UNC-Syracuse Postgame Quotes

North Carolina 93, Syracuse 85 • February 26, 2019
Postgame Quotes
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams

Opening Statement
"Well we feel good about the win to say the least. We did some good things in the second half. First half, we didn't guard people that we said were shooters. They didn't believe the coaching staff or the scouting report. We did a little better job of guarding them in the second half. We got a little better shots. Coby [White] made some big baskets for us to say the least. Luke [Maye] found him one time, you've got to move the ball to get through the zone. Luke had six assists, which was a career high. Rebounding was big for us, 46-25. Of course, 34 free throws out of 37, that's fantastic."

On assisting the majority of baskets
"We always try to have a lot of assists because we like to share the ball. We like to give the ball to the open guy. I think our percentage is probably in the top 20 in the country every year I've been a coach. 19-of-25 against a zone, you would think you would probably have something like that because you are not going to drive it to the basket and lay it up against the zone. I liked it, except I don't like Coby having four turnovers. I looked down and say Seventh [Woods] had seven minutes with three assists and no turnovers. That was good. He got lost on Boeheim and gave him a three down there. Nassir [Little], 7-of-8 from the free throw line was good as well. Garrison [Brooks] has to stay out of foul trouble."

On Coby White being a scorer
"I've said it before, he's the best scoring point guard that I have coached. Ty Lawson got to that stage later when he could score. Coby is a scorer and I have never minded a scoring point guard. I knew he was about to make some because he hadn't made any the last three or four weeks. If you said something like that to him, he would probably tell you. Let me tell you, Kenny Williams did not know whether he should lay that ball up or not. He just told me, 'I hope that Coach Boeheim does not think that was disrespectful to him.' That's not what Kenny intended by any means… Back to your question, he was 9-for-14, 6-for-11. I think other than the Miami game he was 3-for-99. I'm not telling you anything I haven't told him."

On Luke Maye's play
"12 rebounds were helpful, too. I wish he would make that layup at the end because at that stage in the game either don't shoot it or make the sucker. So, he made both mistakes. I thought Luke was important for us in the middle of the zone and rebounding too."

On having different guys score in large quantities
"I'd like it better when all of them make baskets. Like I've said a bunch of times, we have the ability to score we just have to guard people a little bit better. I had one team where I had six different guys over 20. That was pretty good, too."

Player Quotes
Kenny Williams, Senior, Guard
On Coby White playing against the zone for the first time
"He shoots. I wouldn't expect him to do anything else. He found some gaps in it and was able to exploit it and got some layups, but that boy shoots. He can shoot the ball."

On offensive rebounding
"It's nothing different. Against a zone it is easier to get offensive rebounds because they don't know who they are going to box out from play to play. That's really it. We knew they played a zone and we'd be able to get more boards. We were able to get more possessions and beat them up on the boards a little bit."

On second half defense
"We just played with more effort and attention to detail. We knew they had some shooters, and we let them get hot. In the second half we turned it around and upped our effort a little bit."

Luke Maye, Senior, Forward
On being comfortable working in the high post
"I think I was just trying to make plays and do what I needed to do to make sure everybody was moving, the ball was moving and everybody was getting to the right spots."

On getting Syracuse in foul trouble
"They play a zone, but it's an aggressive zone. We tried to make sure we attacked and got into positions that would be successful for us."

On team mindset with three games left
"It is just one game at a time for us. We just gotta play and make sure everything is taken care of, and battle and fight. Every game in the ACC is tough and we gotta get ready for Saturday."

Cam Johnson, Graduate, Guard
On Coby White
"I don't really have to guard Coby [White] too much, but he is just always in attack. He is a shot maker. He is a scorer. He is pretty strong for his size so that is a hard thing to guard about him."

On taking advantage of zone defense
"I think the key for us was just to get in the ball in the high post and Luke [Maye] did a really good job of working out from there and I think the more we got to the high post, the more easy shots we got and when we weren't we were just screwing around the perimeter and that was a little tougher on us."

On the feeling in the locker room
"We are excited. We feel like we got some momentum right now and we kind of want to take advantage of it and just enjoy it because for me, Kenny [Williams], Luke [Maye] this is our last time, second to last time in this building. We are just taking it one day at a time and enjoying it along the way and trying to win as many games as we can."

Coby White, Freshman, Guard
On getting his confidence back tonight …
"I just came in with confidence. After getting my first one in, I felt pretty good. I was just trying to find my rhythm and get my confidence back. I feel like for a while there, those two games, I kind of lost my touch and my shot. I was questioning my confidence a little bit, but everybody struggles. I kind of hit a wall. I think I played better tonight. I could have had less turnovers, but I played better."

On his expectations for his freshman year here and scoring 30 points three times …
"I didn't expect it, but you know, all the hard work you put in pays off, it truly pays off."

On Carolina's defense tonight …
"The first half as a team we didn't really play defense well. The second half I felt like we came out with a different mentality, and we locked in on the defensive end, and we got stops and transitioned. I think that helped us a lot."

On their rebounding advantage …
"Coach always emphasizes rebounds as one of the most important parts of the game, and rebounding helps you win. He preaches that, and I felt like in the second half we went out there and we did it."

On how the team has changed since January …
"I feel like we have matured a lot. In the beginning of January we were averaging 20 turnovers a game, but I think tonight we only had nine. Syracuse forces a lot of turnovers in the zone because they are really active. I feel like we have matured a lot, and the seniors have helped us mature since they have been playing college basketball for a long time."

Syracuse Coach - Jim Boeheim
Opening statement
"I thought the first half we moved the ball and shot the ball well, probably as well as we have. We have shot the ball better in some of our road games this year. I thought we had good shots and we made them. The foul situation hurt us tremendously. Second half it didn't hurt us as much, but in the first half it was crushing. North Carolina was playing as well as anybody in the country. I think they've got a really great mixture of veteran guys and young guys that can help them. I thought we did the things offensively that we've done on occasion, but I think we were really much better tonight than we have been. I think it's something we can build on. We knew coming into this stretch of games, it was going to be difficult. I think this was a good outing for us. 10 turnovers is not bad, but we made a couple open court turnovers that led to baskets. Our free-throw shooting was bad and theirs was very good, and they had a lot more of them. That was a contributing factor to the game. They hurt everybody on the boards, they hurt us in the second half big time on the board. Again, they're really good and I thought we did a lot of good positive things today."

On rebounding in first half compared to second half
"They're a good rebounding team...they're good on the board and we're not a great rebounding team. We were in foul trouble in the center position, which didn't help. Our forwards really didn't rebound tonight. Both our starting forwards had three rebounds each, that's not going to get it done."

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Luke Maye

Coby White

Kenny Williams

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