UNC-JMU Postgame Quotes

Postgame Quotes
North Carolina vs. James Madison
Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022
Chapel Hill, NC
UNC 80, JMU 64

UNC Head Coach Hubert Davis:

-       [On practices leading up to the game]: "The three practices leading up to the game were very spirited…I really felt like all three practices leading up to this game were really good. Very physical, very high energy, lots of intensity. As I said before, we're very competitive, And I felt it put us in a position to play really well today.
-       "One of the things that I always say to the guys is that I don't call you out, I call you up. And the reason why I call you up is that you expect more, and I expect more of you."

-       [On defense]: "Our defense was really good. I told the coaches toward the end of the game, I feel like we took a step forward today. James Madison was one of the hottest teams in the country coming in here, and they were firing on everything, from shooting threes, points in the paint, offense rebounds, and defensively, they were getting steals and being able to get into the open court. And I thought we responded and played extremely well today."

-       [On Puff Johnson's return to the lineup]: "Well, I was really proud of him. It's been a while since he's been out there. And, you know, there's some, you know, terms of technique, or both into the floor that need to be sharpened, but they aren't sharpened. They're not supposed to because he hadn't practiced a lot. And this was his first game. But the thing that I love about Puff is that he always brings, and it doesn't matter if he's coming back from an injury or not, he plays hard. And when you play hard, the ball just finds you on both ends of the floor. You play hard, the ball just finds you in terms of rebounding, on the offensive end, it just finds you in terms of an offensive rebound, finishing around the basket, and then at three that he hit the second half. I thought it was really huge. We were trying to find some rhythm offensively, especially where they were extending that one-to-two press and having him hit that three, I really believe that's the one that really sealed it. And I'm really proud, proud of him and I'm glad that he's back out there on the floor.

-       [Writing goals down]: "You know, I was thinking about it before Thursday's practice and after practice, I said I asked them to do this. I asked them to write three to five things of what they want their identity to be. So, what kind of defensive team do you want to be? What kind of offensive team do you want to look like? And I said I think it's important to know what you want to look at look like so that when you go out there, you can actually do the things that are necessary to put yourself in that position. And I gave it to them on Thursday. And I told them, I said, 'look, can you give it to me by the morning of Saturday's practice.' Saturday morning's practice, on my practice plan, I had written down to remind them because I didn't think they would remember. I walked in, right before we were doing film and scouting report. and they gave it to me. And I talked to them before the game, it moved me because one that they remember. Number two, it was all typed out. It was well thought out. It was like, they took time to do this. And then the last thing that blew me away is everybody signed it. So before the game, I told them, I said, you know, this isn't a contract. I said, this is a covenant. And I said the difference between a contract and a covenant. And I said a contract can be broken. Now, obviously, you know, you have a contract for at lease and you break it, there's going to be consequences, you're going to have to pay a penalty and a fine. But I said with the covenant, I said the difference there, it's an agreement. But it's a promise that through sunny days and cloudy days, that we're going to stick together. And that's what we talked about before the game, is let's just stick together. And I thought they did that today….and I'm gonna put it in the locker room. I want them to see it. And I have it right on my desk. And every day since then I put it right there. It's up on my desk right now. And I look at that every day. It's beautiful.
-       "This is their team, I'm just in a position to manage it."
-       "One of the things I always tell the team is this is not an Armando Bacot rebounding game. This is a UNC rebounding game and so I'm glad we have him. He's just his pursuit for rebounds is relentless. It's impossible to box him out."

James Madison Head Coach Mark Byington:

-       (General thoughts) "When you're in a situation like this, you wanna play better, and we weren't at our best. Bacot, he's the real deal. He causes all kinds of problems. He gets offensive rebounds, he puts everybody else in foul trouble. It's a learning experience for us. It's a game in November, and we wanna keep building up and keep getting better, and I think we will."

-       (When asked if they 'gave' points away) "We left a lot of points and shots out there, whether it be missed layups, open threes, free throws. There were a lot of empty possessions on offense. If you're going to try and beat a team like that, you better be making those and unfortunately, we didn't.

-       (About Terrence being out) "Our whole team was out of rhythm. Without him, who was playing 20-something minutes a game, his foul trouble hurt. But we played the big guys together, we played Mezie and Julien. I thought Mezie played really well, but not having an extra ball handler on the court is hard against them because they've pressured more on defense than I think we've seen."

-       (About wasted possessions) "The first three minutes I don't think we attacked. We were settling for almost four threes. But after that, I thought the offense was pretty good. Some guys who are good shooters, Noah Fridel and Vado Morse, had off-shooting nights. The encouraging thing is, I know we're better than that. The disappointing thing is, when you get this opportunity, you want to play better."

