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UNC-Evansville Quotes
December 18, 2008 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 18, 2008
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Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement
"It was a great night for us to see a historic night in Carolina basketball. It's a thrill for me to be sitting up here at this table with Tyler Hansbrough and Phil Ford. I think if you talk about North Carolina basketball tomorrow or twenty-five years from now you'll still be talking about these two guys. Now, there'll be some other guys in the conversation; I'm not saying that there won't be. These two guys here are what North Carolina basketball stands for. The night and what Tyler accomplished and early we had some jitters, but it was a great night and I felt very fortunate to be sitting over there on that bench."
On what he said when Tyler broke the record
"Almost, but I didn't say `I'm glad.' I said, `I'm glad we got that behind us, now let's focus on playing better and let's focus on guarding somebody and not playing matador style defense.' It was emotional for all of us...I don't look up at the scoreboard, but it was the first time that I can ever remember counting points in my head. So when it goes it, it was immediately a feeling of elation and a feeling of relief that we got that out of the way."
Tyler Hansbrough
On the video
"It meant a lot. I saw Marv [Marvin Williams] and Ray [Raymond Felton] and a lot of guys come back here and work out during the summer. When you play here you have a lot of respect for the guys that have kind of been there and done a lot. It meant a lot to me; the video and everything that kind of led us there. And seeing all these guys say some stuff and some guys that I watched when I was little and wanted to be like, it was a little emotional."
On making the basket to break the record
"I was happy it was over with. I didn't really think about it much before until a couple games ago when someone mentioned it to me. I hadn't really been keeping up with it until everybody started talking about it and I was just tried to get it over with so we could move on."
On the start of the game
"One thing for me was that I'm not usually nervous before games and I was a little nervous before tonight just because I felt like there was a lot of pressure. And one thing for me was I didn't want to strictly focus on trying to break the scoring record. We had a game and I was trying to do whatever I could do to help the team. Whenever it did happen, I was thrilled and excited it was over with, but also felt very honored."
On his father being there
"Well I saw him [his father] in warm-ups and I didn't really know he was going to come. He kind of surprised me. Me and my Dad, we've worked a lot on my game when I was younger. And that's meant a lot to me. I know he's proud of me and I was really glad he came."
Phil Ford
On when Phil broke the record
"I was relieved. I know I remember walking into the locker room when I did it in the first half. I remember Coach Smith looking at me and saying `I'm glad that's over.' And I was glad it was over too because there was so much attention. As I said, I don't know how Tyler feels, but I think the scoring record is the least most-important record for a Carolina basketball player. We don't care who scores; we just want a North Carolina guy to get the ball in the basket. But what it does say is that I may a high percentage of my field goals and a high percentage of my free throws and that I played a lot. It was just something that I was glad to get over with because it did draw a lot of attention for the wrong reasons."
On Carolina for the rest of the season
"I think they are having a great season to date, and as we all know it is a long season and they have a chance to be special. I think on down from coaching, to depth, to positions and how they play together, but we all know there is a lot of parity in college basketball. But if they listen to Coach Williams, keep their head on straight and the injury-bug doesn't bite them, they have just as a good a chance of doing it as any other college team in America."
Evansville Head Coach Marty Simmons
Opening Statement:
"I thought we came out of the gates really aggressive. We played really hard and I am really proud of them. Carolina went on a little run and we kind of lost our aggressiveness, which is a credit to them. That is the way they play and you cannot loose your aggressiveness against good teams. They are such an impressive team. From an offensive standpoint they spread it out and play fast. I give our guys a lot of credit. We did not give up and kept battling back. I thought we played hard in the second half."
On his team's poor free throw shooting:
"We have been much better all year. Nate Garner going 0-for-4, that is the one guy that really hurt us at the line. We will go back and get to practice. We will get better and hopefully we will shoot better than 50% from the line."
On his team's turnovers:
"Carolina has a scheme to run and jump. They trap and are so long on the perimeter. They get into passing lanes easy, but I thought we handled it pretty well a couple times then got away from that. They are very aggressive, but again overall to have only 14 turnovers against a team like that is a pretty good."
