Roy Williams Pre-FSU Press Conference Quotes

Roy Williams Zoom 1-15-21

Q: You've obviously faced Leonard Hamilton coached teams many times over the years. Is there a common theme amongst his teams that make them so difficult to face and so difficult to play against?

Roy Williams: Yes, they're extremely athletic and talented, but they do a great job of pressuring you. When I was coaching at Kansas, Leonard had worked with Eddie Sutton a little bit and I always thought that Eddie Sutton was one of the best defensive coaches in our game. Leonard took some of those things he got from Coach Sutton and made them somewhat even better in some ways. So I think we always think about how not just gifted they are, but how hard they work defensively. I think that we always wonder if we're ever going to score a basket against them.

Q: Do you feel like you guys are maybe turning a corner in terms of turnovers. It was eight against Notre Dame and 11 against Syracuse. I know it went back up against Miami, but do you feel like it's starting to click with the guys?

RW: Well, I think we're getting better but I don't know that I would say we've turned a corner because just like you said, that one game against Miami was just two games ago, and we were terrible in that game. I know that we're emphasizing it more this year than any team I've ever coached, it's not even close. We've got to continue to get better and we're playing a team tomorrow that pressures you better than anybody else in our league, and maybe as well as anybody in college basketball. So, it's got to be a major concern for us tomorrow.

Q: I'm just going to ask about Anthony Harris and is there any update on his status ahead of the Florida State game or just where he is in getting more ready to play?

RW: Well, it's like I told you guys last week. I mean this last week was the first time he's gone full court. I dressed him the other night just so he could warmup, just so he could get more reps kind of thing. I don't have a date on a calendar marked with an X that says I'm going to play Anthony here. You just got to give the kid a fair shake of running up and down the court enough. I mean, you can't go from doing nothing full court for a year and then all of a sudden practice full court two days and play a game.

Q: I'm sure you at least in your scouting saw the game against NC State where Florida State shot 70% from the floor, they had I think 11 guys on the scoring board. Can you talk about their depth and possible matchup challenges that they'll provide?

RW: If they shoot 70% tomorrow, they're going to beat us to death, too. It's a pretty easy deal there, they were phenomenal. I did watch the whole game because we had played Tuesday night and they played Wednesday. It was an impressive show. But their depth is something that Leonard always plays like I try to do, he does an even better job of it. They've always had depth and last year they won the regular season. I've always felt like winning the regular season was the toughest thing there is. And again, I started as an assistant coach here when there were only seven teams in the ACC, now there's 15. You're playing 20 games and so you have to be at a high, high level for a long time to win the regular season and I think the year before they were second or third or something like that. They've had a tremendous run here and I think capped off by winning the regular season last year. Their game against North Carolina State was about as impressive as any team I've seen in the ACC.

Q: Coach, you have some depth in the front court this year. Does that help at all with matchups when you face a team as big as Florida State?

RW: I know they are big and we do have some depth up front just like they do, they play even more people than we do. We do have some things. We like what our big guys do and we're going to continue doing those. We think with Garrison (Brooks), Day'Ron (Sharpe), Armando (Bacot) and Walker Kessler, we've got four guys who can impact the game in a positive way and we need to try to make sure that if that's our strength of our team, we need to make sure that that's an important part of the game. But they've got two guys who are over seven feet and (Balsa) Koprivica is really, really good and I thought he was very effective for them in the past. But the way he's played lately I just think he's really, really good. He's shooting like 60% from the floor and he's not only tall, he's long. So our guys, you know Day'Ron and Walker Kessler don't have quite the experience that he does, but Garrison probably has more so it's got to be an important factor for us, yes.

Players Mentioned

Anthony Harris

Walker Kessler

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