University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-UNCG Postgame Quotes
December 29, 2015 | Men's Basketball
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement
“There were several things to like. There's no question about that. My number one goal for the game was to keep Marcus [Paige] between 20 and 24 minutes. We got him at 21 minutes, so I achieved my biggest goal of the game. We had six guys in double figures. Theo [Pinson] had eight. I don't like the fact that they shot 52% in the second half, but I do like the fact that we shot over 50% both halves. They've had a couple of guys hurt, and I've been doing some things trying to change their lineup a little bit. Demetrius Troy had 14 at halftime, and it challenged us to play better in the second half. If I'm not mistaken, I don't think he scored in the second half. I'm not saying it was just our defense, but at least we emphasized it a little bit more. We've got to do a better job on the defensive end of the floor so that people can't just take us. The game right before the first conference game is always a difficult game, and I think we got through it fine. We still don't know about Kennedy [Meeks], when he'll be able to do some things, so right now we're planning on playing the rest of the week without him. If Marcus wakes up tomorrow and still feels good, then I'll feel really good about his situation right now.”
On the status of Kennedy Meeks' injury
“He's been in the pool, but he hasn't done anything with our team. He hasn't shot layups period. When I leave you, I'm going to go inside and talk to the doctors and see if they have a different opinion. In my opinion, it would be awfully difficult for him to play. He hasn't shot a layup in over two weeks.”
On Marcus Paige's minutes
“I was concerned about when he jammed his foot the other night. We curtailed his minutes in Saturday's practice. It was really the first time that he was able to get back because of the holidays to get some treatment. On Saturday, I didn't know if I could play him at all. Yesterday, I felt a little bit better but still didn't know if I would play him at all. But with two days of treatment and 48 more hours to get better, he said it felt really good today. When I took him out with seven or eight minutes left, I said 'how did it feel?' And he said it feels better right now than at any time since he did it, so hopefully it won't stiffen up.”
On the team without Kennedy Meeks
“I'm pleased. The guys have done a good job. I'm just frustrated because teams shoot 52% against us in the second half. I keep saying that no one has been the best team unless they're guarding people. We're causing a little bit of it because we're scrambling and gambling a little bit more. The more you gamble, you open up opportunities for both teams. You open up opportunities for your own team to get turnovers. I think we scored 20 points off of turnovers tonight. But when you do scramble, you do open up some shots because you've got two guys guarding one of theirs. Three of their three pointers tonight were against scrambles when we were trying to steal the ball. Last year, we didn't scramble very much, and teams didn't shoot nearly as well against us. But we didn't force as many turnovers either.”
UNCG Head Coach Wes Miller
Opening Statement
“I think Coach [Williams] has a fantastic club this year. Obviously, I am close to the program and followed it closely since my playing days, and this is as good as of a group I think he's had since I can remember. I think this group has a chance to be special and do some special things. It was certainly a tall task for us tonight, and I thought there were moments that we met that challenge in a way that I was proud, and I thought there were some moments we didn't. We've been through quite a bit here in the early season, but we kind of keep getting better and keep fighting a little bit harder. I'm looking forward to getting away from some of these games and getting into conference play when we go on the road to Wofford.”
Takeaway from the early season
“We have some toughness. I do think it's in there. I mean, it's not consistent enough, but I do like our toughness. I do like our work ethic. I think teams, when they don't have the type of success in the win-loss column early on in the season, can stop working the way that you want to work and stop having the culture you want on a day-to-day basis. This team hasn't done that. They keep coming back every day, and I think we've played better almost every night for the last three and a half weeks. We're in the game at Wake [Forest] late. We go to Elon after that, and it's a tie game after the under-four media, and then we're in a 1-point game with 1:30 in Raleigh a week ago, so I think we've been trending in the right direction. Certainly, it wasn't that type of game here tonight, but we made a nice run early in the second half that made it respectable there for a little bit. I think we've go tot keep trending that way and not let a team like North Carolina, that's got a chance to win the whole thing, let us lose our confidence and keep us from going in the right direction.”
What went well
“We've talked a lot about sharing the ball with this team, spreading it, driving it. We don't have a ton of depth, but we do have some strength at guard. I think Kayel [Locke] drove in there and made a really nice play to Francis Alonso for a big three to cut it to 11. I was proud that we kind of dug back into the game, and then we had really poor ball-screen defense on the next two possessions that resulted in Brice Johnson dunks. We did some good things. We got a couple stops, but they were just crushing us on the offensive glass. They had 11 in the first half. Some of them they just beat us to the ball. I was disappointed in that. You're not going to come in and play arguably the best team in America and have any chance if you don't beat them to the ball. You've got to want it more than they want it. In the first half, I thought a lot of those loose balls and a lot of those offensive rebounds, they beat us to the ball. Some of them, they just jumped over us; they're bigger. They're stronger. They're more athletic, and I can live with those. The ones that they beat us to the ball frustrate us. When we got back into the game, we actually beat them to the ball a couple of times. We actually boxed out a couple of times like we talk about in practice. Then we made a couple of plays on the offensive end. Like I said, we were sharing it a little bit better, and then you look up, and you're right back in it.”
North Carolina Players
On his second half
“I was just frustrated with myself. I was doing a lot of rebounding (In the first half) but offensively I thought I could do a lot more. I can't let that frustrate me in the long run and I have to a better job of not showing my emotions like that when I get mad at myself. I was a little mad that I wasn't able to do what I've been doing in the past couple of games, so I just need to work on that.”
On the current team
“I like where we are, we just have to do a little bit better. There is always room for improvement on this team and we've done a great job so far. We've had a couple mishaps where we lost the two games, but so far we are doing a good job, just have to do a little bit better on the defensive end. Keep working on that and we'll be fine.
On his rebounding
“I wanted four more; I wanted to get 20 (rebounds). I'm going to be honest I wanted to get 20. I asked coach if I could go back and get four more; I just want to see me get 20 rebounds one time in a game here.”
On motivating Brice Johnson
“You know honestly with Brice it's just when he wants to go out there and play hard, he is one of the best out there. It kind of comes from within but we push him cause we know what he has inside of him. And when we see him doing less of that, first of all it's hurting our team and it's hurting him, so I think today you saw a little bit of that because he came out and was just not really playing the game like he has the past three games. You know we all definitely push each other but today we pushed him more and more.”
On how team is feeling heading into ACC play
“We didn't play as well as we should have the first half. But we came out in the second half and played a little harder. There were still some things that I could do better individually and [some things] that the team could do better. It starts now. Come Wednesday, we've got to be ready to go against Clemson. We got practice tomorrow so we will just try to find things that we need to get better at and we will just keep getting better at those.”
On depth
“For us to be able to get some big ones without Marcus [Paige] and some big ones without Kennedy [Meeks] I think it does help the confidence of some of the guys who may not play as much when those guys come back. I feel like that will help us out a lot more during conference play. We have a lot of weapons and we need a lot of guys to step up.
