UNC-Miami Postgame Quotes

North Carolina 88, Miami 85 - February 9, 2019
Postgame Quotes
Coach Roy Williams Quotes

Opening statement
"We'll I feel fortunate to say the least. I questioned our kids' toughness throughout the whole game, and was still doing it at the end, but I think they answered it pretty well down the stretch. They made plays, they made shots. First of all, I called a play for Coby [White] in the corner and I jumped on him the other day and said 'I've called this for you a couple of times this year and you haven't made it," and he made a big three. I called the play for Luke [Maye] at the end of regulation, when he made the three, it was a dribble spin-out and in my opinion he hadn't played very well, but he made a big time shot there. I called more plays in the last five minutes than I have the entire year. I don't like doing that because I think we need to be able to play basketball. Then, Kenny [Williams] made a three out of a set play as well. Cam [Johnson] made the free throws. Coby [White] made the big play. Luke [Maye] made a big basket. Kenny [Williams] made a big basket. So, we got a lot of things going for us down the stretch.

I know this sounds silly but I do feel for Jimmy [Larrañaga] and his team. I think they're fighting some really really difficult odds, Thursday night they had some guys get hurt and I don't think he got to practice on Thursday and Friday. They dominated us, they controlled everything. The little rascal [Chris Lykes] is something else, it's hard to get the ball out of his hands. He makes shots, he takes you to the basket, he gets you in foul trouble, you're worried about him the whole game. We tried playing it regular, we tried switching, we tried doubling him and I don't know if any of it worked, but we are sitting here feeling very lucky right now."

On the team's offensive advancements over the last few weeks.
"The last three minutes of regulation and overtime, yes. I mean, we are down like six or seven inside the seven minute mark. So, I thought they were really tough today. I think at one time we were up three and they shot and missed it, but then they got the offensive rebound and [Cam] Johnson at that time makes a three and that was just a breakdown, somebody not boxing out, you don't like those things. There's a hundred million plays that you can pick out that's something that bothers you."

On Coby White and the team bouncing back after first half
"No turnovers in the second half, and I took him out a couple times in the first half and let him sit over there with me. I challenged him a little bit, well, not just him, but some of the other guys too. He had three turnovers, Kenny [Williams] had two. We had five turnovers at the half and the guards had all five of them. I told them I can play golf, none of them know what in the dickens I am talking about, but if play poorly on the front-nine that doesn't mean I am going to play bad on the back-nine. If you beat me on the front-nine, I am going to be more motivated to beat your butt on the back-nine. You canchange. You can't just say 'Oh it's a bad day," that's a bunch of junk. What you have to do is keep playing every possession and if you struggle, you have to play better. It's a pretty simple thing, if you're not playing rough, you're turning it over, you're not guarding the guy, play better. It's a simple game, you play better things are happier in the locker room."

On rebounding
"Well, I thought they rebounded the crap out of us, but if I looked at it just like that, they had 39-to-32...but we didn't have any until the last four-five-six minutes of the game. We had two offensive rebounds in the first half. We missed 22 shots. Twenty-two shots and we got two offensive rebounds. That would be one point that I would still say that they are still tougher than us."

On Luke Maye's big shot at the end of regulation
"Well, I've coached a few games. So, it's one thing if he sets a screen on the ball, and they switch, that means a guy my size is guarding him, so it's a lot better for Luke [Maye] to shoot it. Plus, he had sucked the whole game, so might as well go ahead and make the shot and then people forget about how poorly you played."

On the University of Virginia's consistency under head coach Tony Bennett
"Tony's been fantastic. They were great this year. They've been great this year....He's done a great job, he's one of my favorite guys. They got three guys on the perimeter that are as good as any three guys on the perimeter in the country. They know their strengths, they play to their strengths, they stay away from their weaknesses and it's a big time team, but, I am going to enjoy the dickens out of this one until midnight. I am not going to think about Virginia, I'll let them worry."

On Coby White's ranking amongst previous UNC freshman guards
"Well at his position I'd say he's been the best. Not in his position, we had the big ugly dude [Tyler Hansbrough], who had 40 one night as a freshman, be sure to tell him I said that. Coby is a scoring point guard, I like scoring point guards. Kendall Marshall was a great point guard for us, but he was not a scoring point guard. Ty Lawson was a scoring point guard, Marcus [Paige], Joel Berry, Raymon [Felton], so I am not against scoring point guards. If you can score you can score. The guy [White] did score more points than anyone in the history of high school basketball, so, it's not a real surprise."

Jim Larranaga– Miami Head Coach

Opening statement …
"That was a tremendous ball game. Carolina deserves a lot of credit; they are a very good team. They did some amazing things. Chris Lykes at one end and Coby White at the other was quite a show. We couldn't practice on Thursday. Yesterday at practice Zach Johnson sprained his ankle. He wasn't even supposed to make the trip, but our trainer said he could take care of him better on the road than he could at home. So he came, he was in a boot, and he said he wanted to try. He gave it a great effort today. We came ever-so-close to accomplishing what we had hoped to do today."

