Roy Williams Quotes (Post-Syracuse Game)

Roy Williams
UNC vs Syracuse Post-Game Press Conference 1/12/21

Q: Do you feel like the last few games in ACC play where it basically came down to the last 30 seconds, how do you feel like that helped you guys tonight? It didn't seem like there was any panic out there when Syracuse took a 68-67 lead and your guys executed down the stretch.

Roy Williams: Yeah, I didn't feel like we had any panic. Day'Ron (Sharpe) stepped up to the line and made two big free throws when we were down one to give us a one-point lead. The only thing that was discouraging is you got to have a clock in your head and to get a 10-second back court violation is something you can't do down the stretch. We've talked all season about finishing games with our brain and our heart both, and I think we did that but, guys, you think about the ACC. We lose the first game at State and we had two shots to tie the game at the end, and we lose at Georgia Tech and they had to go to the video, and they called it our ball, and they go to the video, we're down three with less than 30 seconds to play. And then after review they gave the ball to them. So all five of our games have gone down to the last 30 seconds or something, but I thought we got somereally good performances from a lot of guys. I'll say it again, Day'Ron didn't have his best game by any means but he had two big baskets in a row for us, made the two free throws. Garrison (Brooks) was big for us in the first half. Look at Leaky. (Black), seven assists and one turnover. Made two big free throws. I thought RJ (Davis) made a couple of big baskets for us and got at least one and possibly two steals that I think was big for us. And then we went to the free throw line and made our free throws down the stretch too. In the first half, Buddy Boeheim just killed us. He and (Quincy) Guerrier, and Guerrier tried to do it in the second half as well and it helped us immensely for him to get into foul trouble and to foul out.

Q: Couple questions about the point guard situation. Number one, Anthony Harris, he dressed out, how close is he to potentially getting back on the floor for you? And you mentioned Leaky…. How comfortable are you with him bringing the ball up?

RW: I'm comfortable with Leaky, and Anthony, this week is the first time that he's done anything full court. He's getting closer. Anthony, when he comes in, he would not come in as a point guard. He can do some of those things but he's more valuable off the ball than he is setting it up. Caleb (Love) has had some good practices, didn't play as well tonight. RJ struggled the last couple of games and he did some good things for us down the stretch. Guys, I've said a million times, I don't choose who starts or who plays the most minutes, they choose by how they play. The guy that plays the best is going to get the most time. I've always felt like you've got to have depth to play the way we want to play in this league, as difficult as it is, and we're going to play a lot of guys and give a lot of guys some chances.

Q: We saw more production from your young guards in RJ and Caleb, specifically RJ. What improvements have you seen out of these guys as of late?

RW: You know it's been tough, I keep talking about it, but when you are freshman guards in the ACC and you have no exhibition games, no scrimmages, and all of a sudden you have one game before you start playing in the Maui Invitational and then get out of that and then you're in ACC play. There are no games that you can get some confidence, it's hard to get confidence playing in the ACC. And I think we're going to keep playing those two guys, we played them together a little while tonight and we're going to keep doing that. Andrew (Platek) did some good things for us. Kerwin (Walton) made a couple of baskets, missed a couple that he normally makes but there's a lot of freshman that are getting a lot of playing time for us and it's going to stay that way.

Q: You mentioned Buddy Boeheim killed you in the first half. What can you say about him as a shooter and what did you tell your team at halftime to take him out of the game in the second half?

RW: Well I think it helped Leaky was a little better in the second half. Leaky blocked his first shot, but guys, Buddy's a great shooter, he hurt us last year. He killed us up at their place and we just got it going a lot in the second half and made a bunch of shots ourselves. He's one of the best shooters in college basketball, he made one right in-front of our bench with Leaky and Garrison both all over him, which is tough a shot as anybody makes against us at any point. The fact that Buddy missed a couple in the second half was helpful to us but Leaky, I think, is one of the best defenders in the league and I think if we can keep him on the other team's best shooter all the time, it would help us. But early in the second half we got the first three or four baskets and then all of a sudden we gave up three three's in a row because we didn't get proper assignments on our pickups. It's a work in progress every single day.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Anthony Harris

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