University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Maryland Quotes
January 19, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 19, 2008
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North Carolina Coach Roy Williams
North Carolina vs. Maryland
January 19, 2008
"Well I haven't done a very good job with this basketball team the last couple of weeks. We've been living on the edge, and it caught up with us today. Particularly in the first half Maryland was so much more aggressive, so much more competitive than we were. We can always look down and say, `Well you've got to make shots,' and we didn't have anybody shoot a very good percentage. We shouldn't play like we did in the first half today. We made a comeback on emotion, is basically what it was. We still weren't shooting the ball in the hole. We got a couple of misses on their end. We have a four-point lead, and we go down and we foul them, they make both free throws. We come back and miss a pretty good shot and foul them, and they make both free throws. We come down and miss a pretty good shot again and foul them, and they both free throws again, so you have to congratulate Maryland for making the plays. I think if I'm not mistaken, they made their last six, and they were all pretty crucial free throws. It's a credit to this league and Gary [Williams] and the job that he's done. People complaining about Gary, and I thought his club played really really well today. They're a good basketball team. I think that four of those guys who played so much last year are really important to them. [Eric] Hayes coming back in the game and playing today I thought was important to them. You have to congratulate James [Gist] particularly, 22 [points] and 13 [rebounds]. We didn't do a good job in the post defense. We didn't help down from the front. We didn't stop the penetration. Then on the offensive end we didn't have very good movement. A lot of times we got pretty good shots, but we didn't make them. Like I say, I've done a poor job with this basketball team, and we got to get better."
On if the wins against Clemson and Georgia Tech overshadowed problems:
"I don't think it did at Clemson, because at Clemson we played pretty
doggone well. We really did. It's a tough atmosphere to play. We made
plays down the stretch. We were very lucky. I said this after the game
the other night we were very lucky at Georgia Tech. Some people can say
that is does. I don't know. I don't know what goes into the psyche of
19-, 20- and 21-year-olds. If I did, I'd never lose. We were not as
competitive and aggressive as I wanted us to be in the first half. It
was just an amazing display. Danny [Green], Tyler [Hansbrough] and Deon
[Thompson] were 3 for 17 in the first half. We do have to play defense.
It's a two way game. You play defense, and you play offense. We have to
get better shots, and we have to get better movement. I don't know if
that's what it is or not. I know that we haven't played as well. I did
think that we played well at Clemson. Like I said with North Carolina
State the first half, I thought we were pretty doggone good. We haven't
played well since then."
On Maryland's ability to slow down North Carolina's running game:
"They did a pretty good job of scoring against second shots. In fact,
they probably out ran us. They probably really did. During a couple of
possessions in the second half I was really mad because I didn't think
we sprinted back, I didn't think we got involved and got back the way
we did. We had one time two guys give me the tired signal running back
on defense. That should never happen. If you're going to be frickin'
tired, tell me on offense, don't tell me as you're running back and the
other team's laying it up on the other end. We didn't get guys running,
we didn't rebound the ball and the other thing is you look down, and
[Maryland] only had 10 turnovers. Tuesday night, Greivis [Vasquez], who
I thought was really important to them today, but Tuesday night he had
eight turnovers himself. Our defense didn't force the turnovers, and
they did a great job of taking care of the basketball. I think that was
huge for them. They got the shots where they wanted. They got the ball
where they wanted it, and we didn't get it stopped."
