University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Syracuse Quotes
January 27, 2015 | Men's Basketball
UNC-Syracuse Postgame Quotes
UNC Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement
Opening Statement
RW: “Guess what I'm going to lead my comments with. Come on, you guys have been around here long enough. Everything looks better, guys, when the ball goes in the basket. That's the bottom line. Nate [Britt] was awesome. I feel so good for him. He had a death in the family, his grandfather the night of the North Carolina State game, 15 stitches in his mouth at Wake Forest. He's been battling, battling, battling. Marcus [Paige], 22 points, but the most impressive thing – eight assists, zero turnovers, and the rest of our team was throwing it everywhere that Syracuse was standing. I thought [Michael] Gbinije was really good for them, but man, oh man, was [Rakeem] Christmas and [Trevor] Cooney. They were really something. First half I thought they out-competed us. And our turnovers led to 16 points and you can't have 13 turnovers in a half and have a team out-score you 16-2, so I challenged them with toughness in the second half. We still turned it over a couple of times, but I did think we were much tougher physically and mentally, probably more so mentally. And I think that it just helps when the ball goes in the basket. Brice [Johnson] was 1-1 at half, and ended up 6-6. I told him we needed him to get involved because he was a nonfactor in the first half, and I thought he was really good in the second half. You know, we got three guys who got 17 and another guy who got 22 against a defense that's really tough for us. We don't shoot the ball exceptionally well to say the least, but nine out of 16, I'd take that every night to say the least. Again, congratulate them. They played Saturday at their place and had to come all the way down here. Maybe we were able to play a few more people than they were, and maybe that helped at the end, but you'd have to ask Jimmy that. But I feel very fortunate to win and we made some – we had a lot of guys making some good plays for us to be honest with you.”
Does Nate ever shoot with that much confidence in practice?
RW: “He's made a bunch. He's made a bunch of them in practice, he really has, and not recently because he hadn't made anything, but he's had some games where he's really shot – excuse me, he's had some practices where he's really shot the ball well. We have a couple of shooting drills that he's done as well as anybody in those shooting drills. Just 2-14 or something like that for the three games prior to the last game – is that right, Steve? And so, I think just he kept shooting, kept working, and need to say his mouth felt a little better, so that may have helped.”
Was there ever a point where you were maybe skeptical of the switch from left to right?
RW: “No. No, no, no. His shot looks – his release looks great. And his left-handed release because of the hitch he had, has taken up, never looked great. I've never doubted that decision, and I'm so proud of him for going along with it immediately and so proud of his father for not only going along with it, but he said, 'Coach, I started thinking about the same thing.' So we love it when we have that kind of support from the family. And he has, he's been struggling, but the little rascal was a big time player for us tonight.”
Syracuse deflected a lot of passes in the first half. It seemed like it was less of an issue as the game went on. What type of adjustments did you guys make?
RW: “I think we had better movement of our big guys, trying to get them more involved. And then, you know, I told my guys, 'we're either dead or stupid if you don't listen to one thing: you can't just throw the ball across court. They're big. They go get it. You can't just soft-pass everything because they deflect it.' But 13 turnovers in the first half – that's about all we talked about at the halftime. And I told them, again that I preach all the time, your hands are extremely important to you on the defensive end, deflecting passes, not reaching in and trying to steal the ball, so we learned something from Syracuse, and I hope we get better with our hands, too.”
A lot of the guys had flare-ups throughout the course of the evening. Marcus was just steady and constant. Was this maybe his best performance this year? And are the questions that maybe you were getting three and four weeks ago, are they no longer even a factor now?
RW: “I really don't care about the questions. I really don't. I don't care if it's you or the Pope, and I'm not Catholic, so I'm not making the Pope mad. I never questioned him. I never questioned him. So I really don't care. I got the same kind of questions his freshman year and the same kind of questions the start of the year last year. 'Do you really think he's as good as you say he is?' So that didn't bother me in the least, so you'll have to ask him. But it didn't bother me, because I know basketball.”
He's playing better now…
RW: “Shot's going in, and he's getting a little more healthy is a big thing too. But he's getting more help now too, but no, I wouldn't. I told you guys more than once, 'if Marcus was my biggest concern, I've got a really blessed life.' You know, Justin Jackson's really been playing well. And tonight he was sort of out of it a little bit, but he was a big force for three games. Brice and Kennedy [Meeks]. I got really mad at Brice defensively a couple of times then he got every defensive rebound it seemed at the end. But when they're playing Christmas on the low post, and Kennedy's doing a pretty good job and getting pretty good pressure on the ball, and then Brice just lets his guy cut to the foul line and get the ball and dump it in. That's not very bright, so I put Jackson [Simmons] in so I could show that to Brice on the clipboard, and I think he understood. He got a little better at it too.”
