UNC-Bucknell Quotes

North Carolina 93, Bucknell 81 • November 15, 2017
Postgame Quotes
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams

On overall game
"It is hard not having Cam and not having B-Rob [Brandon Robinson] and then you got Kenny with four fouls and Garrison with four fouls. At the end of the first half we had Joel with two, Garrison with two and I didn't want to play them the last five minutes so (1:20) it was trying to put a mismatch of a few lineups out there but we had five guys in double figures and I think 9 guys who played double figure minutes. It was a good team win over a good team... That is a good team, but we really wanted to try to focus and do a good job on Zach Thomas, he only got 21 so we did a great job and the other guy, Fouland, are the two guys who were players that were first team all-conference for them and they both had 21 so we didn't do a very good job and we weren't as good defensively as we needed to be, but we made enough plays… I was very frustrated in the first half. I only looked at the score one time the whole first half. A lot of times I go and not look at it at all."

On Sterling Manley's performance
"I think it might be what he have to do all year is to find out who is going to be playing that night. Garrison was in a little more of funk tonight than he was in the previous times except he did go on the free throw line and made two free throws when it started to get close. But Sterling is long, around the basket he does some good things. 17 minutes. 16 points and 13 rebounds only in 17 minutes so that is pretty impressive.

"We gotta get the guys to front the guy in the low post so we don't let him catch it every time. In fact, B. Huff [Brandon Huffman] did a better job fronting the guy in the low post than anybody else did."

On Joel Berry II's shooting
"I thought he was really good. I halfway expected that but when he made the first one I thought I was going to be wrong. He was the one who handed me the ball out there and I told him I was glad it was a handoff that he didn't shoot it to me, but it would have not been a complete pass if he had thrown it to me like he was shooting. But he is a tough kid. Played 30 minutes. I am mad at myself that I played him that much to be honest with you, but he does not have any bad affects from playing."

On Luke Maye's comfort
"You get comfortable with great confidence and how do you get great confidence is because you accomplish some things and you get confidence from working hard. I knew he was going to do that last part. Again, I met with him. I met with every player at the end of each year and talk about their year and what I expected of them, and after his freshman year he said 'You'll find out I work harder than everybody' and he admits that Justin Jackson may have tied him. So this year, I said 'What are you going to tell me now?' and he said 'You'll see it again,' but I think he's gained a great deal of confidence from his play last year down the stretch in the tournament. Butler and Kentucky. Not just the Kentucky shot. Then you have confidence from when you play and put in the time and effort that he does. He is in the gym a lot."

On Sterling Manley in high school
"I went to see him play a game and it was the funniest thing I have ever seen. He came running up to me after the game once they were released from the locker room saying like a puppy dog, "How did I do?" and I said there is one thing you gotta do and he said, "What?" and I rubbed my hand across his forehead, he didn't have one beat of sweat on him, and I said "You gotta learn how to sweat son." That has been our motive this fall was we have helped him learn how to sweat and we have done a great job on that. I think he has been playing harder and doing things I think he can do."

On Theo Pinson's assertiveness:
"Well he was the one I got mad at for not boxing out so you don't want me to praise a guy and you also don't want me to praise a guy that did not go after and close out on number four, who is bigger than a house. You can't guard somebody like that then let him shoot a three so I was mad at Theo at a great level anger."

"I jumped him one time because he gave the tired signal on the defensive end of the floor. You should never do that. If you are going to get tired then give it to me on offense and so I chewed on him a little bit."

On Cameron Johnson's Injury
"It has been pretty recent. It was at Monday's practice when it happened. There hasn't been a lot of time to think and see what is going on. Tonight, like I said it was going to see in my plans who was going to sub where. You also have B-Rob, and both of them are out. That only means we have one true three-man, and that is Theo. So that means sometimes we had to go to Kenny as the three, and we might have gone to Andrew as a three. Andrew gave us some good minutes defensively as well. Cam, 4-6 weeks, we hope to get him back quicker, but we aren't going to push him. He really wanted to play Friday night, but it didn't feel right to me. Sunday, he came to practice and really did a nice job while fighting through the stiffness in his neck and back. He goes in to lay it up in a fast break play in a scrimmage, and Seventh came over and blocked it. It was a big-time block. Cam came down on his leg and it rolled up underneath him. It looked ugly. Four to six weeks, and I'm going to see him in the hospital right now."

