UNC-Virginia Postgame Quotes

North Carolina 61, Virginia 69 • February 11, 2019
Postgame Quotes
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams

Opening statement
"I want to congratulate Tony [Bennett] and his club for a really nice win…[Kyle] Guy two big baskets, two big threes at crucial times for them. At the same time, we were getting a little stagnant and taking a bad shot or turning it over on the offensive end. I said earlier in the week that their one, two and three – Guy, [Ty] Jerome and [DeAndre] Hunter – are as good as anybody in the country and they got 55 of their 69 [points]. It's hard to think, but we shoot 35 percent to their 53 percent. We had some chances to win the game, but they made the plays down the stretch and we didn't. I think their defense was better than our offense. Their offense was better than our defense. We had a great run for eight to 10 minutes, or whatever it is, and things were going our way. After that it got a lot more difficult and you've got to them credit for making it a lot more difficult. I would like to have some of those possessions over, but the bottom line is they ended up with more points on the scoreboard than we did."

On what changed between Carolina's 17-3 run and Virginia's counter 21-6 run
"I think their defense got stronger. We took a couple of rushed shots, didn't make shots. I don't think we turned the ball over but eight times, but I think we had two turnovers during that stretch, too. They made some shots. One time we thought we had almost a shot clock violation and [Jay] Huff comes across the lane and gets it and lays it up and gets fouled. I think that in the course of a basketball game there are a lot of runs. You make a run, they make a run, you make a run, they make a run and what you try to do is just to hold theirs off and cut it to a minimum and keep yours going longer. But we didn't do that. We missed some shots during that time period and down the stretch they didn't miss many shots. I think, again, 53 percent for them and 35 for us is a big part of the tale, too."

On updates regarding Nassir Little's status
"No. Sprained ankle. That's all I got."

On Cameron Johnson
"I have no idea. Doug said he could play and he came back so he's alright."

On Coby White
"Guys, I'm not going to brag. I love him. He was 6-for-19. If you think I'm going to praise somebody for that you're not watching the same game I'm playing. But I love him. He's tough as he can be… The game of basketball is all kinds of little plays. One second in the first half, at the end of the half, if it's one second different he picks the ball up and he lays it up at the end of the half. That's two points. One tenth of a second, two tenths of a second, whatever, his swing that he shot up there would have gone in. That would have been three for us. So there's a lot of little things. I was mad. We shouldn't have been in that situation. We had a player standing there and watched the ball come and bounce. You've gotta go after the frickin' rebound and you gotta compete on every possession, but no I don't think he played very well. I don't know if anybody on our team played as well as we want to play so I praise them as much as I can praise them when you deserve it, but guys, they shot 53 and we shot 35 so I'm not bragging on anybody including the head coach."

On Luke Maye struggling to find a rhythm against Virginia
"It's hard. They're very good defensively. We're asking Luke [Maye] to play a position and do some things that's hard to do. I mean when one of your best players goes 2-for-10, it's hard, but he's done some great things for us and he'll continue to do some great things for us. But they guard you. Their size with [Jack] Salt and [Jay] Huff is big in there. [Mamadi] Diakite had three or four or five blocked shots. It's hard, but you needed the ball to go into the basket a few more times for Luke. For everybody, again 35 percent."

On message to the team
"We got to get better. I told them – and I believe this – I got do a better job coaching late game situations. We worked them this week than we have at any time all season, but we didn't execute Saturday. I called four set plays and every one worked. Every one of the time, the shot went in the basket, but it didn't work today. So I told them we got to get better. Seriously, when he slung, if that ball goes in, if it's another split second, that would have been a pretty good play in the game and the split second picking it up a little bit earlier at halftime would have been a big play in the game. But the bottom line is, you've got to congratulate them. Guy made two huge baskets. We had a defensive breakdown in the first one and Kenny got there on the second one, but he was so close that he fouled them but Guy still made the basket. So you've got to give them a lot of credit. Tony's one of my favorite coaches in the world. His dad was a great, great guy and he's coached his buns off a long time. We've had some battles, we've had some good battles, we've had some that we lost. It was strange. The last eight times that we have played them, only two times it has been in this building, and our crowd was really good tonight. They helped us a great deal in the second half but didn't get it done."

Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett

On what changed down the stretch
"We made some big threes. Kyle [Guy] hit some shots. De [De'Andre Hunter] made a heck of a pass. Jay Huff finished. We struggled at the line. We made some decent defensive stops. It was a game of ebb and flow, for sure. We just kept challenging. Hang in there, get a stop. You're still in it. Ty [Jerome] said to relax. I thought we had some tough stretches and Carolina did some good things, of course. But, when you have a guy like Kyle [Guy]… Guys just made some plays and were sound enough. Even though we missed a couple free throws. That was huge the missed three that didn't count, I thought it counted but they said it was just on his fingertips."

On what coach preached towards the end of the game
"It's just if we can get stops and scores. Get a quality look and make some contested shots and rebounding. They had 16 offensive rebounds and we couldn't come up with some of those when we needed to. Again, we made some plays offensively which was significant. Those guys have been in those spots but you still have to come out after a tough hard-fought game on Saturday. To come in here against a team that is playing well was encouraging. I really challenged them hard before the game. During the day we talked about what this meant and just responding the right way to a hard-fought lost and I think they did."

On Coby White's impact
"He's always a threat. I think they are such a good shooting team 1-4 the way they start with all those guys. He's quick. He's triple-threat. He can really beat you in transition and he can get to the rim the way he did a couple times. He can play, shoot the three off the bounce or catch and shoot. We just tried to use Kite [Mamadi Diakite] to really get in him and challenge him and at the end of the game we shifted and put some length on him late. You have to be ready for him and they are always moving around with a good offense. I thought we made him earn his looks for the most part."

On Ty Jerome stepping up
"15 points, 11 assists and two turnovers. That says a lot. The way they pressured us, we had to take care of the ball and touch the paint and then make the right play. Sometimes it was the shot but usually with the way they pressured and converged was to kick it out. He was really good once he got settled in… He's tough. He is a warrior and I love how he stepped up and made the big plays. They all did down the stretch."

North Carolina Players
Kenny Williams • 24 • Guard

On the difference in the second half …
"Virginia toughened up a little bit, and they locked down on defense. We hit a lot of three's, and we got a lot of starts the second half. We also had a lot of stops, and we were able to run out a little bit. They got back to what they do, and they made it hard for us. We didn't respond the way we should've on the offensive end or the defensive end. That was the big change they made.

On Virginia's defense …
"They are always there. They play great defense and that is what they hang their hats on. The fact that you catch the ball and they are there … They might slip up once or twice, but they make up for it. It's hard to play against them, you have to be locked in every possession. If you don't do the right thing every possession, it'll be a long night for you."

On letting this game get away from them …
I definitely let this one get away. We were up seven and I gave up a three. Then down the stretch I gave up two and fouled and that was kind of the game right there. They got enough separation to where they could hang on their defense and close the game."

Garrison Brooks • 15 • Forward

On what the team struggled with
"We struggled [with] late clock management… I want to say it started when Coby [White] hit the miraculous three and it didn't count but … our time management wasn't that good. Especially late clock, I think that really hurt us and just locking down on defense late in the game like that, that really hurt us."

On feelings after taking and relinquishing lead
"I feel like we could've won; I feel like we had a great chance to win, we just didn't seize the opportunity and just win so we've got to just learn ourselves and learn better from what we did and just proceed."

On Coach William's message to the team after the game
"We didn't execute late in the game, late clock management wasn't good, and we struggled getting stops towards the end. [When] Kyle Guy hit the… I had bad communication, me and K-Will (Kenny Williams) got in his way on that three in the corner then he hit the three and got fouled. It's just bad communication – it's just bad on our part."

On if the mood changed after Coby White's desperation three did not count
"A little bit. I feel like if we had taken the lead, it was going to give us a lot of momentum so I feel like that hurt a little bit but we could've came back and got a stop and we didn't do that."

Coby White • 2 • Guard

On what changed at end of game for UVA to win
"They hit shots down the stretch, Kyle Guy hit two big threes, got hit an and-one three."

On how frustrating final 4 minutes was
"We had it, we just didn't finish down the stretch on the offensive end and the defensive end."

On guarding Ty Jerome
"He's really good, really crafty, really smart with the ball. Great point guard, gets everybody involved, gets them in their sets and he can play on and off the ball, so it makes him hard to guard."

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Garrison Brooks

Cameron Johnson

Nassir Little

Luke Maye

Coby White

Kenny Williams

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