University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Wisconsin Quotes
December 1, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 1, 2011
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North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement
"Fantastic college basketball game. Not the prettiest game at all, ever. Sometimes you need to win like that. Like I told Bo, "I'm glad I don't play you anymore." It was a difficult game for us. Jordan Taylor just dominates the ball so effectively, and yet you have to congratulate Kendall and Dexter because its hard to guard that guy ... I was very pleased with what we did defensively ... John on the backboards, Harrison's offense, Kendall running the club, and then Kendall and Dexter and those guys doing a great job for us defensively. It was a heck of a basketball game."
On Harrison Barnes
"He made some big-time shots. I saw his mother this morning and I said "Your son's going to play a big-time basketball game tonight," and I really believe he did.
On rebounding
"I think it's huge. We put down a goal on the court defensively and to finish it means boxing out. We put something down on the board offensively and we said get to the offensive boards. We didn't rebound to the offensive backboards as well as we wanted to."
Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan
"If Jordan got 20 shots in the gym in practice he will knock a lot of those down. He didn't take any bad ones. It's just a hard fought game. The jumper that he hit towards the end is more of the mechanics we are use to. We needed to shoot it from some other spots to take the pressure off him, and it's a team game. Jordan did a good job of taking care of the ball without turning it over. I don't remember him having any turnovers, but we could have shot it a little better."
"They're long and quick and getting good looks isn't the easiest thing in the world. It was hard to get good looks. That was as hard fought a game as I have ever been in as a coach."
"What changes those big runs is hitting a shot now and then and breaking that streak. You have to be tough enough to get one or two in there and break those streaks, but those happen both ways. We have had some of them in our season too."
"Jared is a good player and he works hard. He is starting to come into his own. It's good to see."
"It would be nice to shoot more free throws because they don't have to leave their feet to block shots or clog up the lane with their length and all. But we were playing from behind so they didn't really have to foul us."
"Frank go out there and guard anybody your size. That's what we tell him, and with North Carolina it isn't hard to find someone your size."
"No coach can stand here about what guys have learned in defeat when it just happened. You find out when the next game happens to see if you're getting better at some thing."
North Carolina Postgame Player Quotes
Sophomore Forward Harrison Barnes
On the momentum battle:
"I think that they won it early in the game, but towards the second half we started pressing a little bit more. That kind of sped the pace up which was more our style. So we won tonight."
On the turning point in the second half:
"I think it was 36-31. That was the go ahead because thinking back to the UNLV game, that was the area where we could go to down 12 or to a tie game. We were in a similar situation last game. We let that get out of hand. We knew we had to contest the three because that's the biggest way to extend the lead. We knew we had to hit big shots on offense."
Sophomore Point Guard Kendall Marshall
On playing against Wisconsin's slow tempo:
"Obviously, we wanted to run a little bit more. But they did a good job of controlling tempo, and I think we did a great job of not getting frustrated while on defense. They run their sets very well. They shoot the ball very well, and they are just waiting for you to make one mistake. And I think for the most part, we did a great job, aside from those last two minutes where we had some mental lapses, but we did a great job of being aware and being mentally tough enough to do what's important."
On swinging momentum in Carolina's favor in the second half:
"Defensively, we stopped giving them second chance opportunities and because we were getting stops on defense, we were able to get out on the break. [Harrison Barnes] hit some tough shots. He hit some big time shots for us and when he's hot, we just want to keep feeding him in a situation like that."
Junior Forward John Henson
On the team's feeling after the game:
"I think we are not so much tired, but spent, mentally. We focused for 40 minutes. They made a run on us and came back and we pulled out the win and it was a tough one."
On the preparation leading up to the game:
"We practice every day. We knew they were going to make it a slow game and hold it for 35 seconds. We had to focus most plays to finish the play. They hit some big shots at the end to bring them back, but luckily, we were too far ahead."