With Johnson out, how does it affect starting lineup?
"I think I started Kenny the first game. I don't know if I am being honest with you. The game was less than 48 hours ago when it happened. Today, I played Joel with Seventh and Jalek both and some with Joel as the two. That was probably the reason he got a few more minutes than I probably wanted him to get, but you look down there and there isn't that many guys."

UNC Players
Theo Pinson, Senior Forward

On having Joel Berry II back
"Oh, it was fun. Really glad he's back. That's my guy. It was fun just being out there with him again for our senior year and I'm glad he's back. I'm sure he's glad that he's not sitting on the sideline watching us play."

On giving Coach Williams his 400^th win
"Yeah, we've been a part of a lot of great moments with Coach. 800^th win last year. 400^th win at home here, I think, or something like that. It's an honor."

On losing Cameron Johnson
"It's huge. We were looking forward to having Cam [Johnson] on this team, but at the same time he got the surgery today. He'll be back before the end of the year and we know he's going to work really hard to get back out there on the court. But at the same time, next man up and we've got to carry the load until Cam gets back."

Joel Berry II, Senior Guard

On his first game back
"I expected to miss some of the shots that I missed tonight. I haven't used my hand in three weeks. It was just good being able to get back out there on the court tonight and get some run in before we go out on this long trip. Some of the shots that I missed tonight, I'll eventually get my rhythm back. But like I said, I haven't used my hand. I've been left dominant for the last three weeks. It'll eventually come. Overall I'm just glad that I was able to get back out on the court and play with the guys tonight."

Luke Maye, Junior Forward

On Sterling Manley's performance
"It was unbelievable. It was really cool. He told me before the game he was going to get a double-double. He was close last game, but he told me today. He was like, 'I'm feeling a double-double today,' and I was like, 'Aye, we need it.' When Garrison [Brooks] got into foul trouble, we really needed him to step up and I thought he played great."

On playing a bigger offensive role
"I just go out there and play my game and take my shots. Coach [Roy Williams] gives me all the confidence in the world and wants me to be the player that I am. I just step in shots and if I am open I am going to shoot it. If not I am going to try and pass it around and get some open looks."

Sterling Manley, Freshman Forward

On improvements so far
"Just getting in shape. I was so out of shape when I got here and just trying to pass conditioning tests and stuff like that. But Coach [Roy Williams] really pushed me to be comfortable with uncomfortable."

On if he expected to have this immediate impact
"Oh yeah, no doubt. Losing Tony Bradley, Kennedy Meeks, Isaiah Hicks, that's rebounding right there. That's points right there. That's a lot of minutes left on the board that someone has to cover. I knew that me Garrison [Brooks], Huff [Brandon Huffman], and Walker [Miller] came in we were competing for those minutes and whoever got on the court would have to contribute and fill in for those people lost. I knew we would have a major impact. It was just our goal to take it and grasp it. So was I going to take the opportunity or just sit back and let it go by?"

Bucknell Head Coach Nathan Davis

Opening Statement
"First off, I think that from our standpoint, our guys gave tremendous effort. I thought we had great focus the past few days and what we need to do moving forward to get to where we want to go. I think you got to give Coach Williams, he is obviously in the Hall of Fames for a reason, a lot of credit. He's got a young and inexperienced team that does an excellent job executing both ends of the floor when it's on the line. They did a great job, and they made a few more plays than us unfortunately, and they were able to win the game."

Question about preparing/ scouting for Luke Maye
"We all commented immediately after watching him play Northern Iowa how much better he was. He had really upped his game. Obviously, he was good last year and made some good shots. All around he was stronger, much more confident. He was shooting the ball extremely well obviously, and thought he improved his game tremendously."

Players Mentioned

Joel Berry II

Brandon Huffman

Cameron Johnson

Sterling Manley

Luke Maye

Theo Pinson

Brandon Robinson

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