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University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina 90, Valparaiso 58
December 30, 2007 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 30, 2007
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North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening statement:
"The kids had a lot of high spots there. I need to work with Tyler on his three-point selection. I didn't tell him this, he's 7 for 8, but that may have been the worst three-pointer I've ever seen anybody take, but he can shoot the basketball. One of these days he's going to make one, and he might make a second or a third one, but that was not a very good one.
The first half reminded me of the Gonzaga game last year. We would jump out and have them 12-0, and it was not because of our defense, it was because they were missing shots. Sure enough, Valpo made a great run. I tried to warn them that the game's not over with. A long time ago I was coaching a team and we were ahead 22-0, and they had a shot to win the game at the end. I'm never extremely impressed or extremely disappointed about the first couple of minutes of games. They were missing those shots, but then they started making some. We started turning it over and taking bad shots. It was down to five at half. We came out in the second half, and it got 37-37, then all of a sudden we played probably our best basketball of the year for about the next eight or 10 minutes. We got some stops on the defensive end, and we made shots. Everything looks a lot better when the ball goes in the hole. Danny [Green] made a couple threes, Ty [Lawson] made a three in that stretch and we were getting the ball inside to Tyler [Hansbrough]. Those things really help you.
You look down and we had a lot of plus moments from a lot of different kids. I think Danny and Will [Graves] particularly, coming off the bench. Will made most of his when the game was not in doubt, but at the same time he made a couple when it was big for us. His first five I thought were good points for us. It's a little frustrating to lose Bobby [Frasor] to say the least, and then lose [Quentin] Thomas the next day at practice to a sprained ankle. I'm not sure right now whether he'll be able to play Wednesday or not. We spent the day yesterday working with Marcus [Ginyard] at the point. Marc Campbell would have been the next guy to go in if something had happened. I kept trying to take Ty out around the TV timeouts to give him a little extra rest. It worked out fine. Valpo is a very good basketball team, but again that one stretch may have been the best we've played this year."
On Danny Green's shooting when Wayne Ellington is struggling:
"Well Wayne's been shooting great. Danny's been stinking it up, but tonight it changed. Danny made one three in three games. Wayne was five for eight or five for six the last game. We need somebody to step up. Danny's been really really good for us all year, hadn't shot the ball very well the last two or three games, but still doing some other good things. I thought he was huge for us. If I had to guess I'd say he probably scored more points in that run than anybody else, but that could be just a guess. Wayne Ellington was two for ten, but I told him last year I would have taken him out if he was shooting like that because his defensive play wasn't very good, but he's so much better defensively this year that allows me to keep him in. He has six assists and zero turnovers. That allows you to keep a guy in too."
Valparaiso Coach Quotes - Homer Drew
Opening Statement:
"First of all, Happy New Year to everyone. As you go into the Happy New Year process you're going to allow us to become a better basketball team after this evening. I really was proud of our team first half. We got down 12-0. I thought we showed great poise, great patience, great confidence and we came back and made it a very exciting end of the half. You just knew what Roy was talking about with his team about coming out with a little more intensity. It was 37-37 and they went on a 25-2 run and I think you really have to compliment [them]. I thought Coach Williams did a great job adjusting, taking away the three-point line from us with their length and with their quickness. Their speed, we just could not catch up. Very disappointed in our performance in the second half. We wanted to make it a little more competitive second half.
I think that one of our keys was to try to keep Lawson in front of us. And I was really pleased with our guards keeping Ty, because I think he's one of the quickest players in all of basketball; such a wonderful leader and distributes so well. You really got to compliment North Carolina because they found a lot of new players coming in. Graves came in and hits deep threes and Green came in and hit those threes. They needed to step up because we were trying to key a little more on Ellington and Lawson and they really shot the ball well and broke the game wide open. So, you have to give a lot of credit to North Carolina and you can see why they are the number one team. We've had three loses; I wish all of you could have seen us play a little better than we did because we are a much better team than what we were able to show. But, you have to credit North Carolina with their quickness and defense with that as well. We lost three; we lost to Vanderbilt at Vanderbilt, Wisconsin at Wisconsin, and now North Carolina. And you can really see the quickness that North Carolina has; it's the quickest team that we have faced. Their speed and that translates into defense, which is very tough at times to get passes. And on loose balls, they always seemed like they would get it and they are off and running to the other end. So, you really have to compliment them. They are a very deserving number one team."
On Tyler Hansbrough:
"We've seen a lot of tape, a lot of film on him and the wonderful thing is that I was born in Saint Louis, Missouri so I was kind of proud of him. We've seen him on TV and seen him on tape and he is better in person. He elevates much higher than we thought he was going to and he's just so ferocious at going to the basketball; he's a joy to watch at playing the game. And I hope it really helped our young players. Bryan Bouchie, who we think a lot of, is going to be very good for us and I think he had a real good teacher tonight in Hansbrough. I think Bryan got better and I think Urule, our starting center, also. So, I think we grew out of this and I think this will make us into better players, but he's much quicker and he jumps, he elevates much higher. You just love to watch him; he's a warrior out on the floor."
On the start of the first half:
"I really wasn't concerned with that one as much as I was the second half; the second half really bothered me. First half, I really had good confidence in our players and I knew we would come back; 12-0 was not a concern. In fact, maybe I was hoping that would take a little bit of the edge off of North Carolina."
On pulling away when it was 37-37:
"Right then we knew that this was one of the toughest teams that we had faced so far. We knew that they weren't going to give up, right at the beginning of the second half and we weren't as focused as we needed to be and its at the point when we are either going to get our act together or they are going to go on a run. And then we started to play our type of basketball."
On how the team can play:
"When we play the way we can we are capable of going off to 19-2 runs, scoring 50 points in 15 minutes. I just think that it surprises this team how good that we can be."
On the team when it makes big runs:
"You never know where it's coming from. Tyler can start rolling, Danny can start rolling, Ty can get going. You never know where or when it can come from with us."
On being more aggressive:
"I'm trying to be more aggressive and not put so much pressure on myself. I'm not out here to fill Brandan's (Wright) shoes and not worry about anything."
On the physical fouls:
"I hold my composure well in situations like that. It's not like it doesn't happen a lot. I try to take it out on the court and let things come to me. I get tired of it but it's just part of the game."
On his play:
"There was definitely a moment in the game when it felt like everything was falling for me and everything was going my way. When I feel like that I call for the ball a lot more. Not only just me but everybody got into a flow, Will hit some shots and then Ty hit some and we got on a roll."
