University of North Carolina Athletics
Carolina-ECU Postgame Quotes
December 7, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Postgame Press Conference
North Carolina 108, East Carolina 64 • Dec. 7, 2014
Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement
“Needless to say, we played a heck of a lot better than we did Wednesday night. We invested a lot more in the last couple of days. Mentally, we were more in the game. Jeff [Lebo] and I talked before the game, and he was pulling for us hard Wednesday night because he's a North Carolina graduate and also because as mad as we were and as upset as we were, and I told him I agree. And I said after the game that he was right because we had much more intention to beat them than we did Wednesday night. First half, we had one turnover. First two and half minutes of the second half we had two and another one that should have been a turnover, so that's the reason I took those five guys out. You've got to take care of the basketball. And after that, we played pretty doggone well. Guys coming off the bench the other night didn't do as much, and today they were 14 of 19. Brice [Johnson] was off the charts rebounding-wise and scoring-wise, and he was better defensively. His whole mind was out of the game the other night. He should have made his first two shots and got a call that bothered him, and then he was out of it. But today, he missed his first three shots and kept playing and kept rebounding the basketball, and I would assume that's a career high for him rebounding-wise. We need Brice and Kennedy [Meeks] to rebound the ball like that. The first half, they had one offensive rebound. In the second half, they had more, but they missed more shots. We need to do a better job of rebounding, a better job of boxing out. We shared the ball with 27 assists, shooting 60 percent for the game, a game we were into it, and we've got to have that same kind of attitude every morning.”
On the lessons for the team after the Iowa loss
“It would figure to box out. We fouled too much, and we talked about that. We started exams on Friday and Saturday. The game was Wednesday night, Thursday was off, Friday we came in and did some shooting, and it was good for them because I was going out of town on recruiting. I told them they had 24 more hours and maybe I would calm down. And Coach Robinson said, “Nope, he's just going to be simmering.” And I did simmer for another 24 hours. So yesterday, we got after them probably as hard as anybody on this team has ever had to practice the day before a game. We can't do the things rebounding-wise, and we can't do the things one-on-one selfishly like we did Wednesday night.”
On Head Coach Jeff Lebo
“I remember I'd like to have him on this year's team. If he was on this year's team, we'd be a heck of a lot better. His toughness, a lot of his understanding and savvy. He wasn't the greatest athlete in the world, he was a very good athlete, but he wasn't Vince Carter or Michael Jordan. He was always in the right spot defensively, and he could shoot that basketball. He wasn't afraid to take big shots, and if he made one, he might make another. If he missed one, he was going to make the next one. I would take Jeff on our team; we'd be a heck of a lot better.”
East Carolina Head Coach Jeff Lebo
Opening Statement
“I thought North Carolina was terrific. When I saw they lost to Iowa I about had tears in my eyes because I knew what I was going to get into when we got back here for their next game. Just their size and athleticism inside took its toll on us. Their class inside was off the chain. It's nice that when they miss shots that they can get them and get easy ones. We couldn't do it. That's some bad shooting from both teams from outside the arc. I think both teams were 0-16 [on three-point field goals] in the first half, so there were a lot of 'scud missiles' going up there. But [North Carolina] could get them, and they're big and their size wore us down. I knew they would be ready to play. Coach Williams had them ready to play for this game.”
On North Carolina's size
“Well, they could get such easy ones with their size, and their size is not just inside. Their size on us when they're playing Tokoto at the two…He's much improved, maybe their most improved player. We couldn't play our best offensive lineup in the game with Caleb White and the four because they just went right at him inside with Brice Johnson. They just punished us around the rim. We had no answer for that. They were just too big, too strong and too long for us.”
On what he and Coach Roy Williams talked about after the game
“When golf season is going to start. He just said, 'We played great tonight. [We played] one of our best games.' I said, 'That won't look like your next game against Kentucky.'”
On the positives he can take away from this game
“Well, I think we found out that we can get shots, we just have to be able to execute them a little better. We found out that obviously inside is going to be an issue for us. A lot of teams have taken advantage of us inside because we're not very big. We didn't want to zone them this game because if you don't put bodies on them…they're hard enough to get off when you've got a body on them. If they don't, they were going to go places that we couldn't go. We've been a zone team most of the preseason, and in the first few games of the season we couldn't zone because they were just too big.”
North Carolina Player Quotes
On rebounding
“It was the effort that we needed, regardless of the score, regardless of the opponent. You saw a different level of effort on the court. That's what we needed going forward. And you can only hang your head about a loss for so long until you have to change and move on from it. If you would have seen a lackluster effort and still a blowout win, that would have been a problem. But the way we were able to come out with intensity and effort shows that we at least took some steps forward.”
On the team's intensity level
“Yeah, we usually have a practice that's a little scaled back the day before a game. That was not the case yesterday. First-hand account, that was not the case. I think we needed that, and we'll probably have more of that going forward. It teaches us to respond, and I think it's beneficial for us to compete really hard in practice because it'll translate to the game.”
On Isaiah Hicks' performance
“He did a great job getting position down low. We always talk about trying to catch the ball with two feet in the paint, and he did a good job of that. Bryce's first two shots I think were the fadeaways or catching the ball 12 feet off the block instead of being on the block. Isaiah came in established position, got some dunks, set an example of how the other bigs need to play. And obviously Byrce saw that and played the way he did tonight.”
On seeing Brice Johnson play well
“We need that. We've been talking about that all year. We need our big guys to establish themselves inside, and Bryce did it. He can score. I know he can score. He hasn't been scoring a whole lot lately, but that's not one thing we worry about with him. The effort on the glass, diving for loose balls, contesting every rebound and going up over three or four guys to get the ball. That's the type of Bryce we need, and defensively to be in tune. We don't need the one that shoots fadeaways, we need the one that goes at the rim, and we saw a lot of that tonight.”
On what Coach Willliams said on the bench
“He just said go up aggressive...Most of my points came off of rebounds and putting it back up, and that's the one thing I have been trying to work on. Everything was just falling for me to night for some reason, even though one that Marcus threw behind my back and I just tipped it. It was just a good night for all of us.”
On Coach Williams' challenge
“Before shoot around he told me I needed to find my brain, so apparently I found it. I told him I found it in a corner somewhere, dusty. I mean its been hiding from me. He's been telling me to keep going, play a little bit harder, stay a little more attentive to detail, just go out there and play the way that he knows the way I can play.”
On finding your brain and shaking things off
“I'm still going to beat myself up. I did it a few times tonight but I didn't show it. That is just the one thing I have to get better just myself personally. I have to let things a little quicker that I usually do, and just be able to bounce back from it and keep playing.”
On coming out tough
“Most definitely. We lost the games pretty much because of our effort and the way we rebounded I think that those two were definitely key in the game today.”
On driving the ball
“Just a little bit we just wanted to do the things we talked about…As far as the bigs, its not letting people get the angles through, they like to set a lot of ball screens and before we did a god job with that…Sometimes they got some good sights from the ball screens but overall we had the effort and that made up for it.”
