UNC-Syracuse Postgame Quotes

Q: At this point in the season, what else can kind of be said about the turnovers? It seems like that's just been a reoccurring deal.

Roy Williams: You're exactly right. You look down there and they have 28 points off of our turnovers. We have nine points off of their turnovers. We turned it over 20 times, they turned it over 12. We turned it over and it turned into baskets for them on the other end. You know, Coach Smith used to say every turnover is carelessness or selfishness and ours is split about 50/50. Carelessness is just what you would expect. Selfishness is when you're trying to make something that's not there and you're trying to make a great play. It's frustrating, there's no question. We talk about turnovers. We practice. We emphasize it in practice. We give discipline points if you do turn it over in practice. All those kinds of things. But the bottom line is I haven't gotten them to understand how important the possession of the ball is. I've got to do a better job of getting them to understand borderline plays can't be made. Up on the board, the three things that I put down. Make the easy play was one of those but I haven't been able to get them to do it. They can read it up on the board, but I haven't been able to get them to understand it and just make the easy play.

Q: Seemed like you were screaming "move, move, move" quite a bit on the offensive end. How much did that affect some of the offensive issues, the lack of movement by the team?

RW: In my opinion, it affects it a great deal. We've had some great games against their zone by getting great movement and yeah, making the three point shot every now and then and getting the ball inside, being effective. I thought their defense was much stronger than our offense today. We didn't move. It's an unusual zone. They're big, they spread the four across the top and with freshmen guards, they have a difficult time trying to figure out what they want to do and how they're going to do it. By now, again guys, we've played this is game 24 and yesterday was our 80^th practice. I haven't gotten it across to them yet. It is frustrating. There's no question about it. Even here last year, and we were struggling a great deal, we got great movement. Cole [Anthony] hit a bunch of threes and I think B-Rob [Brandon Robinson] I can't even remember, seemed like somebody else made a couple of threes. I just think that when you're playing against their zone, you've got to get the ball inside and attack the inside around the paint area and also make a couple of shots. Early in the game, I thought we were attacking in the lane area quite a bit better than we did late in the game. We just did not attack it at all late in the game and attack it successfully. We had too many loose balls that they ended up getting.

Q: You mentioned the guys sort of stopped attacking as aggressively late. Did you get a sense, it seemed like almost midway through the first half that that was the chance? It seemed like they seemed to stop pressing as much as they had in the first couple of minutes.

RW: Well I think you've got to hold your attention to be passionate about playing for 40 minutes. And if there's an overtime, you've got to hold your focus and be passionate about playing for 45 minutes. I can't tell you when we lost it. I kept substituting the big guys, trying to get different big guys to move more. But it was equal opportunity. Armando [Bacot] had three turnovers, Garrison [Brooks] had four, Caleb [Love] three, Day'Ron [Sharpe] three, R.J. [Davis] four. We just didn't do a very good job and their defense was stronger than our offense was.

Q: How much of the turnover problems is that movement? Some people think it's just the guy with the ball but how much of that is a collective thing?

RW: I think it's both but if a guy isn't moving, it still doesn't mean you got to dribble between three guys. If a guy has got a layup down the court, if you make a better pass, you don't have to throw it over their head. But other than those kinds of turnovers, you're exactly right it is both things. We have to have better spacing than we had tonight. We have to attack better. We have to be more aggressive. We have to get the ball in the middle. And all of those things depend on guys moving and the point guard or the perimeter player being able to deliver the pass at that time. At our place, it was a one possession game, down at the very end and we shot an air ball but it turned into an offensive rebound for a basket. We made some shots there at our place too. R.J. got a steal, went down and laid it up. Today, he got steal and went down and they chased him down and blocked it. It was a little bit of difference like that. And yeah, just one or two plays here. We missed two free throws there at the end. I wanted to make the first and then we were going to try to set a play to intentionally miss the second one. We didn't make the first. So it made it much more difficult at that point.

Q: I think the first eight minutes or so you guys had a 18-3 advantage in rebounding. I realize I'm going to ask you to psycho-analyze this. Do you think that in any way, as dominant as you were early, and throughout rebounding, it sort of lulled you into a false sense of security? Something to that nature you think.

RW: I wouldn't think so. I think what it is, the guy on the other end of the court has won 1,000 games. You don't think he's complaining about his guys' rebounding and boxing out and those kinds of things? Early in the game when we were doing that, I can assure you that had to be a focus of what they were talking about as well. Boxing out and keeping us off the board. Every part of basketball is a two-way street. Sometimes you do something better than the other team and during the course of the game, they change. Today the changes they made, we didn't adjust back well enough at that point.

Q: I know there's no consolation in losses but what have you seen from your guys' past two games, to be able to come back double-digit deficits and keep this team competitive?

RW: You're right, I never wanted to care much about moral victories. I've always said that every team I've ever coached is going to come back. I believe that's the kind of kids we have. We were down 300 points in the final four one time and came back and shot a three in the second half that would've cut it to four, but it didn't go in and we lost in the semifinals of the Final Four in '08 that way. The other team has to help you. We missed some opportunities to step in the free throw line and missing some or missing some easy shots or getting a layup blocked after we get a steal. I do believe that we have the kinds of kids that will, with our staff and the guys on the bench that have been around a long time, even they're pushing the freshman just to keep playing, keep playing and hopefully good things will happen. Kerwin Walton is as good of a shooter. I just looked over and I knew he hadn't shot that well but one for 10. He's zero for seven and Anthony [Harris] is zero for two, we were four for 20 from three-point line and that's not very good for us. But zero for 10 in the first half. You sort of dig a hole and then you start losing confidence.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Brandon Robinson

Kerwin Walton

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