Speaking of Brice and Kennedy, it seemed like they were more efficient in the post, establishing position…
RW: “Second half. Yeah, second half. Kennedy was 2-7 at half, so what did he end up? 6-13, so that's better. 4-6 the second half, but Christmas is a load, and they can't go for too many blocked shots, though, because they only have five or six guys. I mean, the team has had terrible losses. I mean, [Dajaun] Coleman and [Chris] McCullough are two guys there were guys they were counting on, so that doesn't give them much depth up front. I don't like to talk too much about the other team, but those injuries have really been big for Jimmy, and his guys have got to stay out of foul trouble.”
I think you guys have had success around the free throw line against the zone. Is there a certain area you want to attack?
RW: “Well, I think the way they play it, it's with the long athletes with the hands, as Andrew [Carter] was saying, makes it difficult to skip pass and all that. But there is a hole right in the middle of the zone. But they cover up for it better than anybody. Last year up there we were really good the first five or six minutes, and then they just closed it off, and we didn't get it there anymore. Brice and Kennedy in the second half, I thought they got much better movement and got the ball in there.”
Syracuse Head Coach Jim Boeheim
Opening Statement
JB: “I thought we did a lot of good things. I thought we really moved the ball. I thought our defense was good for a majority of the game. We knew they would get on the boards and that would hurt us, but we battled them pretty good. I think [Nate] Britt probably was the difference maker in the game. He made four threes, and I thought that was the big difference in the game. I thought we played well. I thought North Carolina just had a great second half, and that was it.”
On Rakeem Christmas's play
JB: “He's played great for us from the beginning of the year. From the first game, he's been tremendous. We just don't have enough size in there to help him, and it hurts. It's not just the rebounding but defensively as well. We're 6'7”, 6'5” up there, and it hurts us against big teams. We've hung in there on the boards for the most part this year, but they're bigger and stronger and more physical than anybody we've played. Again, I thought we played very, very well, and we need to make a few more shots if we're going to win a game like this. We didn't, and Britt was the difference maker in the game.”
On defending Carolina's play inside
JB: “I thought we did a little better job the first half. We got our hands on some balls, got some turnovers when they were trying to get inside, I thought that was the difference maker in the first half. We got some deflections, some steals, they turned it over 13 times, and that's where we scored 16 points in those situations. I thought they were better getting in there in the second half. I still think the difference was Britt and Paige making the threes. They were really the difference. We could have lived with the inside play if we had done a little better job on the three-point line. You can't let people shoot over 50 percent from the three-point line. That was a big part of the game.”
North Carolina Players
Marcus Paige, Junior
On turnovers in the first half
“We turned over the ball less in the second half. In the first half, we couldn't even get shots [off.] A lot of them were careless and unforced. It's hard to beat a good team when you turn the ball over that much.”
On the biggest difference in the second half
“We did a better job of getting Kennedy [Meeks] and Brice [Johnson] more involved. They were flashing in the high post and making themselves more available. They competed a little bit harder on the offensive side.”
On the difficulty of adjusting to the zone
“Our play in the first half was exactly how you don't play against the Syracuse zone. We really couldn't do anything with it. We couldn't get Brice [Johnson] any touches and we couldn't get any shots from the outside.”
On recovering from his injury
“I think I'm starting to turn the corner on this injury. I still experience some pain when I have to sprint the full length of the court, but other than that I am starting to get to the point where it doesn't bother me as much.”
Nate Britt, Sophomore
On the confidence in his shot:
"I felt like I kept getting open looks and my teammates kept looking for me, and when you have those guys telling you to shoot it, I felt like I kind of had no choice, and so I was able to knock a few down."
On his shot from outside the three-point line:
"I did not notice, I wasn't even paying attention to the line. I guess Marcus and I were kind of playing with the zone, so anywhere we can get in the seams and get to an open spot on the three-point line; that's where we tried to get to."
On heating up:
"Definitely the basket did seemed to get bigger. Like I said, when my teammates turn me on; they kept feeding me and kept telling me to shoot, so when they do that, it gives you a lot of confidence."
Brice Johnson, Junior
On the difference in the second half:
"We were a lot more aggressive. Me and Kennedy were moving a lot better in the middle and we were able to get in there and we stopped turning the ball over for one. We had 14 turnovers in the first half, so that was the biggest thing for us."
On the key against the Syracuse zone defense:
"Just listening to the coaches. They said it was either one big guy post up against Christmas, and the other one go high, and that's just what we did, and we were able to get him in to foul trouble. He started to back off when it was defense, so we were able to score on him. We just have to be more aggressive, and not turn it over like I said."
On Marcus playing his leadership game again:
"He never left. Marcus has always been there. Some games he hasn't hit shots, but if you think about it he really doesn't have to do that this year. Last year we didn't have as many guards, we are kind of down now, but we still have a good number of guards out there and he doesn't have to go out there and average 17 a night for us. He can just go out there and be a point guard, and not try to be a scorer. I mean he can score the ball, but at the end of the day we do have other scorers like myself and Kennedy. And Nate came out tonight playing a fantastic game, and we have Justin and everyone else on the bench that can come on in and help."
