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University of North Carolina Athletics
North Carolina
Virginia Tech
UNC-Virginia Tech Quotes
January 10, 2010 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 10, 2010
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UNC vs. Virginia Tech Postgame Quotes
UNC's Roy Williams:
Opening statement:
"Needless to say it's a better feeling than we had Monday night. No question about that. I thought we did some nice things in the second half. First half we were okay defensively, we just couldn't put the ball in the basket, couldn't make the right play, turned it over. Look we had six assists, 12 turnovers in the first half and they had 11 points from offensive rebounds to our six. So you take those things away, I didn't think we played poorly in the first half. Deon [Thompson] went fishing in the post, he gave up a dead layup. Dexter [Strickland] didn't box out, he gave up a dead layup. But other than those two kind of things like that, I thought we were okay defensively. We just didn't put the ball in the basket.
"Second half I thought we started out -- we scored the first five, that gives you a little confidence. We go ahead five and then make a three to take it to eight. They make another three to take it back to five. I think we were very fortunate too that Malcolm [Delaney], his ankle started bothering him more in the second half, so he wasn't quite as effective as he was in the first half. A better defensive effort for us in the second half. I still think they hurt us a little bit on offensive rebounds. They had fourteen for the game, I think they had ten at the half.
"I thought Ed [Davis] was good. Will [Graves] was 1 for 6 at half and 4 for 4 in the second half. He really worked hard this week to get in a position to play. Leslie really worked hard to try to get in a position to play. Those of you that were here Friday for the press conference, I was not lying to you. I did not think there was any way Marcus [Ginyard] would play. Friday he did some other things to be more active and Saturday he got involved in practice and looked pretty good. He came to see me after practice and said he'd like to try it, so just having that experience out there always helps as well and I think having Marcus [Ginyard] on Delaney, having Dexter [Strickland] on him when Larry [Drew II] got his third foul, Leslie [McDonald] played him some, so we had fresh people.
"Larry [Drew II] was big in the second half too. I told him in the locker room he made a prayer out there and I could care less because we got beat by a prayer the other night. His prayer wasn't as big as that prayer was. It's something that you feel good about ⎯ making shots. They went zone. We didn't make any threes in the first half and we made five in the second half and I think that really helped us."
On the importance of making enough threes and balancing the offense:
"I've always said we've got to have some, you've got to have a good mix. I still want the Sean May and the Tyler Hansbrough and the Ed Davis to handle the inside, but I've always said we've got to have a good mix. Our best teams whether it's at Kansas or North Carolina had that mix."
Virginia Tech's Seth Greenberg:
Opening Statement:
"I was extremely disappointed in our defensive sense of urgency in the second half. That's who we are if we're going to have a chance to win, and I'm not sure we had it. We had a really good sense of urgency in the first half. We were active, we were alert, we were physical, and we got the 50-50 balls. The second half I just don't think we did as good a job. We got a lot of good looks. When it was a five-point game, we stopped them six straight possessions, and we got the ball where we needed to get the ball. We just didn't finish. They were staying on Malcolm (Delaney) on those ball-screens, and we were able to get the ball reversed. We got some sets where we got the ball posted up, but we just didn't finish.
"We went zone and it was good to us in the first half in spurts, and then obviously (Will) Graves hit those threes (in the second half). Give him credit for making the threes, but we didn't get out on him hard enough. We got buried on the inside, and that was really disappointing. To me, that's an effort play. That's just not having enough attention to detail, being alert enough, being tough enough, and we have to correct that for sure. They're (Carolina) really long, and they contest shots, but we got good shots. In the second half, we just didn't have the sense of urgency every possession you need to have to win on the road against a team of that caliber."
On Carolina's defense of Malcolm Delaney in the second half
"They committed a second defender to him. Let's face it, every time he came off a ball-screen, there was a second guy. Every time he came off a stagger (screen), there was a second defender. You have to give them credit. And he (Delaney) didn't chase it; the guy only shot the ball 13 times. It's not like he was chasing shots. We got the ball in some pretty good places, but we just didn't finish. Our mismatch in the second half was we thought that we could post up Dorenzo (Hudson) on some stuff. I'll take that any day. More importantly, it wasn't offense. They did a good job defensively, but if we do a better job defensively, we become better offensively."