UNC forward Pete Nance:
-       "We definitely didn't play as good as we wanted against Gardner Webb, so we got after it this week for sure. We talked about what we wanted our goals to be and how we wanted to play. I think just being able to reflect from that game and taking from the first three games what we didn't like about those games and just try to change them."
-       "He was great. That is the Armando that we see every day. I think he definitely carried us to the win. He played awesome and that's obvious if he can do that every night then it would make it easier on the rest of us."
-       [About RJ Davis] "I always tell him to be aggressive. He is a really good scorer, all of them are. He does a good job of knowing what is good and what is great."

Caleb Love:

[About Armando Bacot] "That's Mando. That's who he is. I'm looking forward to seeing that consistently throughout the season. He had a great game today."
[About Puff Johnson] "It was great. You know him, he has been through a lot through his injuries and a lot of other stuff that he fought battles. He is one of the strongest dudes that I know and I'm glad to see him back healthy."
[About good defensive first half] "Yeah for sure. Coach Davis has been harping on that and you know, that's what we try to hang our hat on. On the defensive end, we definitely shut them out and made them take tough shots throughout the game. That's why I suppose it was what it was."
"We had to change exactly what we were doing on the court. They were getting after us but we already knew what we had to work on. We fixed that throughout the week, before this game. Coach Davis speaks everything he says to better us and to better this team. We always listen, we always do what he tells us to do to the best of our abilities."
"I'm not the only option on the court and I'm not the only one that can put the ball in the cup. Just knowing that we got multiple weapons and multiple guys that can put the ball in the hole is great."
[About struggling shooting] "It's going to change, I just have to figure it out. I'm not sure right now but I'll definitely figure it out soon."
"There's some frustration. Knowing you don't want to throw up those missed shots. I just got to keep playing. My three-point shot is not the only thing I can do on the court so just having that defensive end, being active and getting my teammates the ball, doing the other things on the court. The three-point shot is going to come because I put too much work in for it not to."
[About RJ Davis's passing sense] "He's great at doing so. He is one of the best at it in the country and just seeing him do that and just seeing him run the show is great."

Puff Johnson:
"These fans are the best fans in the country. It was good to be back out there with the guys, it's been a while. Like I said, it feels like it's been a really long time since the last time I've played with any real game experience so it felt good to get my feet back under me and be back out there with my friends out on the court."

"In practice, we talked a lot about bringing effort and a lot of intensity because that's what it takes to be a good team and we know that we can be a good team. We proved it last year and now it's time to prove it this year."
"I know what I do best and I have a good understanding of what we need as a team and what we need to make us the best team possible. Just trying to do everything we can and I can to make us win and make us a successful team."
"I just try to bring a whole lot of energy and a whole lot of toughness, just be a spark. And as a team, playing to the best of our abilities like I know we can."

RJ Davis:

"I think in today's game we took a step forward on both ends of the floor. The first half was very evident of it, the way we shared the basketball, the way we were locked in on defense, and I think today was a together type thing. We all played together and that was the main message going into the game, just to play Carolina Basketball. Get back to what we do and have fun. The first half was definitely fun, I enjoyed it, the way we just played alongside each other is just something that we've built, that chemistry.
[About lull in second half] "We kind of came out a little bit flat. That wasn't ideal to come out like that in the second half. But the way we changed it around, obviously we went on a run. We were able to pull it together and kind of reduce that. We got some stops and then got some buckets on the other end. That's what we need but at the same time, we've got to understand, just because of our first half, we have to come out ready for the second half."
[About Caleb Love] "I think it says a lot about our team. A lot of players that could go for career nights and have a lot of points. At the same time, it's about the team and unselfishness and we're all happy for each others' success. It's never about one person, it's all about all of us. That's the main message, that's the main theme, and that's what we're all about here."

Armando Bacot:

"We got a group of guys that aren't going to quit. We know it's a long season, there's going to be adversity at times, it's not going to be perfect all the time. One thing we not doing is quitting."
"That's just the reality of how it's going to be this year and it's just something I got to play through. Everytime I go out there I'm trying to make it a street fight. What happens happens. It's going to be physical down there so I can live with it and I love it."
"I think today I did a lot better job of getting in a low position. But really I didn't post as much, I was just getting it off the offensive glass. That's something I struggled with in the first few games, but when I'm doing those types of things, getting offensive glass, the game is a lot easier for me and everybody. I think that's just the blueprint. JMU is a great team, I think they have a chance to get into the tournament. When we dominate the glass like that we're hard to beat."

Scoreboard Slider

University of North Carolina Athletics

Related News

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

RJ Davis

Puff Johnson

Caleb Love

Pete Nance

Related Videos