UNC-Pitt Postgame Quotes

Pittsburgh 73, North Carolina 65 • January 8, 2020
Postgame Quotes
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams

Opening Statement
"I'd like to come up with something witty, and something different, something… but I don't have it. I thought our guys played harder tonight than we did against Georgia Tech. I think the first thing I would do would be congratulate Pittsburgh. We knew that Ryan Murphy was a big-time shooter from three, and we tried to make sure we didn't leave him. No. 11 [Justin Champaigne]… shooting 28 percent for the year, and he's 4-for-5 in the second half against us tonight. So it's something that when things are going bad, a lot of things continue to go bad, and some way somehow we've got to figure how to stop the bleeding and start playing better. Right now, I want to make sure my guys don't start feeling sorry for themselves. We had some chances, we turned it over three out of five possessions and it was because Pittsburgh was more alert; we were more casual. Then we still have a chance there at the end. Garrison [Brooks] missed the two free throws. We still had it to four and we missed – I think it was Jeremiah [Francis] had a wide-open three from the corner. It was a miss that would have cut it to one. But down the stretch, we couldn't make any baskets. Things were ugly. I don't know guys, ask me some questions. I'll see if I can answer them."

On how to keep team's confidence throughout practice
"It's hard. It's human nature. I told them I'm mad, I'm sad, I'm ticked and all those kinds of things right now. But we're going to come to practice and we're going to try to get better and we're going to try do it. I told them, 'If you're going to give in, if you're going to go belly up just because things aren't going well, then you're not the guy that I recruited'… I really do believe that we could all talk about five, or 10 or 15 plays, but right now, perhaps we're feeling a little sorry for ourselves and getting a little tight down the stretch as well."

On comment that this was least-gifted team he had coaches
"I didn't make that comment for any reason other than the fact I was telling the truth… We've had teams in the past that I've said before that were really more gifted. I said to my team, 'Once we get into the ACC play, we're not going to be more gifted than the other team.'"

Pittsburgh Head Coach Jeff Capel

Opening Statement
"First and foremost, I'm really proud of my team. It's been a really emotional four days since our last game. We've been through a lot with stuff we've talked about and tried to teach and tried to correct. For our guys to come in here on the road and face some adversity and to fight our way out of it, then in the second half to play defense the way that we did, then to execute on the offensive end the way that we did. It's really who our team has been for a good part of the season. The thing we just talked about is it's what's required to win in this league and become a good basketball team and to become a winning program. I'm proud of a lot of the things that we did throughout the game but especially in the second half."

On Pittsburgh's intangibles, smartness and toughness, down the stretch
"You just said it. That's what we saw. We saw togetherness. We saw guys trusting each other and making the correct play, whatever the correct play is, and the game will tell you what that is based on what the defense does. Our guys did that. We got stops when we needed to. We got free throw block outs which is something that we worked on for the past couple of days – understanding how good of a rebounding team they are. We forced 17 turnovers. We made an adjustment with what we wanted to do in the post; our guys were able to follow that. On the offensive end, we trusted and we kept the floor space. We got the matchups that we wanted and we were able to attack."

On what it means to Pittsburgh to win in Chapel Hill
"It means a lot. This is one of the storied programs in the history of college basketball and one of the storied buildings. There's a lot of history, a lot of tradition here. And then for us, I don't think our program has won an ACC road game since 2017. For us to be able to do that, I don't think it's coincidence that it had to have a lot of adversity and a lot of things that we didn't do in the first half, to get down and have to come back. But it means a lot for us. We have to build off it though."

On his message to the team at halftime
"We have to do it together. There has to be more energy. You have to give each other energy. We can't stand around and watch. We have to make things happen, and we did in the second half."

North Carolina Players

Brandon Robinson, Senior Guard
On the team's newly implemented offensive scheme
"We just did some things to get us moving more and to get the ball inside. What we are doing on offense...we just got to buckle up and win. Our offense has nothing to do with that."

On grading the team's energy from the beginning of the game to the end
"From the beginning of the game, I thought we were like a B. At the end, it was like an F -- didn't play good."

On the team's confidence level following a stretch of losses
"I can't speak for everybody else, but my confidence level is still high. I still have my goal in mind – trying to get to that NCAA tournament and win it. I just can't speak for anybody else right now, but I feel like if I had to speak for everybody else, I still feel like we believe we can win every game we play."

Armando Bacot, Freshman Forward
On the energy in the locker room after tough losses
"We're just staying positive. There are a lot of games that were close and we should've won. Obviously I wasn't playing my best in a lot of those games, so I feel like I have a huge part of the blame in why we lost a lot of those games. I mean, we should've won that game against Georgia Tech for sure. We didn't come out playing; I didn't come out and perform."

On Roy Williams' recent comments about the talent of the team
"It kind of motivated us. That's why we came out so hard in the first half. Obviously we didn't win the game, but it definitely motivated us. I don't think Coach [Roy Williams] meant any harm. He still believes in us. He's just Coach – that's how he is. He keeps it real."

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Brandon Robinson

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