UNC Head CoachQuotes
Syracuse Men’s Basketball
Syracuse vs. North Carolina
February 21, 2018
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
North Carolina Coach Roy Williams
Your thoughts on a hard-fought win? Your guys made some big plays late.
“We made some dumb plays late, I can tell you that. We kept challenging them one-on-one in an open court. When we have a lead we have to take better care of the basketball and not force anything. Joel (Berry) took a bad shot, Kenny (Williams) took a bad shot, Cam (Johnson) took a bad shot. Sterling (Manley) caught the ball after a good shot and shot it backwards over his head as he was flying out of bounds. Theo (Pinson) turned it over. Theo missed a pretty good shot. But, you can’t do those things because you are playing the other team and you are playing the clock. We didn’t do a very good job there, but other than that we did some really good things. We shot the ball well in the first half and didn’t shoot it as well in the second half. I like the fact that we played against their zone and even their full-court press and only had, I think, eight turnovers the whole game, so I like that. Joel made a good steal and a basket and then hit two free throws.”
You controlled the game pretty much throughout. What does that say about the way your team is playing?
“We played well, yes. I don’t know who had control of the game because they kept making threes and driving to the basket and we could not stop them. So I never felt good defensively. We did some very good things early and they made a run to get it to, I think two at one time, then we took it back to 10, then I decided that I was going to quit looking at the score because I did not look at the score the entire first half and I should have stayed like that. We answered some runs pretty good, too.”
How impressed were you with what Tyus Battle was able to do?
“(Number) 11, 23, 25 (Brissett, Howard, Battle) – that’s what we talked about. They were all great. Brissett, the freshman, was really good. Howard was good. Tyus was a man possessed in the second half. He didn’t give them in the first half what he normally does, but in the second half he was fantastic.”
Syracuse vs. North Carolina
February 21, 2018
Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.
North Carolina Coach Roy Williams
Your thoughts on a hard-fought win? Your guys made some big plays late.
“We made some dumb plays late, I can tell you that. We kept challenging them one-on-one in an open court. When we have a lead we have to take better care of the basketball and not force anything. Joel (Berry) took a bad shot, Kenny (Williams) took a bad shot, Cam (Johnson) took a bad shot. Sterling (Manley) caught the ball after a good shot and shot it backwards over his head as he was flying out of bounds. Theo (Pinson) turned it over. Theo missed a pretty good shot. But, you can’t do those things because you are playing the other team and you are playing the clock. We didn’t do a very good job there, but other than that we did some really good things. We shot the ball well in the first half and didn’t shoot it as well in the second half. I like the fact that we played against their zone and even their full-court press and only had, I think, eight turnovers the whole game, so I like that. Joel made a good steal and a basket and then hit two free throws.”
You controlled the game pretty much throughout. What does that say about the way your team is playing?
“We played well, yes. I don’t know who had control of the game because they kept making threes and driving to the basket and we could not stop them. So I never felt good defensively. We did some very good things early and they made a run to get it to, I think two at one time, then we took it back to 10, then I decided that I was going to quit looking at the score because I did not look at the score the entire first half and I should have stayed like that. We answered some runs pretty good, too.”
How impressed were you with what Tyus Battle was able to do?
“(Number) 11, 23, 25 (Brissett, Howard, Battle) – that’s what we talked about. They were all great. Brissett, the freshman, was really good. Howard was good. Tyus was a man possessed in the second half. He didn’t give them in the first half what he normally does, but in the second half he was fantastic.”
