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University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Gardner-Webb Quotes
November 23, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 23, 2009
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UNC v. Gardner-Webb
UNC Head Coach: Roy Williams' Quotes
Opening Statement:
"You probably know the first thing I'm going to say is it was a `w'. But I think we did some good things out there tonight. We used a lot of different combinations. It was the first time this year we had Dexter and Larry in the game together. I had Marcus, at the point, Justin at the two, and we tried more double teams than we have before. So we got some more things accomplished except for guarding number four. We didn't do a very good job of guarding him.
"But it was a frustrating game in some ways because in the first half particularly, I thought we were very tight. We were missing shots around the basket. Ed missed a dunk, Deon missed one at point-blank range, Zeller got one blocked. So I think we were a little tight. These are good kids that always care about what's going on, so they were concerned about what happened the last game, so I expected that. But at the same time, I thought we had a good effort. I did tell the guys in the huddle one time, we're getting close to that point where I'm not going to play everyone just because I like their smile. You have got to produce when you get out there.
"But these kind of moments are good to get some guys some experience and to try some different things. Hopefully you don't interpret that as showing disrespect to Gardner Webb, but were just more gifted than they are. So we tried to see if we could work on some things that we need to be working on. This is a young team that hasn't had as many practices as I want. It is a long season. For us, we have to understand that we're going to try and get better every single day. We have tomorrow off, and then we're going to practice Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then play again Sunday. And hopefully we'll have four good practices.
"But congratulations to Grayson. Coach Robinson said that he had tied the record for the most three pointers by an opponent in the Smith Center, so I told him that at the end of the game and congratulated him on having a great game.
"Again, turnovers in the second half; well, turnovers and missed free throws were the worst part. I mean, my gosh, we turned it over eleven times in the second half after only turning it over five times in the first half. And then in the second half, we were only eleven for twenty from the free-throw line, and a couple of those were one-and-ones. So we have got to do a better job of that and we understand that and we are willing to work at it."
Gardner-Webb Head Coach Rick Scruggs
Visiting Coach Opening Statement:
"I thought our kids played hard but obviously we were overmatched, but I mean North Carolina is so big, long and athletic it's hard as heck to play against those guys. When they started trapping and forcing us into turnovers they did a great job of taking advantage of our turnovers and we didn't take advantage of the open shots we got. I think if we had taken advantage of the open shots we got it would have been a lot closer game. It would have been a lot more fun for us than it was. It was hard to take watching everyone but Grayson miss shots consistently. I think we learned a lot tonight about our team. I think we learned a lot about why we do certain things like getting open for the ball and going back door, just very simplistic things we have been harping on all year. I think they learned tonight why we have been harping on them so much. It was good to go out there and put it into action and see where we were and we obviously have a ways to go before were a finished product this year without a doubt. I was happy with the effort. The effort was good and we never quit the whole night even when we were way down. We kept making little comebacks at a time and we couldn't sustain it. If we could have sustained one of those or hit a big shot to follow it up it would have been a whole lot closer and more interesting. I was real proud of our guys and Carolina played as good as we thought they were going to play. They didn't do anything we didn't expect they are so well coached and finely tuned already. They are just a well coached team."
