University of North Carolina Athletics
Postgame Quotes - Carolina 84, UCLA 68
November 16, 2014 | Women's Basketball
North Carolina 84, UCLA 68
November 14, 2014 • Postgame Quotes
UNC Head Coach Sylvia Hatchell
Opening Statement
“I thank you all for being here. It was a fun game. I enjoyed playing this game because UCLA is a great team. They are very, very talented. I've known their coach for a long time and I knew she was going to do a great job. Of course they had the No. 1 recruiting class last year that are now freshman, so they're very talented and going to get better and better and better. But I thought that we did a good job. We got into some foul trouble early, but I've said all along, this year our strength is our leadership, our balance, our depth, and, of course, the skill level. But to be able to put all these other kids in there – everybody played at least six to eight minutes and they gave us a lot of good quality time. So that was really good. Our team is very balanced. You can see we had five kids in double figures. The only bad thing is that we got out-rebounded. But I really liked the things we did. We had to do a lot of adjustments out there at times. They did a nice job doing that, whether it was defensively or offensively. It was fun and I think that we're going to get better and better. We're looking forward to some really big games – Oklahoma State and Oregon and then Stanford – so it's going to be a tough road. These games are a lot of fun. But I'm proud of this group. These three (Stephanie Mavunga, Allisha Gray and Brittany Rountree) played really, really well.”
On whether being out-rebounded was because Stephanie Mavunga's foul trouble.
“UCLA is a great rebounding team, but some of it was the foul trouble because I guess we got a little tentative in there as far as being aggressive and going after it. Anytime she (Mavunga) and Allisha – she's a great rebounder, too – and Xylina [McDaniel], anytime those kids aren't in there, we're usually not as quite as strong on the boards. It always helps because usually she gets a double-double almost every game. I don't think she's had less than 10 rebounds this year. Again she's in foul trouble so we had to keep her over there with us.”
On why Coach Hatchell decided to play a press defense in the beginning of the game
“They played James-Madison Friday night and had 26 turnovers. We were just trying to pressure them a little early, and we always try to wear teams down, but mainly to see who was going to drive to the basket and ball-handling and stuff like that. We were just trying to go after him a little early because they had a lot of turnovers Friday night. But we're going to do that with everybody. We're going to try and wear them down; we're going to throw a lot of different things out there. The fact that we can do that really keeps other teams off guard.
On leading the team in scoring the first two games
“I think I did pretty well. My teammates did a good job of helping me get open so I'll give the credit to my teammates because without them I wouldn't have these points.”
On making an acrobatic three beating the shot clock
“All I heard was, '3…2...1… and I turned around and shot it and I [saw] the rotation of the ball, [and I thought], 'this shot is not about to go in.' And then I [said], 'Oh my god!'”
On stepping up and becoming more of a leader
“I definitely had to step up this year, but I have to say my teammates picked it up too. Everybody did a good job tonight. Everybody stepped up and everybody knows their role and what they can and can't do. Everybody did a great job as a collective group.
UCLA Head Coach Cori Close
Opening Statement
“What a difference a year makes in the freshmen of North Carolina. It exposed how far they've come and how far we have to go with our young freshmen. They had the number one recruiting class last year, and we have it this year. It's interesting to watch them and see how far they've come. It's hopefully a prelude into what I'll be teaching my team into. Credit to them—I thought they played to their strengths more consistently. I thought our kids battled at times, but we just didn't have the mental and emotional consistency we needed to sustain and compete with them for 40 minutes. I used to coach in the ACC; I have the utmost respect for Coach [Sylvia] Hatchell and her staff and really thrilled to see Coach Hatchell back on the sidelines. It put things in perspective really fast. I took my team to the Coach Yow Foundation office yesterday and to really learn about her battle, and then to see Coach Hatchell today, it's humbling. It puts wins and losses in perspective. We just need to keep teaching kids and pouring into them. And thank goodness Coach Hatchell's able to do that as a result of conquering cancer. I'm excited to teach my team up and help them learn through what they saw today, and I'm excited to see the progress that Carolina made with their young team.”
On F Stephanie Mavunga's foul trouble
“We wanted to attack the middle the whole entire time, but we just don't have the maturity yet. I thought we played a little frantic, and we don't yet the confidence and recognition to go 'okay, she's out, let's make that extra pass, let's really hunt for that spot,' and that's really where we need to mature as a basketball team. But honestly, we wanted to attack them the whole entire time. We thought we had a lot of depth in the post players. They have a tendency to play behind in the post, and if we could get post touches, we'd shoot more free throws, and we would have better offensive rebounding angles, and I think with maturity, we'll be able to find those opportunities to get easy shots over and over again. I think we settled for hard shots. Give them credit for their pressure. When Mavunga went out, I thought they pressured us a little bit more, we played a little bit farther away from the basket. Coach Shannon [Perry] said we had to control our pace, and that's the challenge against Carolina is can you play the pace you want to play and run when you want to run and not have them make you run and play faster than you want to play. I think that's where we need to continue to grow. But I don't think we had the recognition, to be honest with you. It didn't matter in timeouts. We wanted to attack them all night, and you saw the inconsistency of that.”
On pace of play
“In the first half, we had 10 turnovers, but four of them were offensive fouls. But they scored on every one of the other six. I've been coaching against Carolina a long time. I'd rather have a five-second call or an offensive foul than a live-ball turnover because you see what it fuels into. The dead ball turnovers don't kill us, because I thought we were defending pretty well when we had the chance to set our defense. But when we turned it over on a steal, it's pretty much a score at the other end. I think 18 points off fast-break, and I thought their best offense was our poor passes, and so that's something we have to get better at.”
