University of North Carolina Athletics
Q & A With Brice Johnson
October 12, 2015 | Men's Basketball
On Justin Jackson's development
“He was very aggressive over the summer, and he looks a lot more comfortable shooting his shots. He's gotten a lot more confident with his shots. He's really been working, and he's gained a little bit more weight, but not a lot like I did. But he's not supposed to. He's really developed over the course of the summer, and we're really looking forward to him making some shots for us this year.”
On his expectations for the season
“My expectations are to win as many games as possible. To take one game at a time. I'm not going to say, 'Oh, we're going to win the national championship.' You have to work for it; it's not just going to be given to you. We have to go out there and prepare and just be prepared for anything that's thrown at us. Potential-wise, this team does have the potential to get some hardware this year. We haven't gotten any in the three years that I've been here, and this year we're going to have the potential to finish some games and hang a few banners in here.”
On reminders in the locker room
“In the locker room and in the weight room, we have a poster that has every game last year that we were up in the second half and how much we were up, and then we have the final score of each of those games, which were losses. Coach [Williams] always emphasizes, 'What can you do to help us finish?' He gets mad every time he sees it, and he always emphasizes it when he comes out here because he always talks about how mad he is every time he sees that. We want to be able to change that. We just have to go out there and execute. We let up in some games, and then in other games, we just gave up. We need to execute and do what we know we can do because in those games, we did have the lead. We just have to keep building on those leads and not go into coast mode and get away from what we were doing.”
On the age of the team
“You see the teams like Kentucky and Duke, those guys go in and out. But here, over the past few years, we're still here. It's a little different, but it will help us in the long run. We're a team like Wisconsin: they had a lot of experience and those guys knew what to expect and they knew what to do to get whatever points in the season they wanted to get. You could sense it when we were in the game where we were up, and they still had poise enough to still come back and take it one possession at a time to beat us in the end. You really could tell we haven't been to that point in awhile. It was kind of a shock to get there. A lot of guys weren't expecting us to get to the Sweet 16 last year. It was a plus, but we still could have finished that game out and could have beaten that team.”
On the team's chemistry
“The chemistry's there. We're all like brothers; we all take care of each other. We all hang out with each other a lot. Some days, you can't get us out of the locker room we're all in there cracking jokes or dancing to music. I'm sure you've seen a few of the videos of us dancing in the locker room. This is probably one of the tightest teams I've been a part of chemistry-wise because we all enjoy being around each other, even with Kanler [Coker] coming on the team late, he fit right in. He comes in, jokes around, Luke Maye jokes around, Kennedy [Meeks], all of us. We have a good time with each other. And even on the court, we get on each other, sometimes we get mad at each other, but you expect that out of your teammates. It's a lot of fun just being on this team.”
On his leadership style
“I try to do everything that I can, that Coach tells me to do. I'm not the most talkative person, I've never been the most talkative person. I'm a lot more talkative off the court than I am on the court, but that's just one of those things growing up, I have to be able to talk more on the court and help my teammates out more on the defensive end. Even helping the freshmen when they mess up on a play in practice. It's just a part of the learning curve that I've had being here that I have to talk a lot more on the court. When I'm on the sideline and guys are going through drills, just helping them out. It's not a tough adjustment. I've been here for four years, so I know everything that's going to happen or what could happen. I just try to inform the guys about what's going to happen to them.”
On Coach Williams pushing him
“It's difficult at first because I thought I was really doing well, but he goes back and watches film and shows me where I could have done more. I can see it on the film where I messed up a few times, and he says, 'Hey, I need you to cut down on those types of things because we could do a lot more if you would just cut down on not boxing out or getting back on defense a lot faster.' I'm used to tough love. My dad was my coach, and he never gave me praise or anything. He probably would say he did, but even in the stands today, he doesn't move. He sits there with his arms folded, doesn't really show much emotion, so I'm used to things like that.”
On playing more focused
“Around the middle of ACC play where I was on a little hot streak of playing well, I just started to feel like this was what I needed to do. Coach is saying this is what I need you to do. It was minimal mistakes, but it was closest to where Coach wanted me to be, I would say during that time. I did notice it, and before all that happened, I wasn't playing as well. I was trying to get adjusted to being in the starting lineup. After I finally adjusted to it, I knew what I needed to do. This is what I could do every game if I just go out there and give it my all. It's focus and not paying attention to detail is what he teaches a lot, so I have to pay attention to it more and more.”