On having so much success with shots …
"When we play certain teams in our league that put a lot of pressure on us, they make it difficult to make a lot of passes. We always utilize ball screens, but even in a game like today, every time down the floor, there were multiple ball screens before we even look to attack. You get the right match-ups, and the player with the ball can get by his man. You have to make the decision to shoot or pass, and I thought our players did a good job of making some good decisions today."

On the final possession of overtime …
"We called a play. We ran it, and we thought it was pretty effective, but they were in foul mode. They were trying to keep us from shooting the 3-pointer. The first time we ran it they knocked the ball out of bounds, and we had to start all over again. The referees went to look at it, and they got a chance to adjust their defense. They made a good decision, which made it a little tougher on us to execute. We got the ball to Chris Lykes with a chance to attack with 6.8 seconds to go … and you saw what happened."

UNC Players

Kenny Williams, Senior, Guard
On Luke Maye's shot to go into OT
"That is the play we ran. It was one of our secondary plays, one of our secondary options. They miscommunicated, left one of the best shooters in the country open, and he knocked it down and I wasn't surprised at all to see Luke [Maye] make that shot. He does what he does. He is a big-time player and he always comes through when we need him the most."

Coby White, Freshman, Guard
On today's victory
"It was good. It felt good, especially to get the win. It was a big-time win. We didn't play the best today, but we showed toughness and we fought and we crawled our way to a victory."

On confidence being the go-to guy
"I am pretty confident. We got plenty of guys that can be the guy. We like eight deep, nine deep so today was just my day. I got into a rhythm, a good rhythm, and I just kept playing."

On having Roy Williams as a coach
"He yells at me and tells me, 'Don't turn the stinking ball over.' But it's great. He made me such a better player since I came here. He emphasizes so much on the game so much little things that I didn't look at before here. Like, in high school I turned it over and was like 'oh well next play.' But he emphasizes so much here. I can see you got to get shots and I feel like he is making me such a great player."

On the team's toughness
"I think toughness got us this win. We fought through adversity with the help of our seniors keeping us together and they got us this win for sure."

Cameron Johnson, Graduate, Guard
On his explanation for what happened this game
"We didn't come out with enough energy, as much as we should've. I think we made some big time plays down the stretch, and some guys really stepped up."

On the final stretch and the team's trust within each other
"We really trust each other in those big moments. It's great to see those guys make big plays. Luke's 3 was great. Coby had some huge 3's, and Kenny had a huge one. To see all those contributions, it was great and that was ultimately what gave us the win."

On the upcoming Virginia game
"We need to move on to Virginia pretty quick now; they're extremely solid. They really play their style of basketball. They really just slow the game down and make you defend for 30 and play offense for 30. It kind of changes the whole dynamic of the game, and it makes every possession matter just a little bit more. They really try to limit fast break opportunities and a lot of that stuff. We are going to have to come out with a lot better focus."

Nassir Little, Forward, Freshman
On ugliness of the game
"I wouldn't say it was ugly to me, personally. I thought it was hard fought. They hit a lot of shots, and I think they kind of struggled with our guard style and match ups with them. It was one of those games where you had to really grind it out. I think by ugly they mean it wasn't just easy. It wasn't a walk in the park, I agree with that. This is a good test for us. I think this was our first win that was this close for us for the year. I think this was good for us."

On toughness in final three minutes of regulation and overtime
"We were just trying to win. It was crunch time. Each mistake matters a little bit more. You don't have time to really mess up and just say 'I'm going to get it back.' Each possession is crucial."

Luke Maye, Forward, Senior
On his overtime shot
"I was very confident. We run it a lot in practice and yesterday we worked on last second shots, and kind of went through that. I just wanted to do it like I do in practice. That's how I've always been taught. Coach had confidence in me and I had confidence in myself. My teammates got me the right spot and Coby made a great pass."

On Coby White
"Coby has grown a lot. He has played really well. It is really hard to guard [Chris] Lykes, and I thought he did a really good job. He still did a lot with the ball and his scoring is unbelievable. He's a natural born scorer. For him to hit so many threes tonight was huge for our team. When we needed a big shot, he was hitting them."

On toughness in final three minutes of regulation and overtime
"I talked to Coach yesterday about it, and I said we really haven't had a game that came down to the very end. Naturally, we had one today and it showed a lot about our team. It showed a lot about who is going to be ready to take the big shot and I thought Coby made some big shots, Kenny hit a big three in overtime and Cam hit some free-throws that were huge. That's what the Seniors are supposed to do, they're supposed to make big shots and take the big shots. I thought that was big for us tonight."

Players Mentioned

Cameron Johnson

Nassir Little

Luke Maye

Coby White

Kenny Williams

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