of him making some big baskets for us today. As everybody knows he's been struggling. Played very well against Kentucky last year and played very well today, made some big shots. Tyler had a tough time last year and had a tough time again today, but still the bottom line is what he's concerned about is that North Carolina had 12 more points. Ty and Bobby, 10 and 3, and 18 - 3 the last two games from our point guards. Bobby's foot is not what was hurting him at the end. When he took a charge, he hurt his butt. You can say his posterior, you can say his behind, whatever you want to say, but when he took a charge he came down on his hip and that what was bothering him. The foot was not bothering him."
On the problem Kentucky's size presented:
"Well I was mad at the perimeter guys in the first half, because with about 4 minutes to go in the half we had shot 2 free throws. We've got a guy named Hansbrough we weren't throwing the ball to. Their size, I mean they're big, Randolf is 6'11, 7', Jered Carter is 7'1, Stevenson's 6'9 but he's like Brandon with those long arms and they're competitive guys. I mean when we threw the ball inside to Tyler he was having to beat three or four guys. He's got to do a better job of getting it out a little quicker.
As I said before, I want him to challenge one guy and don't even mind him challenging two a lot of times, but he's got to get it back out a little bit quicker. First half we allowed their zone to make us be a perimeter shooting team. And we were fortunate also because they missed some shots themselves. We still have to get the basketball inside. We've got to run the basketball than we did today. We allowed the tempo to be a lot slower than I wanted it to be. "
Kentucky Head Coach Tubby Smith
Opening Statement:
"Well certainly we thought coming into this game that we could play and do some things that we really got better at....But whenever you play North Carolina, or anybody, you've got to take care of the basketball and execute, and I thought that was our major concern and problem today.
As I said, we did some good things. We certainly have to compliment North Carolina because they've got a very talented ball club, a very athletic ball club. They made their shots when they were open and I thought that was one of the turning points in the game. We got it to three there, or four, right when we started the second half and felt like we had some runs, but we kept taking ourselves out of it with careless turnovers, offensive fouls, things where we just have to be more disciplined.
Randolph obviously had an excellent game, I thought he played well. We had some good play from other individuals, but I thought primarily he was the one that really stood out. We've got to regroup, and try to find a way to address this ball handling issue, because this is the fourth game in a row I think that we've turned the ball over each game more."
On his team controlling the pace of the game:
"Yeah, we did. That was the game plan to try to control the tempo, but in order to do that you've to keep possession of the ball a little bit longer and take care of the basketball. We defended well inside by trapping when we had to, and if we take away some of the dunks that they had and if we make a couple shots, it might be a different story. Again, rebounding the ball is something we've been struggling with, and I liked our defense. We were a lot more aggressive in trying to take things away from them as far as handling their screens. But again, they come in waves, and I thought our transition defense, even though they turned us over a lot, a lot of them didn't really lead to quick baskets on their part. Usually, it was us with the ball doing something crazy like pushing off or charging."
On his team's poor three point shooting in the first half:
"Well Joe had a bunch of good looks in the first half. I think he was 0 for 5, and we had a few good looks there that didn't go down. If those shots drop, maybe we get some momentum. Maybe we haven't been shooting enough."
On the defensive job on Tyler Hansbrough:
"I thought Randolph did a good job of keeping the ball off of him, and when he did get the ball we gave him a lot of help. But then again, a player like Hansbrough can really find people open, so it wasn't necessarily his pass, but maybe the next pass or the extra pass that leads to the shot. He'll kick it back out, reverse you and then someone hits an open three, so you've got to pick your poison. You decide to go down and take him out of the game, and double him, and the rotations I thought weren't very quick and that's why Carolina got a lot of open threes."
UNC Player Quotes
On the complete change in line-up during the second half:
"It was tough. We did not hustle for that loose ball, the guys were just running down the court, taking it in with the ball, but Coach [Williams] got really into it. We got back in and took advantage of those opportunities. "
On how did the change in the line-up affect the playing in the second half:
"Coach just lit a fire under us. He made us go out there, play more aggressive, and dive for those balls. We didn't go out there and that made us work harder."
On the improvement on the team's defense:
"I think we're playing a more team defense. Everybody's putting effort into the defense. Everybody wants it more, I think the effort is where we lacked before and I think we are starting to get that."
On the pressure of taking shots now that he is in the college game:
"Last year, taking a lot of big shots in high school, that made the transition a lot easier for me."
On Reyshawn [Terry] making the offensive hits:
"It was huge because we were struggling and inside and their size and everything so the perimeter definitely needed to make a play or two and Reyshawn [Terry] did that hitting back to back three's, getting the crowd into it again, and we started playing defense. I'm glad it was Reyshawn [Terry] because he needed that."
On Tyler's [Hansbrough] struggle throughout the game:
"The only other game I can think of is the Gonzaga game a week ago. They were big and they were throwing three or four guys at him and its tough to score when you have that type of defense playing against you."
On the part in the game when he was supposed to be the fifth player on the court:
"I still did not know that it was supposed to be me. Everybody on the bench kept saying four and we were just trying to figure out where Wes [Miller] was supposed to sit down on the bench. They continued to say four and I was thinking maybe four chairs, so I had no idea and saw that there was only four people so I just ran out there."
On the effort plays in the game:
"In the first half, Kentucky was more aggressive than we were. That is something that is unacceptable in any game, but at the same time a big school like Kentucky, at home. That's just something that should never happen so in the second half we really focused making those effort plays and just give them that extra effort to be aggressive."
