UNC-UNCW Quotes

North Carolina 97, UNC Wilmington 69 • December 5, 2018
Postgame Quotes
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams

Opening Statement
"I'm going to try to get – who is it, Bojangles, that gets the biscuits? I'm going to see if they make a frickin' deal if you hold the other team under 38 percent shooting you make dang biscuits. That's ridiculous, the last 30 seconds. Hell, I won't even get the ball and shoot it. I thought the team got major points for shooting bad shots, but I thought the second half we did a lot better defensively. First half, we turned it over way, way too much. Didn't get what we wanted the second half, but the only thing for a long stretch, the only thing I was disappointed in is going to the free throw line. If you're going to play basketball, you're supposed to go to the free throw line, make free throws and keep the other team off the free throw line. We did that for a good part of the second half, but look down there – four guys in double figures, we played a lot of guys. We had problems with the printer, problems with the copier. I can't tell you how many minutes I looked down there – Luke [Maye] played two minutes. He set a record. He had four fouls and 11 shots in two minutes. That's a hell of a night for everybody. But it's a W. We did play better. Didn't shoot the ball. Guys, we're a really good shooting team. One of these games, we're going to make a lot of shots. I hope it's in my lifetime, but 6-for-24 is not very good. I think that one thing for us, we were more gifted. It helped us that [Devontae] Cacok got in foul trouble early. That helped us a great deal, but they shoot 35 percent, we shoot 49.3 because we took the four terrible shots in the last 30 seconds because we wanted biscuits. Can we ask Bojangles if they do that? Alright, let's see if we can get biscuits for everybody if we play defense one possession a game. It's a W. C.B. McGrath is one of my favorite people in the world. He's like a son to me. I love him to death and he's the only guy I know whose got fewer home games than we do. He's got to play a lot of games to try to get money, he's got to play a lot of games to get a schedule, but it's 14 home games. In our league, we have 16. I think that's the fewest. Some guys got 20 and 21, but C.B.'s got a tough schedule. I was hoping that we'd be one of those tough games for them and I think we were. It's an interesting day. Watched TV for almost three hours today. It wasn't SportsCenter. Most I've ever watched anything that wasn't SportsCenter except about the Hurricane, but President Bush was a kinder, gentler person that set an example for what we need to be as a country and I was very appreciative of what he did for us. I've got a funny story and then I'll leave."

On whether he saw the effort he talked about coaching on this week's radio show
"Better but not what we want it to be. But better, yes."

On keeping the team in the locker room until 30 seconds
"We had a malfunction. We've got printer problems, we've got defense problems, turnover problems. Damn manager can't tell it's five minutes left in the halftime. I didn't know how much time it was."

On the difference between the first and second half
"We were more active, we sweated more. We were better in the second half, we had more effort and our traps helped us a little bit too. But we were better, yeah."

On the importance of December
"Well, we can't practice. We are off tomorrow, we having a running shoot Friday, we are off Saturday, and Sunday I told them we are going to have the best practice in the history of the civilized world. Then on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we have one practice. Exams are pretty difficult, and I understand that we give them a ton of time off now. If we can get through the 15^th, after that we will have some practice time that I really think will help us."

UNCW Head Coach C.B. McGrath

Opening Statement
"The second half was pretty ugly, but I was proud of our guys. We competed in the first half and then a couple things didn't go our way early in the second half and we got down on ourselves and just never recovered. Carolina came at us. We knew they would with their double teams and their pressure and their length, and we let that bother us more than we should have. We played a really good minute in the second half and scored four points and got two turnovers. But after the timeout I was like 'Guys, we've got to start competing again.' We just stopped competing there for a little bit and then felt sorry for ourselves because we turned it over a few times and they got some dunks, but there's a lot of ebbs and flows. We got down early in the game and I think we came back to maybe take the lead at some point or get it close and then they went on a run but then we came back and made a run. That's the way basketball goes. I thought our guys would have competed a little bit harder in that second half, but we must have got worn down by their length and athleticism."

On what North Carolina did defensively the second half
"They ran their traps. They did that in the first half too. We just did a better job at taking care of the basketball and this time we turned it over whether they were poor passes or they just made a better play or they got a deflection. They made the play they needed to make and they got the steal and or the turnover and scored in transition. A lot of times, it's easier to score in transition no matter who you are than scoring against five-on-five."

