UNC-Florida State Postgame Quotes

North Carolina 77, Florida State 59 • February 23, 2019
Postgame Quotes
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams

Opening statement
"We feel very good about the W. We know we can play better, but Florida State, they know they can play better as well. They didn't shoot the ball anything like I've seen them shoot in some of those games they've played. Fantastic club. I can't imagine winning eight in a row in this league and four of them on the road so Leonard [Hamilton] has done his usual fantastic job. I think they're really good. [Mifondu] Kabengele is a load and he didn't have his normal game today like he has been. He's been the leading scorer coming off the bench. He is a bad matchup for any of our guys. I think that Trent Forrest has really been someone we were worried about but he got hurt a little bit and so that was a bad thing for us because they brought in [David] Nichols and he made four threes and we were standing there watching him. I thought we did a much better job offensively in the second half. Late, all we were doing was trying to make four or five passes before we went into a set so we just used some time. I like Luke's [Maye] work on the boards with 11 and Cam's [Johnson] work on board with ten. 47-32 on rebounds. We had ten turnovers, I thought we had 103 so it just depends on how you look at those things, I guess. I feel very fortunate to win the game and did some nice things."

On success on rebounds
"Well, we out rebounded them by ten in the second half. We had a five-rebound margin at halftime. In the second half, we had ten more than they did but that is something we emphasize all the time. You should do things better if it is what you emphasize the most and that is what we emphasize more than anything. It is one of the three things I put on the board today, but they don't usually shoot 30 percent and we fortunate we got them today in a game they were missing a bunch of shots. We tried to box them out and keep them off the offensive boards. I think we ended up 15-9 points on offensive rebounds. I would like for it to be a little bit more."

On three keys on the board
"I don't think coach [Dean Smith] put three, I put three almost every game probably missed two games in 31 years where I didn't put three up and it's just to try to focus on things that I think come most important."

On Nassir Little's performance:
"Nassir [Little] was huge for us. He had eight rebounds, which is his high. Nassir and B-Rob [Brandon Robinson] both were big. B-Rob was involved in about three straight plays in the first half and he got wacked the other day and broke his tooth….so he is wearing something in his mouth. Nassir getting to the backboards is something that I think really helps us. He had one drive and dunked it quicker than anybody and that is what he can do."

On Nassir Little's performance, today vs. his performance at Duke
"I think he was more engaged, but he was feeling better. He had the sprained ankle in the Virginia game and we held him out and then the Wake game he got hit in the sternum and that was really sore for two-three days so we held him out again. I think that he and I had a conversation yesterday and told him to focus on getting to the back boards and doing those kind of effort things. That was big for us early in the game when he got in. He is like everybody, if you do something and do it well once you start feeling better. I always like for guys first shot to go in or first defensive play to do a good job. I think he was huge for us the entire game.

On Nassir Little playing consistently down the stretch
"It makes our team better. That is pretty easy. He is one of our most gifted players. Garrison [Brooks] does a great job for us defensively and comes up with some nice screens, loose balls and rebounds. He was one for two today and played 22 minutes. It was an effective 22 minutes even though he was one for two and two for two from the line so he had four points and three rebounds, but he does a lot of great things for us. Nassir and got in there and his stat line is pretty impressive."

On what to expect to look for going into the next game
"When we got back here Wednesday night, before I let them go off the bus I talked to them about we did some good things, we got a W, we got to keep playing or you give it back. We have had a couple of Ls here in the Smith Center this year so you got to protect your home court. I have always never minded going on the road and playing, but that was a good win for us. I think I probably harped on that more this week than I ever have. I don't know that there is a pattern. I remember one day we played and beat one of those number one teams and the next day we were great. They were cocky and I like that. I like confidence probably better than cockiness. I don't think there is any pattern."

On two games not depending on the three
"Well, I am depending on the sucker to go in so they need to start making more. I've always said you got to have great balance and I don't know how many points we had in the paint today, 28, I would like more than that. I always rather have great balance trying to get the ball inside and to be able to have shooters shoot the ball from the outside. If you bank one in every now and then that helps you too."

Florida State Head Coach Leonard Hamilton
Opening Statement
"You have to give Roy's [Williams] team a lot of credit. I thought they had more pop. I thought they had more energy. They were livelier. I thought they had, what our players say, a little more juice than our players did. Sometimes, when you play three games on the road in seven days, it was my worst fear realized. I thought that today, we got beat by a better team that has more energy and executed their system better. You have to give them credit where credit is due. I'm not sure had we not played three games on the road in seven days, even if we had been at our best… Carolina is playing at a very high level. They executed extremely well. Defensively, they boxed us up. We had some really good looks in the second half. We have had three or four games this year where it seems like the ball just isn't going to go in the basket. A lot of their defensive schemes took us out of things that we normally do to get around the basket for our big guys. I thought we just weren't on point today. We have to have a quick recovery. We have four games left. Thank goodness it equals itself out and we are at home and hopefully we can recover. We just got beat by a team that was a lot better than us today and executed a lot better. You have to give them credit for being on point. They seem to be playing at a very high level toward the end of the year. One thing that I can take away, I have a feeling that we are close to reaching our potential. Hopefully that is a good thing and we can get back and regroup and finish very strong."

