University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Duke Quotes
February 18, 2016 | Men's Basketball
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement
“That's a heck of basketball game if you are a Duke fan, or if you don't really care who won, but I don't fit in that category. It hurts right now, extremely. We were empty our last three, maybe even four, possessions on the offensive end. Their defense had to be stronger than our offense. We missed a couple good ones, but we had a turnover inside. As everybody wants you to think that Joel [Berry II] got fouled on that last shot. That's just sour grapes. You got to make plays instead of trying to get the official to give you something. Brice really was something for a huge portion of the game tonight, and we asked him to do some hard things – playing perimeter guys out on the floor. I thought he really did a nice job defensively on that. At the end, they sort of opened the floor and kept driving, and we did a pretty good job guarding the ball but not enough. But we didn't get enough help from the other guys. It's got to be a team thing, and everybody else has got to be involved, and that's where I think we failed.
“It's tough to swallow because we had a wonderful crowd, great crowd with a great bunch of kids that really wanted something badly. You just have to congratulate Duke, and give them a great deal of credit for playing with five guys and having all five guys do some things that really, really helped them. Matt [Jones] goes down, but Luke [Kennard] comes off the bench and gives them 15 [points], and Brandon [Ingram] and Grayson [Allen] were just awfully hard for us to handle down the stretch. Ingram had it out of bounds. [Duke] had it out of bounds once with five seconds to play, and they threw it into [where] Marcus [Paige] was guarding Brandon and made him take an unbelievably tough shot, but it went in.
“The last play, we get the ball and we get the miss on the end, and Coach [Dean] Smith, and I believe, and I'm, not blaming it on Coach Smith by any means, it's my call, I think you should always attack before the defense gets set. I've always believed. It was what I was taught. It's the way I've always played. I told the kids I should have called a timeout. We didn't get as good of a shot as I thought we would get, but that's just what I've always believed in. Even though I say it's my fault, if we had to do it tomorrow night, I would probably do the same thing, because I think that's the best way to play. We didn't shoot the ball very well in the second half because we didn't move it quite as well. But their defense got stronger, and our offense got weaker. It's a wonderful rivalry to be involved in, but I'm getting tired of just involved. We've got to play better.”
On what hurt team shooting in the second half
“It was part of the shot selection. We took a couple of tough shots. But I still go back, it's more movement than it is just a shot. We lost some of our movement, and then we weren't getting stops on the other end in the first half. We were getting some stops on that end and every now and then getting a turnover or a run out, and you know we throw it away or we've got a guy all the way down the court, and we throw it out of bounds. We didn't take advantage of the break opportunities when we did get a run out, but we didn't have nearly as many in the second half as we did in the first.”
Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening Statement
“This is an incredible win for our kids. It was a heck of a game. I thought both teams were playing so hard. Their crowd was great. What a setting. We had a hard time stopping them in the first half, especially in transition. We gave up points. They're quicker than anyone bringing it in, and then they were all over the offensive boards. We scored enough points to stay close. Then the second half, we did a much better job on the defensive boards. To give up only 27 points was key and fought through a lot of adversity. Matt [Jones] has sprained his ankle pretty badly, so I'm not sure how long he'll be out and then, Marshall [Plumlee]'s foul trouble. We showed a lot of grit and were able to win.”
On responding to Jones' injury
“No, these kids have gotten so close. They've done an incredible job. You know, at one point we had four freshmen and a sophomore out there, and to have the toughness they displayed with that youth is incredible. Marshall and Matt and Grayson [Allen] have helped them. We didn't start out the second half well. We had bad looks, and from that time out on, we had great looks. We had great looks the rest of the game.”
On hanging on
“Well hanging on means you're winning or it could be. I think hanging in there is more – we hung in there. We just hung in there, and we started going kind of exclusively to Brandon [Ingram] and Grayson and some [isolations]. Luke [Kennard]'s three was huge. It was just huge, and this time Grayson hit the two free throws. That was pretty good, and we made some winning plays. I mean they're really good, and we were fortunate to win, but we were fortunate to win because we hung in there.”
On the effect of Kennard's 3-point shot
“I think we had it the whole time, but it just maybe gave us another little boost. Yeah, Luke played a heck of a game. He had 15 points; I think he was 6 out of 9 and he really came through for us. Really came through, he hit a couple of tough buckets to kind of keep us in the ball game.”
On comparison to 2012 Duke vs. Carolina at Smith Center
“This game was a lot better. When I'm saying it, we were lucky to win that game. I don't think we were lucky to win this game. I thought we fought hard and earned it. In that game I thought we were pretty darn lucky, but I'll take that too. Tonight was really just a hard-fought game. Our guys have been able to fight through tired. We've got this quick turnaround now – you know how they schedule – on the road at noon. So, we'll see how we can get them rested for that because that'll be another tough one.”
On home team pressure
“Well I do think they get pressure on them when the other team stays close. Maybe that's what Luke's shot did was all of a sudden do that. I can't speak because it's not my team, but that's happened and it does but a lot of pressure. These games are so damn good, so tough. Brice Johnson is unbelievable you know. He's so damn good. You know they're good, but our kids were good too. We earned a really hard fought win tonight.”
On Brandon Ingram
“There's a lot of pressure on him, not just here. He's 18, and he's not ready to be who he will be. He's pretty darn good. He's also good enough not to let not hitting affect him. There's a toughness element with that, you know like, 'it's not going to be my night – no, I'm going to work through it,' but he really gave us a stretch there that was incredible.”
UNC Players
On overall thoughts of the game
“Yeah, they just made more plays than we did. They went isolation pretty much the last 10, 15 minutes. We just couldn't get a stop, and whenever they needed to get a stop, they played good defense, and we didn't have the best offense in the world. It stinks, not going to lie, because we felt like we had it. At the end of the day, we have one coming up on Saturday. We got to get back and get ready for that game.”
On Brice Johnson's performance and performance as a team overall
“I'm going to be honest with you, offense isn't the problem. Yeah, you know, looking down here Brice was 13 of 17, I was 6 of 13, Marcus [Paige] was 2 of 10 and Joel [Berry II] 2 of 12. That's not the issue. It's all on defense. When we play defense, we show them the pick game. When we play defense, offense comes easier. And we couldn't get stops, which made us play against a set-up defense in the half court. We're a good offensive team, but when you have to go against a defensive team like them, every single possession in the half court like that is hard, which makes the shots harder.”
On the last possession
“Usually with that much time, we want to be able to attack and get to the rim. They got some long arms and got a little piece of it. They ended up tipping it out to Grayson [Allen], and Grayson just took it and threw the ball up. I guess there's nothing you can really do about that.”
On defensive efforts at end of the game
“You got to guard your man, that's just the biggest thing. They didn't shoot very well, but at the same time when they needed a basket, they got it. We have to be able to sit down and guard our man and just not allow them to do that.
Marcus Paige, G
On defending Brandon Ingram and Grayson Allen
“They're both really good offensive players. Brandon made some really tough shots that were really well defended. So you have to tip your hat to him. That's something they have been doing the last couple of games.”
On getting mentally ready for Saturday's game against Miami
“The game against Miami coming up might be the biggest game of the year for us. It shouldn't be too hard to get motivated.”