On whether the increased number of turnovers was due to something UNCW changed
"I'm not out there on the court, and I remember playing and I know when you get double-teamed you get sped up a little bit and you expect you teammates to be in a certain place and maybe they're not and then you start panicking. But I think they just did a better job executing their defense than we did our offense. You know, we prepared for it for a couple days because we knew every time out of a dead ball or every time after a free throw, they were gonna run a trap at us and it's easy to talk about. It's hard to simulate in practice."

On his observations about Seventh Woods' development
"He obviously has great athleticism and in high school it's easier to use that athleticism to your advantage than it is as a college player because there's a lot of other really great athletes in college. He just looked more comfortable out there. He did a nice job. He got to the basket a few times, made a pull up. So, I think he's doing a lot better job just running their team because I think he is comfortable. You know I haven't been around him in over a year and a half so I can't say how he's practicing or what the turnaround has, but everybody has a tough freshman year. Not everybody. A lot of guys have rough freshmen years. My guys had up and downs their freshmen year and now I think he's just feeling more comfortable."

On pregame exchange with Roy Williams
"Obviously I worked for Coach Williams for a long time. I played for him. 22 some years, 23 years, whatever it is. It's a long time. So, it wasn't like I hadn't seen him in a while. He's not feeling very good. I'm sure you guys will hear that. I didn't want him to get me sick so we didn't talk as much as we probably would have. I'm feeling pretty good right now other than watching a lot of that basketball game, but my health is fine."

North Carolina Players
Cameron Johnson, Gr, Guard

On defense in the second half
"They came out and made two shots early and it was like we have to buckle down. We have to do this. We have to get stops, have to get buckets. We went on a nice little run there and put them away."

On team's need for practice time
"There are some things we need to work out and we'll have that practice time now. We'll see how much of a boost that gives us. On the other hand, we know what we need to do. It's just about going out there and executing it. Going out there in these games gives us some good experience going forward. We had eight games quick and now we have a little bit of time. I know it is finals week so a lot of guys will be busy with that. We'll do our best to get better this week."

Nassir Little, Fr, Forward
On winning tonight after falling to Michigan
"We just wanted to bounce back. We play the number one team in the country next week, and we are just focusing on us rather than the outcome of the game. We just want to make sure we are improving for the game… We picked it up on defense really well in the second half. We limited turnovers, since we had a lot of turnovers in the first half."

On preparing to play Gonzaga
"I feel like we need to compete harder. If we come out there ready to play, with passion and heart, we can compete with any team in the country. But as for right now, we have to get a lot better."

On the condensed game schedule
"I think games are a great way of getting better, since you're playing opponents with a different scheme. I feel like at practice sometimes, you are matched up against the same guys and you know their tendencies, other teams go about things different ways. That is a good way to see where you're at and get better too."

Kenny Williams, Sr, Guard
On what's holding the team back
"Effort consistently. I don't think we've put together forty minutes yet of consistent effort to the point we want it to be. Once we get that it's going to be hard to stop us on both ends. We can score the ball with the best of them. If we can stop teams from scoring it just makes it that much easier for us."

On ball screen defense
"We changed how we played. We went to a regular hard hedge. It's so hard to play flat, if you think about it, because there's so much uncertainty that goes on with it. I think the bigs like playing hard hedge better. Like I said, once we get it consistently where we want it to be, we'll be pretty great defensively."

Luke Maye, Sr, Forward
On having limited practice time through the first eight games
"I think practice time would be good. It's always good to be able to work on some things and continue to grow as a group. We also grow in games, and I think having games and being able to grow from adversity is something we try to do and work on as well."

On Nassir Little
"Nas is a great worker and a really tough guy. He's going through a lot of injuries right now, so he is struggling to figure out how hard he can go without putting a damper on how he plays in the games. He's always been a hard worker and I think he's really hungry for success, which is cool to see… He's definitely gotten a lot better on the defensive end. He is just so athletic and long, it really helps him get to the spot and recover when he makes a mistake. He's grown so much since the first day, and he will continue to grow and learn as he plays faster and bigger guys."

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Cameron Johnson

Nassir Little

Luke Maye

Kenny Williams

Seventh Woods

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