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University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina 93, UNC Asheville 81
January 9, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2008
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North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening statement:
"I feel like I have said this several times, we feel very fortunate to have won. We did not play our best, but you have to give credit to UNC-Asheville. They really did some things that made it difficult for us. Garland and Smithson are two very good basketball players. I think they are fifth year seniors; they show experience and know how to play. I really think they were a load for us. I don't think we really got them under control for any portion of the game, if we did then we started missing shots and turning over the basketball. I thought Ty Lawson was really good, especially in the second half he was much better. In the first half he had four assists and zero turnovers, which is pretty impressive as well. UNC-Asheville is a good basketball team. They had Tennessee 22-23 and I think the game ended up being a ten or eleven point game. They beat South Carolina at South Carolina. Everybody is going to ask if it was an emotional letdown after the game against Clemson. I don't know if you can buy into that, it sounds like more of an excuse to me. We have to do a heck of a lot better job guarding the basketball, I feel like a broken record because I have said that all year long. I thought that was key and we didn't do as good as a job as I wanted to. The big guy is a load inside there is no question. He blocked a couple of shots, but he changed about a million. He only had four blocks, but it is hard to take your normal shots or go in there. I think Eddie [Biedenbach] has done a really nice job and I will be really surprised if they do not have a really good year. We have got to get better; we have got to guard people better. I told the guys the non-conference season is over with and congratulated them. There is not many teams that I have coached that have gone undefeated through non-conference play. Now we have fifteen straight ACC games and we have to get ready to play."
On Tyler Hansbrough's dunk over Kenny George:
"Well he should, if you have a guy who is 7'7 or 7'8 blocking everything you have to take
it in strong. That is what I told him. Don't give me a finger roll, that stuff went out
with Ice Gervin."
On Danny Green's play:
"I mean Danny has got to get better defensively. I watch that end of the floor and you
heard me scream at him, You can't give the guy a ticket to the basket, we are not a bunch
of ushers."
On the return of Alex Stepheson:
"I think he was probably a little anxious. He was gone a week and missed a couple games.
I feel so badly for him cause he had five fouls and they were not hard fouls. It was a
frustrating night for him, but we are happy to have him back."
UNC Asheville Head Coach Eddie Biedenbach
Opening statement:
"I thought we played a good game. We didn't come here to just play a `good game'. When we got the score back to 10, we're shooting a free throw with about four minutes to go, we thought we could put some pressure on. We scored well, 40 and 41, and we scored enough on them, but defensively in the first half we gave up 53 points and didn't rebound, had a lot of poor defensive coverages which resulted in three or four wide-open threes. They were six for 12 from three in the first half and you can't do that against a great team.
We took away inside stuff. It was coverages, not effort. It was our lack of communication and getting to where we needed to be. When you get down that many points and you scored 40, you're just not in position. The second half, we hung in there, and we got it 10 and missed free throws. Somewhere you've got to put pressure on their team to whether they should take a shot or not take a shot, whether they should drive or not drive. You have to put people in a position to where they can make some mistakes. Mentally, we never did that."
On center Kenny George's improvement:
"He's come a long way. He's a factor in every game he plays just like he was tonight. He's a very good player- he's got good hands. The thing people don't understand- they just want to say `he's a big guy out there'. He's a big guy that didn't play a half a year in high school- he got hurt halfway through his senior year- so he didn't play. Not only that, he didn't run up and down the court, he didn't exercise, he didn't swim, he didn't do anything. He had a knee operation. Then, his freshman year, he dislocates another kneecap. He doesn't play his whole freshman year, doesn't run up and down, doesn't lift weights, doesn't run, and doesn't get in the swimming pool. Then his sophomore year, the next year, the same thing happens. So two and a half years, he doesn't run up and down the court. You take any of these guys and don't let them get in shape and let them play basketball. He's done remarkably well in the last year.
He's just worked very smart and as hard as he could. I could go out there and work him really hard in practice up and down and get him in shape as a lot of people might think, but he couldn't play the games. We're bringing him along as best we can, and he is just absolutely great."
On George's game tonight:
"He tweaked his knee a little bit down in South Carolina, and I wasn't sure how much he could play tonight. But he really wanted to play. He's a very good competitor. I want him to play just like he did. He was mad out there a couple of times, he wasn't able to play like he wanted to. I want him to get mad out there and do things and show emotion. He did a great job tonight, but he was very upset after the game, because he's a competitor. He gets out there to win basketball games. And when he doesn't do as well as he thinks he should, he's upset with himself."
Tar Heel Player Quotes
On the players' reactions:
"We definitely thought that we didn't play Carolina basketball tonight. We followed up Clemson with another poor defensive effort, which was probably the most disappointing thing. We didn't play the type of defense that we need to play against Clemson and we come out tonight and have another poor effort."
On whether it was more of a hangover than looking forward to Saturday:
"I definitely think it was more of a hangover. I've never felt like this team has looked over anybody. We've come out and not been focused, but I don't think it's even been because we've been looking ahead."
On how much Kenny George affected Carolina:
"I know a number of occasions he made me turn around and just altering shots in the paint. Obviously giving us a lot of trouble on the defensive end of the court, and him being so tall, getting catches, and dunking it over. He was definitely more to handle than he was last year, he's definitely improved and gave them a good edge. Altogether, we just needed to come out more intense about things we were doing defensively."
On having no turnovers this game:
"I've been working on not turning the ball over, making the easy pass, and being more aggressive on offense."
On the small number of turnovers as a team:
"That's a big emphasis coach had. Against Clemson we made turnovers that weren't forced so that was one of thing we wanted to look at. And that's what we did; we took care of the ball in the first half."
On Coach William's statement about guarding the basketball:
"We're just not staying in front of the ball. They're getting middle drives and maybe kick the ball out for threes and things like that. Today they were just throwing it to big George, so those were some of the things we need to work on."
On Coach's emphasis on needing to get better at guarding the ball:
"We just need to step it up, pick it up on the defensive end of the court, especially on the ball. Coach was frustrated tonight. We didn't do that we know we're capable of."
On getting ready for ACC play:
"We're excited. You know how tough the ACC is, so we're excited to get focused on our league. And hopefully we'll go out and win it again."
