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University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-College Of Charleston Quotes
January 8, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 8, 2009
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UNC-College of Charleston Postgame Quotes
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement:
"Needless to say we feel a lot better than we did Sunday. Everything feels a lot better. It seems like it was a lot longer than three days ago. First half, we for some reason were not awake in what we practiced yesterday. They ended up getting open threes and making them. In the second half we did a better job of doing what we practiced yesterday. We stayed with our man and did not over help, because they are a penetrate and pitch team. Our defense was better in the second half and they did miss some shots. I do not think it was all our defense. We did a lot better job of rebounding in the second half as well. Basically it was our opportunity for our players to get their bad taste out of their mouths after the game on Sunday. College basketball is crazy. Boston College comes in here and imposes their will on us and plays great. Tonight they play Harvard at home and lose by 12. It is a wacky business and I understood that years ago and I think it gets wackier as we go on. I think Deon [Thompson] was much more involved today. I think Tyler [Hansbrough] was much more involved; I think our whole team was much more involved. We just have much more gifts than Bobby [Cremins'] club. Their big guy Simmons could not play and their youngster just received a broken nose, so we caught them at a good time. I like Bobby's club and he is one of the nicest coaches to be around."
On Marcus Ginyard:
"Did not feel like playing him tonight. He has been struggling quite a bit. He is not where we want him to be at this time and we decided not to play him. I think it is a his foot and game shape, a bit of everything. We have not seen the offensive rebounds, steals, and the types of plays Marcus makes a living off. We are trying to just give him a little more time and see what happens."
College of Charleston head coach - Bobby Cremins
Opening Statement
"You know, I knew this was going to be a tough game, but I hated that we gave up that layup with four seconds right before the half and then at the beginning of the second half they went on a 7-0 run; and that was the ball game right there. I knew this would be tough. I knew they would be hungry. I knew Roy would have them ready and they're a great team. They're tough to defend. We really worked hard on their trapping defense, but they're tough; they're very physical. But, I thought we were hanging around and everything was fine. And I hated Lawson's basket before the half. I wanted somebody to go after him and not give him an uncontested layup with four seconds. Then we came out in the beginning of the second half and just the 7-0. I was disappointed we didn't compete better. We know we're a little short-handed right now, we know we're banged up, and, on top of that, Dustin Scott gets a stomach virus, but I was proud of Dustin playing. I feel like we can compete better, but we've got to have great guard play. You got to be able to really play smart against these guys, and I thought we had a game plan coming in. And then once they got up twenty, then we really had our backs to the wall and we just didn't have enough time to come back. But, I'm just disappointed we didn't give them a better game."
On the team's experience at UNC
"I love coming here. We had a great experience, but we wanted to compete. Our goal was to come here and compete and we started to do that. Missing Simmons hurts us, but, you know, there's no excuses; I thought we could have played better. They're good. After they lost to Boston College, I knew they would be totally focused. Hansbrough, he's a load. He's just a load. They've got a lot of pieces and they're going to be right there. Roy's a great guy and a great coach. I'm just a little disappointed that we didn't give them a better game because we wanted to. We wanted to really hang in there. This is the first game where it's been a lopsided score for us for the whole season. We'll just continue to work and right now we've got to get back into conference play, and that's what's important to us."
UNC Player Quotes
On better defense in the second half than the first in past 2 games
"Even in the first half tonight they shot it pretty well. They penetrated and kicked, that's what they wanted to do. And when we were trapping, they were just finding the open man, swinging it, and getting a lot of open threes. I think they hit 8 in the first half. So we adjusted to not doubling anymore and to not double down in the post, and everybody just sticking with their man, and not supporting as much on the drive because we knew they just wanted to kick it. We got hands up on shots, boxed out, got rebounds, and just started running."
How bad was the taste of losing to Boston College?
"It was pretty bad. Nobody expected us to lose, even ourselves. If anybody, it was more us, we didn't come out expected to lose. It just goes to show that if you're not prepared or you're not ready, you can lose any game. I looked up on the scoreboard and saw that Boston College lost to Harvard tonight, so coach told us, one thing about college basketball is that you have to be prepared each and every night you come out because on any given night you can either win or lose, but if you come out prepared you have a better chance of winning, especially with the talent and potential that we have."
On playing Wake Forest
"They are definitely a lot more experienced than they were last year. [They have] a lot of quickness, but we're quick, we like to get out on the floor as well, so it's going to be an up and down type of game. I feel like we have a pretty deep bench, and a deep enough bench to hopefully try to tire them out."
On playing better on the road
"I think we're more focused on the road. We're going to someone else's territory and trying to get a win. I feel like we concentrate harder for the game."
On how close the team is
"I think it comes into play a lot. They have all their fans there, it's a rivalry game, the North Carolina game, it's going to be tough."
Concerned about giving up the 3 pointer?
"Not really, we just have to work on our traps, because the first half of this game we trapped and they got open threes and rotated. In the second half we stopped that, and they shot 2-for-15, or something like that, from the three, so we either have to work on our traps or don't trap at all."
