University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Duke Quotes
February 8, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 8, 2012
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UNC Head Coach Roy Williams
"There's no question, the first thing that you have to do is to congratulate Duke. Congratulate Austin on a big-time game and a big-time shot that he made at the end. We had some opportunities. In the last three or four minutes, we had two turnovers and two or three missed free throws and they scored twice on second shots when we didn't secure the rebound. This one hurts. The kids really played and competed and did some very good things. Duke is awfully good. And I think we are awfully good. Tonight, I think at the same point, it was two great basketball programs, two big-time teams, and they made more plays the last three minutes than we did.
"We have been on the positive end of some games like this, and I don't remember too many where we have been on the negative end. I love my team, I love the way they fought, and I loved the way we made plays. Harrison's ankle was really bothering him in the first half and he got in rhythm in the second half I thought Zeller and John were really big. I just thought we made some mistakes at the end. And that's the bottom line. We turned it over and missed a few free throws. We had been closing games pretty well. But we didn't tonight. You just have to congratulate Duke, and Mike, and his staff."
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening statement
"It's a great basketball game. North Carolina, I still think, is the best team in our league. They're so big on the boards. Zeller in the first half was magnificent, and then Barnes, they have guys who can try to take the game over that they go to. Zeller's first half and Barnes's second half were tough to overcome. We hung in there, we kept fighting. We could not hit a shot at the start of the second half, or even the first 10 minutes of the second half. I thought we were getting decent shots. We tried to tell our guys not to get down about missing. I thought initially at the start of the second half, when we missed like that, a couple layups, they scored right away because we were still thinking about the missed layups."
On the last play of the game
"Austin was magnificent. We had a play set for a three, a different three, if they hit both free throws, but when they missed the second, we wanted to go to a quick angle and he could either take it to the basket or he shot it, and he shot it and it was all net."
UNC Player Quotes
Harrison Barnes:
On the final three minutes of the game:
"I mean, they made the right plays and we didn't. I mean, it's just that simple. You've got to give credit where credit is due, and they played a great game. We made some poor decisions. I had a turnover. I made a terrible play with the charge. Then it came down to last-second defense and couldn't get that stop."
On Austin Rivers's final shot:
"I knew he was going to shoot a three. I thought everyone in the gym did. [Tyler Zeller] did a good job contesting, but he made the shot."
Kendall Marshall:
On the final three minutes of the game:
"Down the stretch, they made winning plays. We had a couple turnovers. We missed the backend of two shots. If we hit our free throws, we can finish off the game. But like I said, you have to give them full credit. They made winning plays. We had a tough call with the three that [Zeller] tipped in, and Austin [Rivers] had a great shot."
John Henson
On how the team is feeling
"It hurt us. It hurts a lot. We had control of the game the whole time, and they came back - it's a crazy game. They played great."
On what the team can take away from this game
"We know how we can play, we just have to finish it - finish games off."
