UNC Quotes Post-Duke Game

UNC Postgame Quotes vs. Duke

Brady, what would you attribute the slow start offensively? And how much did Bacot picking up that second foul? How much did that kind of factor keep you guys out of a rhythm?

Brady Manek
They shot well from the start, that kind of got us out of a rhythm offensively but um you know Armando getting those two fouls definitely took a toll on us early on but you know we fought back in it and I like to see our fight and I liked seeing us playing together and playing well there for a stretch.

Brady, what was the mission coming out at the start of the second half? And then what happened when Griffin scored 10 straight and Duke opened with a 12 nothing run? The game was pretty much academic at that point.

Brady Manek
The same thing we always talk about, try to come out and play hard and hit them first. And they did it. So I mean, they shot it well, they played well, started both halves and kind of knocked us off from what we were what we were working towards.

Brady, it seemed like you guys got pretty good looks in the first half. Was this really a matter of them making a lot of their shots and you guys not being able to connect early?

Brady Manek
You know, we fought hard in the first half after the first five minutes or so. I mean, we were chipping away at it. We were playing hard. We're playing well. You know it was a long game and a hard game. You know, we played the best we could, we just didn't come out on top. We didn't execute well. Didn't get stops. But we all definitely played hard.

Brady, I just was wondering about AJ Griffin. Would you say strength is an underrated part of his game he seems like he's like a really sturdy dude. Um, you know and strong with the ball when he's when he's making moves and things like that. Like how would you rate him offensively?

Brady Manek
He does make a lot of tough shots. He was hitting threes and he was getting there in the paint and he's making some tough ones, contested off, balance. All you really ask for is to put a hand up and do the best he can but I mean he played really well today and we just got to shift focus more on that and try to get stops.

Leaky Black

Hey, Leaky. I am just wondering about the game plan on on Paolo. Coming in Bacot started on him and then you switched to him and did a really good job, but kind of what was the idea coming into this game?

Leaky Black
To answer your question, pretty much just wanting to make it difficult for him. You know, he's a great player. We know he puts it up a lot. We just want to make a challenge in every shot. So That's pretty much the game plan.

Leaky, in their 31 to 8 start, Was it just a matter of them hitting shots? You guys weren't? What were they doing to get such open shots that you guys were having a difficult time handling? What's more specifically made that harder?

Leaky Black
We got punched in the mouth. You know, right off right from the tip. When we came out, I guess we thought it was gonna be easy. I'm not sure. But we got punched in the mouth. And that is what it was.

Did you sense something on the team where when you were placed back, you guys were kind of knocked back and everyone was collectively struggling to recover, maybe looking for someone to do something to get you guys going? Or can you sort of describe what you sense from your team during that period?

Leaky Black
Yeah. We just started panicking, you know, we got punched in the mouth, we thought it was gonna be easy. And then five minutes into the game. I guess we just started panicking. And we just started just going back to the stuff we were doing at the beginning of the season. You know, it made it tough on us. And we're not going to win games like that. We got to play together and we got to win defensively. We got to just compete, man. That's pretty much all it was, it was just, I don't feel like we competed today.

How much would you say not having Armando for that stretch in the first half after he got a second foul? How much did that kind of contribute to that sense of that panic?

Leaky Black
It definitely hurt. You know, he's a captain on this team, and we need him on the floor. You know, going into the game this whole week, I told him just whatever you do, you can't get into foul trouble. Whatever minutes, two minutes, three minutes. We had a settlement of hurt.

Yeah, Leaky, your seven losses this season have come by an average of 18 points. Is there a common thread in that trend? Or is it all different?

Leaky Black
I feel like it's a common trend. You know, every loss has been a blow for a reason. It's not that we're not prepared because Davis does a great job giving us a game plan and everything every big game. We felt like it's gonna be easy just because we got the North Carolina name on our chest, but it's the complete opposite. It just goes on our chest and it's still going to be difficult. We're going to be everybody's best game, especially Duke. You know, they're going to come out and compete. I don't know why we just didn't come out and play harder. But how do you go about changing that as you move forward? It's a great question. Not sure.

Head Coach Hubert Davis
Hey, Hubert, what was the decision making process on putting Armando on Paolo to start the game?

Hubert Davis
Well, there really wasn't a good matchup for Paolo, we just didn't feel like we had a really good matchup in terms of defending him. One of the things that I really believe in is Armando, he's a really good defensive player. And he also has size. And so one of the things that I was thinking about was, with Armando's size, it would limit Paolo and he can be successful out there on the perimeter, but limit him out on the perimeter as opposed to post it up. And Armando got two quick fouls, and we had to put them on the bench. But, I thought he did a good job of staying out of foul trouble the remainder of the game.

Hubert, when you have a player like Caleb, who's kind of struggling, shooting the ball, what are the ways that you kind of try and work him out of that, because it almost seems like some of his game is predicated on scoring. And if he's not scoring, he kind of, you know, maybe doesn't have the same focus in other parts of the game.

Hubert Davis
Well, Duke's pressure really bothered us, specifically, our guards. Our point guards, throughout the season, at times, teams that have pressured us, have really bothered us. Going into the game, one of the things that we talked about was that Duke was going to pressure the ball, they're going to play in passing lanes, and in order to be able to change sides of the floor. To be able to run our offense like we want to, you're going to have to create space, you're going to have to make contact to be able to create that space to be able to catch the ball. We weren't able to do that because their pressure on the ball bothered us to the point that we couldn't even get into our offense. And so it was really their pressure on the ball that made it really difficult for Caleb and for RJ, not only to create shots and to make shots, but also to get us into their offense. And so I really believe that their pressure was the determining factor that really bothered us on the offensive end.

There were points in that early comeback in the first half where Brady was really trying to will the team forward, he was getting inside, he was making shots. How important was his performance tonight and trying to keep the team engaged, especially when it started getting?

Hubert Davis
Well, he was the one guy that I felt like at the beginning of the game, he wasn't tired. He wasn't nervous, and that's coming from somebody that this is the first time they've played in a type of game like this. And so he was poised. He was confident out there on the floor. And from an offensive standpoint, he was the only guy that was in rhythm on the offensive end. I thought they did a really good job on Armando. Mark Williams has tremendous lift and athleticism and he did a good job of making Armando score over top of him and wasn't allowing him to get angles close to the basket where Armando has done a really good job of that this season. But I thought Brady played really well and he played hard and I thought he tried his best and I'm very, very proud of him.

Coach, you said earlier at the end of the day, you just didn't have an answer for Paolo or AJ and that you couldn't divide Leaky in half and have him both defend both guys. What do you do when you face some really good teams? Have you faced a team like Duke that presented as many problems in scouting, as the Blue Devils did today?

Hubert Davis
You know there's a number of talented teams in the country. And Duke is one of them. And Paolo, his ability to be able from an offensive standpoint, to create a shot not only for himself, and for his teammates, whether it's on the perimeter, or in the post is something that very few teams in the country have. AJ is in a really nice rhythm now not just shooting the ball from three but just being able to get into a spot. He's a big wing, he's athletic, and he can get to a spot anytime. And so both of those guys are really good. And then they have a very good basketball team. And so we have to improve, we've got to get better and for us to compete against them in the later part of the year. We're gonna have to play better.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Leaky Black

Brady Manek

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