Head Coach Gary Williams
Opening Statement:
"When I came into the league in 1989, Coach Smith was one of the people
that I tried to look at North Carolina's program and figure out a way
we could get Maryland's program to be competitive in the ACC. He has
been a good friend over the years, especially since he retired. I just
saw in the paper that he had knee replacement surgery. I know all the
fans at Maryland want Dean Smith to recover and really be healthy and
be able to play golf this spring. I just wanted to pass that off on
behalf of our fans. The game today was one of those things where I
thought we were playing good enough defense over the last five games to
be competitive. Where we were struggling was scoring the ball. We have
been working hard with things on offense, trying a few new things just
being more patient. We are not the type of team this year that can
shoot it quickly, unless we have something easy in transition. We were
trying to run transition, and then run a good play after transition. I
say for the majority of the game we did a good job of that, we didn?t
take a lot of in between shots. Otherwise not transition or half court
offense. We did a good job of that and played with a lot of heart. I
think Eric Hayes coming back, whatever he did on the floor, just having
him back meant a lot to our players. In the time he has been out, both
with Tucker and Adrian Bowie got a lot of quality minutes. Sometimes
when you get an injury, you can survive the injury, it makes your team
better when you can get everything back into place."
On the season prior to this win:
"Well we were mostly off, there wasn't a whole lot of on to start the
season. Work we did was try to get better. I think we have become a
better basketball team the last couple weeks. Our two losses in the
league were by one at Virginia Tech and Greivis got his fifth foul with
ten minutes left in the game, and we were up four against Boston
College. Those were are two losses so we knew we were playing pretty
well. We scrapped we didn't play great against Wake, but we scrapped
pretty well. So I think our players really believed that if we could
execute really good on offense we had a chance to win the game."
On defending Hansbrough:
"He is so tough and if he starts making those jump shots, it is really
going to be a problem. We had a guy named Lonny Baxter, who gets the
same angles as what Hansbrough does; Hansbrough is probably two inches
taller. They get great angles, so if you make a mistake defensively and
you're a good passing team, they give him the ball where he can just
turn and go. I don't know what defense there is to stop that, so we
really worked on trying to not let him get the angle. In other words,
if we had to let him catch the ball but stay between him and the
basket. That is really what we tried to do. We opened the game trying
to double off of Ginyard, but he hit two threes so we had to get away
from that. In the second half we were just trying to get as much help
in there as possible without getting beat by Ellington or someone like
that. That is why they are good and they just have a lot of ways they
can go offensively where they can attack you."
UNC Player Quotes - Maryland Game
Tyler Hansbrough
On Maryland's defense
"I guess they were playing packed in man-to-man and they doubled me whenever I caught it."
On the last shot
"I always think my shots are going in, but it just didn't go that way."
On the last possession
"Wayne was coming off the top and I was coming off the side. Wayne was our first option, but it just didn't go that way."
On what they needed to be doing that they weren't doing
"Defensively, I didn't think we got big stops when we need to; first half especially was lacking. That's the game right there."
Marcus Ginyard
On Maryland's offense
"It came down to Maryland doing what they wanted to do offensively. We knew coming into the game that they were going to pound the ball inside. They wanted to execute their stuff more than we wanted to stop them obviously. That got everything they wanted inside, they beat us to the boards, and they made us take tough shots potentially. They were just aggressive today everywhere and obviously it shows."
On Roy's comment about living on the edge
"Definitely. We were just hoping things would go our way, hoping that we get the lucky bounce, hoping that we knock down the shot at the last second. But, the game shouldn't have to come down to that. We should make things go our way a lot earlier than the last couple seconds. Today we weren't so fortunate. We just got to look at it and think that Maryland, today, did a lot of things earlier in the game to make things go their way."
Danny Green
On the difference in intensity between the two halves
"We came out sluggish. We weren't executing the way we're supposed to. They came out wanting it more than we did in the first half definitely. They were executing their offense and playing good defense on us; we weren't getting any easy baskets. They were hitting shots and we weren't doing what we were supposed to do. So, in the first half they pretty much gave it to us; they kicked us down pretty much. As soon as you dig yourself a hole, it's hard to get out of it. Once we got out of it, it was too late. Down the stretch we made some big plays, but we didn't make the plays that we needed to, to win."
On the recurring lack of intensity
"I guess it starts with the respect of the other team. We didn't respect them as much as we should have and they came out hitting a lot more shots than we expected, a high percentage in the paint and a high percentage outside as well."
