UNC-Louisville Quotes

North Carolina 62, Louisville 83 ●January 12, 2019
Postgame Quotes
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams

Opening Statement
"It was a very good day for Louisville. I congratulated Chris [Mack], and I really meant it. I thought his team played really, really well. They hit us early, and they made their first six threes, which was six out of the first nine. They made their first seven shots overall. We never really got into the game, and I would like to give you a brilliant answer as to why, but I can't give you that brilliant answer. Two days ago at practice, it was very mediocre, and we needed a great one yesterday. I thought that one was very mediocre as well. It's my job to get them to be better prepared. We had two nice, not great, but two nice road wins. We came back home and we didn't have that same type of enthusiasm. We didn't shoot the ball in the basket; we didn't rebound the ball. The first half we only had four turnovers and early in the second half I think we turned it over every time we touched the basketball. There's balance stuff … 17-17-17-10, and they shoot 52 percent from floor and 42 percent from three. We shoot 34 percent from the floor and 13 percent from the three-point line. I am at a little bit of a loss, but that's okay, it happens in coaching. We have a wonderful group of kids that we have to better prepare, and we have a head coach who is trying but not doing very well. But again, let's congratulate Louisville too. They have the right to play well, whether that is at home or on the road, and they played very well today. Their positive play caught us at a great time where we had very negative play. Let's congratulate them because we couldn't do anything to them. I looked down, and I see that Sutton had 17 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists and zero turnovers. He was one of the two key matchups that we thought was going to be really important to us. The bottom line is that they played better, and they coached better."

On if there is one area of concern for the team that stands out the most
"The basketball. I am not too concerned about what they eat or anything like that, but basketball is a big concern right now."

On if the size of Louisville's players was a concern
"They're long athletic guys, and that is a very good positive for them, there is no question about that. I didn't think they would dominate everything inside like that though. One way to stop the high-low passes is to deny the ball at the top of the key. We never denied it or put pressure on it. We asked too much of Huffman, he got in and gave us a little spurt there. It's hard for him to handle the ball, and the first time he got it in the second half he turned it over, but he tried to give us a little spurt in there to help us guard. Enoche was a load for us to say the least. We were just trying to see what we could find.

On when he sensed the game was reflecting the past few practices…
"I could tell in the first three minutes. We had three turnovers, and Coby had two fouls and two turnovers. I think he has a great chance to be a great player. I told them whatever they did to prepare for this game … never do it again. It's my job to get them prepared to play, and I didn't think we were prepared to play today. I didn't think we had the energy, the execution, the toughness, or the sense of urgency. It was similar to how I felt at the start of the Kentucky game. They had much more pep in their step than we did."

North Carolina Player Quotes
Cameron Johnson, Senior, Guard
On today's performance
"We got our butts kicked. They came out and hit us in the mouth early and we struggled to get back. They made some shots, we didn't make shots. They kinda took it to us."

On who can step up as a leader
"I know I can. Me, Kenny [Williams] and Luke [Maye] especially. I tried to get some guys going and tried to get things picked up out there. Sometimes when things are going south it is hard to fight and we just have to do a better job with that."

Brandon Huffman, Sophomore, Forward
On providing a spark for the team off the bench
"I'm really hoping to catch momentum and do what I can to show coach that I'm ready and can get more and more. It doesn't have to be a homerun every night, but it needs to be a step each time, that way I can accomplish big things."

On his progress through practices
"I feel like I have made a lot of progress since last year. Me and coach talked about a lot of the things I could improve on. Defense around the rim, just making sure to be in the right spots and knowing all the sets just really quick. So I think I have come a long way with the plays and a lot of the things that messed me up last year aren't anymore."

Kenny Williams, Senior, Guard
On explaining this loss
"We just didn't play. I was just telling the guys that's the perfect example of the ACC. If there's one game you don't come to play, it happens just like that. You saw that tonight. That's all it is, we didn't come ready to play and they jumped out on us early. They never looked back."

On ability to win ugly (as Coach Williams suggested)
"I think we can. It would really help if we shot the ball better than we are shooting it now. I just think it opens up more when we shoot the ball the way we are capable of. I think if it comes down to it, I think we can win ugly."

On experience as the best teacher
"Experience is always the best teacher. You don't really know about something; people can tell you about something all day but you don't really get it until it happens. Tonight, I think it happened to us. We've got to take that and learn from it. We play Tuesday, but we've got to look at this film and learn something."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Brandon Huffman

Cameron Johnson

Kenny Williams

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