UNC-Miami Quotes

Postgame Quotes
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening statement...
"Everything looks better when it's going in the basket. I thought we were tougher mentally in the second half than we were in the first half. They made eight threes in the first... They were 7-for-14 at halftime and only made two in the second half. We did a little better job getting out there, but the one thing they did was drive the ball to the basket on us every time. For us, I liked the way we took care of the basketball in the second half but yet we had six turnovers. We've got to cut down on our turnovers."

On the limiting the Canes' three pointers...
"I think we got to them better. We did choose a few things but that makes it sound like the coaches. It was the kids that did it. We started switching the screens on the ball and that gave us a little more help trying to get to the shooter, too."

On Miami being limited with players...
"I think it's a factor. There's no question. The last game we played against Notre Dame, we had a nice little run in the second half and they only had six players. We had some guys play major minutes. It's really hard for Jim and his staff right now with only seven guys. I don't know how you practice."

On covering Chris Lykes...
"Speed and quickness. I mean, my gosh and he can shoot from the outside, drive the ball to the basket. He's a complete player. He ended up with (20). Anthony [Lawrence] was big for them, too. 3-for-4 from the 3-point line. He was a bad match up for us as well when we had two big guys in there. Chris is just so quick and clever with the ball. He's hard to keep in front of you and yet, look there and he played 36 minutes. Zach [Johnson] played 35 minutes. They got major minutes for those guys."

Miami Head Coach Jim Larranaga
Opening statement…
"Did they miss a shot in the second half? I don't recall. I don't remember if they did… oh yeah, they did, and then they got the offensive rebound. I thought that was a terrific performance by North Carolina and a valiant effort by our guys. I thought that it was a very entertaining game, both teams I thought played very hard and very well. But Cam Johnson was just incredible in the second half. We played man-to-man, we played a 3-2 zone, a 2-3 zone, we even played a box-and-1 for a few possessions and put Chris Lykes on him. But there was no way to stop him or the Tar Heels today. And that's the way they play, they scored 85 points, and that is basically what they average. I thought our guys did a good job and we missed some critical, what I would call, routine shots for us in the first half that could have given us a lead. But we missed them and were never able to get a lead on them."

On having seven players versus UNC's 11 players, and the factor it played…
"That's always going to be a factor. We went one stage, I took Chris Lykes out after three minutes, I put him back in after he has rested two or three minutes and then he never comes out again. I don't know how many minutes they have him playing today, but it has to be more than 35. It's hard, he is a very necessary part of our offense. When he is not in the game, we do not have enough fire power. And then, he and Zach Johnson, they share that ball handling responsibility and that wears you down. When it got to the last, I'll say, eight to 10 minutes, I thought Carolina was rolling and we were drained."

On North Carolina going on a stretch of knocking down 4-of-5 threes, and a 12-5 run overall…
"Yeah, but some of them were beyond the hash mark. Cameron Johnson, on that one he hit over Chris Lykes, I turned to my bench and said, 'Wow, that was nasty.' Because, you don't expect to have to guard a guy who is 6-9, now, he is their leading scorer and a tremendous 3-point shooter, but he was like beyond NBA range. He was closer to mid court than he was to the foul line."

On the team's tempo during the second half…
"What happens in basketball and the way you control the tempo is really with your offense. If you can keep the other team on defense, it takes away possessions. What happens when you play North Carolina, they are a high octane offense. So they are scoring so quickly, you get the ball back, they're pressuring you and trying to force you to play fast. So, there's a lot of possessions and a lot of scoring. We had 37 points at the half. I was pleased with that. We're averaging 75. Well, if we could have sustained that in the second half, we would have had a chance to win. But, they just scored, so quickly, so often and from so many different ways. You've got Luke Maye who's the [ACC] Preseason Player of the Year, you got Cam Johnson who's 6-9 and shooting threes, you have Nassir Little who's coming in off the bench who's projected to be a top-10 pick in the NBA draft, you got Kobe White who's a 6-6 point guard who is going after our guy who is 5-7 and Kenny Williams, he's like maybe a third, fourth, or fifth option and he is like a NBA guy. So, they're hard to beat."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Cameron Johnson

Nassir Little

Luke Maye

Kenny Williams

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