University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC 105, Miami 64
January 31, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 31, 2007
Recap |
Box Score |
Notes |
Photo Gallery 1 
|
Photo Gallery 2
UNC Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement:
"Well it was a little snowball effect on Miami. I think it was twelve or thirteen points, then all of a sudden it's twenty-eight, and they take it back down to seventeen, then it's twenty-eight to thirty-five again. You hate when the other coach gets tossed, not criticizing the officials, I just hate that part of the game. I guess I'd like it better if it'd be like football were you get penalized and they can't kick you out kind of deal. In baseball, at least you get to kick dirt on the plate or something like that.
You know we did some nice things. We tried to do a good job defensively. I challenged them at one point at one of the TV timeouts because they were breaking us down off the dribble again and I said we cannot be a good team, and I really mean it you cannot be a good team if you allow everyone to break you down off the dribble. Then we go back out and Ty kept the guy right in front of him and then he tried to make a guard-to-guard pass and Wayne intercepted it. We had about three or four really good defensive stops in a row. We got running and we've got more players and it was a good night for us. I like the balance, five guys in double figures and a lot of guys that came in off the bench really did some good things for us. I thought Marcus was active defensively again, Wes made a couple threes, and I thought Q was involved. Alex and Deon, Danny, you can go down the line, I mean I'd say everyone had a good night in a lot of different ways. Brandon tonight reverted to holding the ball too long and I think that's what ends up with having one assist and five turnovers.
You look at all the stats and it looks good for us, but it was a hard night for Miami and a hard night for Frank (Haith). I told him before the game that I feel for him, when you're at Kansas and the first ten days of practice we lost three power forwards in the first ten days and never got them all back all year. So when you are undermanned to begin with, that makes it very difficult, but it was a good night for us."
On the team coming off the win at Arizona:
"I was a little disappointed in how we started. I was a little disappointed in how the crowd started. I mean we've got to be more enthusiastic. I told the team we've got to build our own enthusiasm. Seven o'clock game evidently is too early and nine o'clock game's too late. We've always got an excuse, but we've got to get our tails here and quit worrying about that stuff. I thought we were a little flat early. Wayne made a couple big threes that gave us a little separation with about I'm going to guess six or eight minutes in the first half. They were making some shots too, but I think we handled it pretty well, but I was concerned about it."
On Hansbrough taking the 16-18 foot shot:
"He can shoot the basketball, he really can. I don't want us to fall in love with the jump shot. We shot 24 threes and they did play some zone, but the first half we shot 12 threes and I thought that was bad for us. You'll be really surprised by the number of shots that we have taken compared to the other team. You'd think we're averaging 20 something more points per game, you'd think we'd have a lot, but we had about 30 more shots than the other team."
On if he likes how they're playing going into the upcoming games:
Williams: We think so, we had a good night tonight and we played really well on Saturday that doesn't mean we're going to play well the next game, but I'd rather go in playing well than playing sorry. I think the kids understand in this league it's got to be every game. ... You've got to be ready to play in this league every night. Last thing I told them is enjoy this one `til midnight and we'll start thinking about the next one tomorrow.
Miami Head Coach Frank Haith
Opening Statement:
"Obviously, Carolina is a great ball club, they played very well. I think they're the best team in the country. They come at you in waves. We were just hoping to not have those big runs and they just went on an 8-0 run to end the half. We were right in the ball game, and I think it was an 8 point game or something like that, and they went on that 8-0 run with two threes and obviously my technical finished the half, which got them some separation and then they just kept coming at us in the second half."
On the second technical to get ejected from the game:
"I really don't want to talk about the officiating because I really don't want to take anything away from Roy's club. He's got a great team and they really took it to us tonight."
On if he watched the rest of the game in the locker room:
"I did...It was very difficult. I apologize to our folks back in Miami. That's not my character."
On why he thinks Carolina is the best team in the country:
"They're just so deep, they're so talented, Roy is an outstanding coach...He's got a team. Trust me, he's got a team."
On if he went into the game trying to stop the transition game:
"I thought we did [stop it], for the most part. The first half, they were at 41 points, this team averages 90 a game, and they went on an 8-0 run the last two minutes of the half. It was lat minute. We were doing what we needed to do, what you have to do is be able to sustain it."
UNC Player Quotes
On the rough beginning in the first half after a road win:
"I don't think so. We didn't play back-to-back days or anything like that. We had a couple days to practice and a day off in there. I think we were fine and our bodies were fine. I just think we didn't start off in the first half as well as we would have liked."
On Tyler Hansbrough's jump shots:
"Tyler [Hansbrough] has been shooting the ball well since the summer. The way we play, he gets the ball in the post so much and he does so much for us around the basket, so people don't see it as much in games, but he can really shoot it out there. I don't think that's a surprise to anyone who sees him day-to-day."
On his current condition:
"I think I'm doing good, I have always been in shape. On the timing and everything, you can be a little rusty on it. I remember in practice on my first possession up I got an air ball and then went down and turned it over and that was in practice. It was nice to get those out, but you can see tonight I was a little slow on some things, but it will all come back."
On getting more minutes in future games:
"We'll see how I feel in the morning. It all depends on how my foot reacts to it so we'll take it from there."
On the progress of the team:
"We're getting better and better each game if we continue to do that defensively, especially we're going to be a really good team."
On the rough start and low energy in the first half:
"I think Coach [Williams] wanted us to come out more with a little more fire and intensity. I think we picked it up some in the second half. We still have some things we need to work on, but we did some good things too."
On getting the open looks during the game:
"I think I had some outside open looks and I feel comfortable shooting that shot its something that we work on everyday in practice. I just pulled it and it happened to go in."
On the physicality of the game:
"I think we're starting to see a lot of teams play more physical at times it just comes with experience I think. Its something that maybe we're getting used to and we are just playing through it and things like that."