On Nassir Little
"When I was at the University of Kentucky, North Carolina was my game preparation and I was there for 12 years. We played Carolina about every year. That is a long time ago. They've always been good. They've always had players like little. He is more of the same. He falls right into the category with some of the great players and potential guys that come in as freshmen. He is showing more and more now towards the end of the year why people thought he was one of the top players in the country coming out of high school. I wasn't surprised at all that he played as well as he is capable of playing. We kind of expected that, to be honest with you. He is an outstanding kid. I know him very well. He has high character and is loaded with talent. He is playing with a lot of maturity for a freshman. He is going to be an added boost for them once they get into the NCAA Tournament. He is athletic and strong and right now he is playing with a lot of poise. Tonight, he was extremely aggressive especially in the first half. Even though the game was back and forth, he gave them opportunity. He made some really athletic plays that only a guy with his physical skills could do."

On the Player from Carolina that Presents the Biggest Mismatch
"They have a system. Because they execute their system, depending on who they are playing, other guys are going to have an opportunity to have a more positive input on that particular night. That is the good thing about Roy's team, they execute very well. They move the ball- the Carolina way. When you execute and move the ball, the offense finds you… When you have talented players that are bought into a system, that presents challenges to the visiting team."

On Cameron Johnson
"The thing about Cam [Johnson] is that he is who he is. He is a tremendous shooter. He's 6' 9" and it is a challenge for anyone to guard him because he is mobile, plays inside outside, is smart in the head, makes good decisions and has a high IQ. He fits into their system pretty well because if you leave him and give him a little bit of room he will knock down the jump shot and he is athletic enough to drive to the basket. They are a good basketball team with a chance to win the whole thing."

On being out-rebounded
"What you have to do is give Carolina a lot of credit. They have always been one of the top leading rebounding teams in the nation. This is not anything new. Just because we are taller does not mean we are better rebounders. You have to give them credit. They outplayed us tonight. They have outplayed a lot of teams over the years. Very few teams have come in here and won very many games. That is a credit to their program, their tradition, the coaching that they have produced here."

UNC Players
Coby White • G • Fr.
On Nassir Little
"He played good today. He came out really aggressive and made plays throughout the whole game. He attacked the boards like a grown man. He played good, just keep it going."

On how Nassir Little has improved
"Just letting the game come to him and taking what the defense gives him instead of trying to force it. Just playing within himself."

On what Coach Williams said after the Duke game
"Stay focused, it was a game and enjoy it until 8 a.m. Then, get ready for Saturday. We have a big test against Florida State."

On learning to score without the three ball
"We are just maturing as the season goes on. Each and every day we are getting better. We are learning from coach there are different ways to score other than hitting the three-point shot."

Cameron Johnson • G • Gr.
On reasons for uptick in his game
"Just season gets on. Getting more experience and kind of getting more comfortable with everything and all that. It's always big at this time of the year. Just staying in the gym. It's been helpful."

On what level Nassir Little brought if he was consistent off the bench
"A big level. That's just a big-time contributing from him today and if we can get that pretty consistently, then it makes us pretty dangerous."

On not getting too high off the win at Duke
"I think, at certain times, we didn't do too well with it. There was a little bit of a lull in the first half where we could have played a lot better. But coming off a big win, it's easy to kind of get fat and happy. So, we recognize that and we wanted to make an emphasis not to. At times, we could have done better but overall to come out with a big-time win was good for us."

On finding other ways to score other than threes
"7 for 20 from three, I know for a while is like the 3 for 13, 2 for 11 type range. Getting points in the paint was big. Guys attacking. Scoring coming from different aspects and not just relying on one guy being big for us. I feel like we get tight defenses in multitude of ways and that's what we're going to keep doing."

On who would win in a team-wide dunk contest
"I'm going to give it to Nassir. He's got a lot of stuff with them. Between the legs, 360s. I just watch him in practice and he's explosive. That's God-given. That's God-given."

Nassir Little • G • Fr.
Thoughts on game and how he played
"We had a locked in practice yesterday. I came in just being aggressive, trying to attack. I saw that they weren't the best at getting back in transition, so I was just attacking that."

On what his scoring would bring in March
"I think that makes us a more dangerous team and it shows how deep we are. You have a guy coming off the bench being able to produce like that, it shows how much versatility we have."

On big put-back dunk in second half
"I thought I was open on the wing, so I was calling for it. I can tell Cam's about to get into his shot, so once I saw him get into the motion of his shot, I crashed the glass really hard because nobody was guarding me…"

Seventh Woods • G • Jr.
On if team has been too dependent on threes and now can't make them
"Guys that usually hit have been off. It happens, so we've just got to find another way to attack the opponent."

On how game plan changes if team isn't shooting well from three
"Our game plan is never to just shoot threes. We've got a balanced attack. We have guys that can shoot it, and we've got guys like Luke who can shoot it and go bang in the post. Like I said, our attack is never just to depend on one part of our game."

On if there's a noticeable difference when Nassir plays well
"When Nas [Nassir Little] played like he did today, I feel like we're unbeatable. He came out with a different type of confidence today."

Luke Maye • F • Sr.
On going into this game after the win against Duke
"Every game in the ACC is going to be tough and we're not going to overlook anybody. We're going to come in ready to play every day."

On finding ways to score other than the three
"I think we have guys who can score inside and out. We've never been live and die by the three. We have won games shooting how we did on Wednesday, and we've won games making fifteen or twenty. I think there is nothing that really defines this team. We're going to play as well as we can and get to the spots where we know we can make shots."

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Cameron Johnson

Nassir Little

Luke Maye

Brandon Robinson

Coby White

Seventh Woods

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