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University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-FIU Quotes
November 9, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 9, 2009
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University of North Carolina head coach Roy Williams
Postgame quotes after win over FIU, Nov. 9, 2009
"Well we had 26 turnovers. I had to chew the last five guys out for making four turnovers in the last two minutes of the game. I told them to work their tail off in practice. If you want to get in the game then don't turn the dagum ball over. I like the way we rebounded, particularly in the second half. The halftime stats for rebounding were 20-20. And they had 20 pts on offensive rebounds and so did we. And we ended up with a 44-29 advantage. I didn't like the way they came up with all the loose balls, it appeared. We had the ball so many times, all of a sudden they take it away from us.
"But first half we shot 12 threes, which is probably a little too much for this team. I thought Marcus' was a three from the corner, but it wasn't. But Larry's from the top of the key I guess was the only three. One of the reasons we did that was because in the first half, they had 18 fouls. And we've always been a team that did a great job getting to the free throw line more than the other team. But just because they play zone does not mean we have to take the first outside shot.
"But Marcus, Tyler, and the experienced players did some nice things. When you look down there and Larry has six assists and two turnovers, you'd like for it to be that every game; and you'd take that. But for the most part I thought we were active, we were trying hard. We just weren't very sharp. But that's what you should expect at this time of the year."
FIU Head Coach Isiah Thomas:
"I am very proud of our team, they were very scrappy, they were extremely competitive. The thing I like about our team tonight is we fought and the first thing you got to do in order to win is you got to learn how to fight. If you learn how to fight then one day you can win. The execution of our team was not as crisp as we would like it to be, but the competitiveness was there.
On UNC's big guys:
"I felt like we were definitely playing against an NBA team. They definitely have three pros on this team. Thompson is about as good as anybody the league has right now. The bigs that they have when they were in the game they were quite skilled, they played on the perimeter, they played inside. They are going to be a tough basketball team."
Experience back in college:
"It was great. The college fans are great, the sayings they come up with. I was walking off and they are yelling "magic!" The environment of college and the way the kids are ... It was great, we had a good time, we really enjoyed ourselves. I am really proud of the way the team played. We were out rebounded 44-29 on the boards. The most impressive stats for us, we created and forced 26 turnovers. If we get good enough in transition where we can handle the basketball and make plays in transition and capitalize on those turnovers we can be a pretty interesting team."