Media Day Q&A: Cameron Johnson, Sterling Manley

CHAPEL HILL—The North Carolina basketball program held its annual preseason team media day in the Smith Center on Tuesday afternoon.

Head coach Roy Williams held a press conference to preview the 2018-19 season, players posed for photos, returning players conducted interviews with members of the press and the team posed for its annual team photo.

Below are highlights of question and answer sessions between the media and Tar Heel graduate student forward Cameron Johnson and sophomore forward Sterling Manley.

Cameron Johnson
#13, Graduate Student, Guard

On feeling good after hip procedure during the off-season:
"I'd say good is relative. For me right now, I'd say that I feel very good. I don't know how good 100 percent is because I feel like I'm finding a new 100 percent every day. My knee is better than it was, my hips feel better, my back feels better. So right now, I'm in the spot where I feel better than I did last year so I feel pretty good right now."

On hopes for the upcoming season:
"I hope to just do more. To be more active defensively, offensively and to assert myself more on the glass and other certain areas of the game. I want to become a better defender and I think that I will be able to take the steps to do so."

On the battle for starting point guard:
"I think they are both playing really well right now. As practice keeps going on they will keep battling it out. I don't know how anything will shake up minutes wise but I'm confident in both of them… Coby [White] is more of a scorer, more of a shooter kind of guy. Seventh [Woods] is very good and getting up and down the court. He's very mobile. He gets up the court quicker than you can blink. He's also a pretty good defender too. He can get after the other team's point guard on defense."

On Nassir Little's 'wow' factor:
"His physicality, for one, that everyone is aware of. He can jump, he's strong. That's really his wild factor when he has a fast break dunk and he can show everybody what he can do. Also, he can shoot the ball too. That's a little bit underrated."

On the excitement of him coming back to Carolina:
"I'm very glad to be back. I did have two years of eligibility when I transferred and I know usually graduate students only have one year left … This second year back I am very excited and I am glad people are excited. I think we can do some special things. I think we have a lot of good pieces. We all know what we want, we all know what we want out of the season and we are not shy about that. This is definitely where I want to be."

Sterling Manley
#21, Sophomore, Forward

On preseason conditioning
"I am clear to do every I need to do. I passed everything he threw at me this year and made it happen. I definitely feel much stronger, much faster, have more endurance, feel more comfortable in my body, more coordinated, all that good stuff."

On weight changes over the last year
"My weight right now is 243 lbs. Last year I was 255 but then I lost 25 pounds and dropped to 230 during the season, and now it's 243."

On what Coach Williams expects from him this season
"Just trying to be that X-factor guy, give us that presence in the post because last year we struggled with finding people in the post and who was this, who was that and what your job is and what your role is. So just becoming that X-factor in the post. Being able to post strong, be a presence inside so when people come in they're like, 'Yeah North Carolina, they're back at it, they're back to what they normally do.'"

On what stood out to him during the summer
"Just working out with the guys. Doing the conditioning tests when I could push through certain things I hadn't been able to push through before. I was like, 'Dang we are going to be special.' We are starting to come along. As a freshman you get tired and you can't go longer, but as a sophomore you get tired but you realize you still have a little bit left and you can push through and close it out. Just knowing those things and the game is starting to come slower I think this is going to be a special season."

On the competition for the starting big man
"We are just competing everyday in practice. We are auditioning for Coach [Williams] every day. When we have practice today it is another audition to show Coach what I can do and just have him trust me even more. We are just competing and showing coach what we can do so when it comes to game time and he tells us the starting five you hope your name is in it."

On what he learned last year to help him this year
"One thing about this program, we are a top program, so what we did last year is the same thing we are going to do this year. We are going to push harder, we are stronger, but Coach is not going to come in and be like, 'I'm scratching this whole thing.' We know we are going to do the same conditioning, run the same plays and do the same thing iin practice. You know you have that experience and you have more confidence in what is going on."

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Cameron Johnson

Nassir Little

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