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UNC-Virginia Postgame Quotes
February 16, 2020 | Men's Basketball
North Carolina 62, Virginia 64 • February 15, 2020
Postgame Quotes
Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement
"I was really pleased with Christian Keeling stepping up and making those three free throws right there. The toughness for that kid who hasn't had it very easy, to be honest with you this year. Got to congratulate their club. Six-for-eleven from the three-point line in the second half. They hadn't shot it real well all year, like us. But they'd shot it a little bit better than we have. They made a bunch of them in the second half. Six-for-eleven is fantastic. There's not a lot for me to say guys. How about you guys just ask me some questions and I'll answer whatever you've got."
On how to encourage team with second half effort despite loss
There's no secret formula you can say to the kids right now. They're devastated. It's been a devastating year… I told them I thought that we didn't react very well to a bitter defeat against Duke when we went to Wake Forest. We've got to react better now… The game is filled with a lot of things that are extremely high, and some lows that are as low as you can possibly ever imagine. But you've still got to keep coming back and keep playing. That's what I told them. That's what I'm going to work on tomorrow."
On Garrison Brooks' improvement
"Garrison is a little bit of a warrior; he's had some tough times with the scratched cornea on three different occasions."
On the buzzer beaters and close games this season
"You can't put it into words…I'm not that intelligent. It's a gut check time on you, and there's no question — I've never felt in any year I've coached the way I feel right now. That's life and you have to go on with it. I told [the team], there were parts of the game against Duke that I was really proud of. I was not proud of the way that we played at Wake… We've got to just keep coming back, keep coming back, keep coming back. I don't know if my message is very good or not, but that's what I believe in."
On Mamadi Diakite talking to him at the end of the game
"Diakite came over at the end of the game and said something to me that was very nice. You love Tony Bennett and the way he coaches and his club and those kind of kids that they have."
Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett
On winning the game
"There's such a small margin between winning and losing, and Carolina, I feel for them in that regard, because they have been close and they have been hit by the injury bug in a way that a lot of teams haven't. I am sure they are battling ups and downs. We've been so close in every game and it was an important game for us. So, thankful for how our guys responded and I thought we made plays down the stretch as they did too."
On inconsistent shooting
"Both teams, Carolina and us, our inconsistency shooting the ball has cost us at times and has been hard to overcome... But, to capitalize on a 6 for 10 and us 9 for 21 those are numbers we are not used to seeing."
On Tomas Woldetensae
"He's really improved. If you talk to him and you are around him, he's a very steady, calm person. He's unaffected. I don't know if because he didn't grow up here and he doesn't understand, 'Hey this is Carolina, this is the ACC,' he just plays. He is real hard and critical on himself and he just works hard on his shot."
On the winning shot
"I couldn't tell if he [Tomas Woldentensae] ran through him... You know we have been on the other end of that and in a good way, I recall last year. You've got to just tell your guys, 'Try not to foul..." It was deflating in the huddle, but he had his chance and he answered. I said if you are going to foul, then make the three, that is a way to erase it. So, he did that."
North Carolina Players
Postgame Quotes
Garrison Brooks, Junior Forward
Describing the heartbreaking losses
"It's tough but I still believe that we can still win a bunch of games and win the ACC Tournament... It's tough right now, it's tough to deal with, it's a tough loss but I think we're going to bounce back from it. As long as we don't just keep thinking about it we're going to bounce back."
On the final play
"My mind was telling me 'Stay in front of the ball, do not foul. Make them make a contested shot.' That's what my mind was saying."
Describing the season
"Just unlucky––it's just unlucky. A bunch of injuries at terrible timing. Continuing to make plays down the stretch is something we haven't done well this season."
On taking away optimism from the game
"I'm always optimistic no matter what. As long as we can come out there and compete I feel like we have a chance to win every game."
Cole Anthony, Freshman Guard
On the final play
"Those were huge free throws by CK [Christian Keeling] but credit to my man––I knew he was going to make them. That was a big play by him and he's a big-time player he's going to make those plays. But after that I'm thinking there's 10 seconds, we need to get a stop... I don't know we might just be the most unlucky team I've ever seen."
On the feeling of not catching a break
"This might be like the fifth, sixth time this season... how many games have we played? 25? That's 20% of our games... This is insane. I've never had a season like this of basketball but at the end of the day our season is not over, we're going to keep our heads high. We have a game Monday, we're going to come out with some fire on Monday and we're going to lock in."
On if he thinks the team's luck will change
"At the end of the day, we're not going to stop working and at some point the work is going to pay off. I see every single person on this team put in work every single day in the gym... Dudes want to win, we're hungry, we're going to win."
On the team's play today
"I think we played––not as well as we've played all season, but we pushed through some mistakes and we played hard. We could have had some mistakes down the stretch that might have cost us that but we came and we fought. Dude hit a heck of a shot."
Christian Keeling, Graduate Guard
On his three free throws at the end of the game
"I think when you think too much, you start to miss them. So coach always says to think about technique, so I was thinking about technique. I made the first two, so there was no way I was missing the third one… I know free throws have been haunting us in the past, so I wanted to give us a chance and contribute to get the win."
On thinking if last shot would go in
"I think we hold the record for buzzer beaters made against us. All I have to say is that we played well, I think we played well."
On the last shot
"I think we've had so many unfortunate things happen to us this year, so I thought it wasn't going to go in… I thought he would miss it, and when he made it, I was heartbroken again. He made a tough shot, and I can't say anything bad about number 53. Congrats to him, he played well."
On how to process the losing streak
"It's hard, harder on me, I think, because it's my last year, and it's not the season I expected. But I'm so positive, we still have a lot of games left to play, and you never know what will happen. I'm just trying to get this momentum going for the tournament, and it's zero-zero in the ACC Tournament. That's my goal, to try to win the ACC Tournament."
