.png&width=36&height=36&type=webp)
University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Kentucky Quotes
November 19, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 19, 2008
Recap |
Box Score |
Photo Gallery 1 
|
Photo Gallery 2
Carolina head coach Roy Williams
Opening statement:
"I love the fact that it went in the correct column. We had a fantastic 10 ten or 12 minutes, our defense was really aggressive with the intensity that we had hoped. Right now we feel really good about the win, at the same time we're concerned about Tyler Zeller, he's on the way to the hospital right now taking the x-ray to see what it is, but it doesn't give us a good feeling.
"I thought our defense forcing the turnovers was key to the game early and then after that we meandered around a bit like we did against Penn. If you look at the stats, we shot 41 and they shot 44. We did shoot better from the three-point line, the one thing that jumps out at you is the turnovers. For us to get 70 shots and for them to get 45, that is a huge margin right there so if you have to pick a stat that is probably the most important of the game.
"I think Danny did a great job taking charge early in the game, he got hit in the mouth and then only took one field goal the rest of the way through. I thought Deon was important to us. Overall it was a great 10 or 12 minutes and then we meandered around."
On Deon Thompson stepping up in Hansbrough's absence:
"It's encouraging. I think Deon, other than Tyler, probably worked harder than anyone else on our team in the offseason, probably for the past two years. He's been working on his body and it is really satisfying to see the change and being able to see the transfer from working on his body in the offseason to seeing his success on the court."
UNC Players
Deon Thompson
On what the team is learning about themselves
On stepping up
"I think I've just been doing the things that I've been doing over the summer. I guess I have just a little bit more of an opportunity with Tyler [Hansbrough] out of there and just taking advantage and not really trying to force anything. I think the way I've been scoring and getting rebounds has just been coming in the flow of our whole offense, just being in the right spot. So, I don't think I'm trying to force anything."
Wayne Ellington
On coming out strong
"We came out and we wanted to jump on them early. We came out with a lot of adrenaline, a lot of energy, and a lot of intensity. That's what we wanted to do. We wanted to come out, get in the passing lanes, pressure their guards, and play great help team defense. The result was we came out and jumped on them pretty big."
On feeding off the crowd
"The crowd was involved and that's what we like. We had a lot of energy, we played with everything and we left everything out there and everyone was cheering."
Ty Lawson
On going to Maui
"I'm ready for it. We leave tomorrow. So, I'm ready to go down there, have fun, play games, go to Maui and chill on the beach."
On early season team bonding in Maui
"This is an experience a lot of people don't go through. Especially with the freshmen, there's a lot of things we're going to do together and make us closer."
Kentucky head coach Billy Gillespie
On improved 2nd half performance
"I think it had to do with execution and aggressiveness and those kind of things. We're just making too many mental errors even though it's the second game of the season against a really good team and really well organized team and fine executing team. You can't make the mistakes that we made like picking the dribble up, not being strong with the ball, getting destroyed on the offensive ball. Even though the numbers on rebounding don't look like we did, they had 18 offensive rebound put-backs. That was a key.
"Our transition defense had too many mistakes with guys who didn't communicate well enough. We creep back into the game, we're not in bad shape no matter how poorly we had played, and then we sub, and we don't guard the right guy or don't guard a guy and they make a three. But I did think we fought extremely hard, and when we got in the half-court our defense was extremely good for the most part I though against good players and a really good team. They shot 41% and they're not going to shoot that percentage too many times. They're not going to score only 77 points. I know that's way too many, but you take away the points that we gave them, and I think we're going to be alright."
