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University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina 90, Kent State 61
January 2, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 2, 2008
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North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening statement:
"I thought we were better defensively in the second half. In the first half we turned it over and took a couple of bad shots and all of a sudden we're defending in transition the last eight minutes of the half. [Kent State] shoots 50 percent that way. I challenged our guys to be better defensively in the second half and not be in such a hurry offensively because turnovers lead to open court situations for them and bad shots like Will [Graves]'s jump shot with a guy right in his face at the foul line leads to run outs for the other team as well.
I thought we did some nice things. It was frustrating at times, but I think this stretch here has been really good for us. We've been exposed to a lot of different kinds of styles that we're going to face throughout the year, people trying to spread us, which teams will do throughout conference play as well. I think for the most part we did some nice things there. You look down there and see Tyler [Hansbrough] is 7 for 10, Wayne [Ellington is 8 for 11 and Ty [Lawson] is 7 for 11. That's pretty good, and you like that. For us, Ty had three turnovers at half, and two of them were just careless. In the second half he had zero turnovers. If we have better spacing he can get the ball in front of the rim, and I think that helped us a great deal as well. I've been on him the last couple of days in practice and the last game to shoot the outside shot because he really is a good shooter, and he's been catching the ball and not even thinking about shooting. I told him he doesn't have to shoot, but at least put his arm underneath it and make them think he's going to shoot. That makes the guy come up on him even more, and then he can go by him.
I thought we did some nice things. It's all over with now. They'll realize we have one more next week non-conference, but now we get into the family stuff. I told them in the locker room I've been working my tail off trying to make sure they're focused the last four or five games because we've played pretty solid basketball teams. If they need me to get focused now we're really in bad shape because it's time to start the big play."
On North Carolina's defense in the late part of the first half:
"It started really on the offensive end because of Will's bad shot, we turned it over, we turned it over throwing it inside to the post twice, and the big kid, we call him Q [Haminn Quaintance], he had five steals. One of the things in the scouting report said he did a great job of running around the guy in the post and making it difficult to throw it in the post. We tried to throw it to Tyler I think twice and Deon once, and he got three steals that way. We turned it over a little bit and then as I said Will took a bad shot from the foul line, and I think Tyler took a bad shot. Those kinds of things led to the transition defense. We've been working on that hard, and we've been doing a nice job, but we didn't do it at the end of the first half today. Then we made a silly play. We're holding for the last shot. If you're holding for the last shot it's pretty simple, you're supposed to get the last frickin' shot.
On his attitude during the game:
"I was frustrated. I didn't think we competed as well, and we didn't play as intelligently as we have. I told Will Graves, I don't care if you score 1,700 points in five minutes, you're butt's not going to play if you don't guard. I thought he didn't compete one possession. He just stands there, lets the guy get the ball and lays it up. I'm pretty tough on guys if you don't do two things: if you don't concentrate and you don't hustle. If you concentrate, you're going to compete. If you hustle, you're going to compete. I've never had a player that I've embarrassed by missing a shot. I've never had a player that I've embarrassed by missing a rebound. If you don't concentrate and play with your brain, and you don't hustle then you're going to be embarrassed by me."
Kent State Coach Jim Christian
On the second half:
"That's one of the strengths of their basketball team; they can withstand your run and put a run on you that's hard to stop. They really know how to increase the lead and that's the sign of a great basketball team. Once they smell a little blood, they go for it and at that time you have to play with a lot of poise and togetherness on both ends of the floor and we kind of came apart there on that stretch. But, you have to give them credit; they forced us to come apart a little bit and that's where we have to grow."
On what to take from this game heading into the conference play:
"We can take a lot out of this game. There were stretches in the game I thought we did some very good things and played very well together as a team, executed well; there were stretches where we didn't. What we did show is that when we do play together and when we are focused together as a group we can compete with people and we did that during stretches of the game."
On what an underdog needs to bring into a game like this:
"There are a lot of things that have to happen. Number one, you have to do all the little things: you have to take care of the basketball, you have to try to eliminate as many easy baskets as you can, and you have to make shots. I thought we did get some shots that we normally do make and we missed them; that's got to be a big part of the equation. The other thing is you have to catch them on a night when they don't play well and Coach Williams, as we knew coming in, had his team very well prepared and they played very well."
Junior Guard Marcus Ginyard
On the upcoming game at Clemson:
"I definitely look forward to ACC play. Everybody in this locker room at this point; knows that there is no need for coach to say those types of things anymore. Coach told us at the end of the game if he needs to motivate us at this point, then we are in bad shape. I know what we're up against in the ACC, so everybody just got to step it up. Those times that we are not focused are going to look that much worse and they are going to be that much more important in the ACC. We just got to dig deep right now and really start playing better basketball all the time."
On being short handed due to injuries:
"It is just something that this team has to work through. I think that it is okay to struggle at times, as long as you continue to work through it. Understand what we are learning from certain situations and get better during certain situations. There are going to be times when we are short handed, obviously right now and who knows it could get worse. We have to just continue to take these things and run with it."
Sophomore Guard Ty Lawson
On defensive adjustments in the second half:
"As a team we needed to get off into the middle of the lane and be prepared for the back door cut; that is what they wanted to do because we pressure so hard. We stayed on the ground and contested all shots."
On his shooting performance:
"Probably last week, my dad came down and shot with me in the gym. I put in a lot more hours than I usually do in the gym, so that's where it came from."
Sophomore Guard Wayne Ellington
On the upcoming ACC opener at Clemson:
"The league starts and we are ready to play, we are all excited."
On staying focused throughout each game:
"We are an experienced basketball team and we know we can't lack focus, that is something that we probably did last year. We are not really lacking focus when we get up, we are staying focused and concentrating on what we have to do."
