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University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Michigan State Quotes
December 2, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 2, 2009
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Box Score |
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UNC head coach Roy Williams Opening Statement
"That was a fun night for us. The first half we really played well. The second half I don't think we were as attentive to detail, we lost our concentration a little bit and yet we made some big plays during that stretch. It is not typical for our team to miss free throws and it is not typical for Will Graves to do the little things he did on the two big tip-outs. I told him he has been in my doghouse so bad and I said a few things to him that I would never say out in public, but those were two big plays, two missed free throws and he had a good tip out for us and got us some extra time. Larry made two the first time and made one the second time and Ed made two the last time. Ed Davis was huge for us. The key thing in the first half was everyone that came in gave us something positive. Dexter Strickland gave us something positive, Z (Tyler Zeller) gave us something positive, John Henson gave us positive things. You're up 16 at half and it felt good, but that was a good team and they are competitive. I wasn't pleased the way we handled it necessarily down the stretch missing those free throws, but we got defensive stops and when they were penetrating we didn't fly back in there to help and let them pitch out for threes. The majority of their shot attempts the last three minutes of the game were twos, they shouldn't be lay-ups, we did give them lay-ups.
"To me the two keys to the game were what our bench gave us and Larry was a big time force and for Ed and Deon to do the job they did inside. It was 12 guys that did a heck of a job when they got in there and really helped us."
Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo Opening Statement:
"Well it's hard to be disappointed and proud of your team at the same time. I was really disappointed with the first half. We made a couple sloppy plays; there were two five-point plays in that half. And then that shot at the buzzer really took the wind out of our sails. But give a lot of credit--even with a depleted team and all the foul trouble we were in during the second half--I thought we did a pretty good job of battling back. And we did a little better job in the post.
"But our three best shooters couldn't make a shot. But I thought we had some good looks, I really did. I was pleased with out looks in the first half; although we missed a couple layups. I was pleased with our looks in the second half. We rebounded pretty well, considering we were the smaller team. I said turnovers would be key, and we did a pretty good job in that area. But you just have to have some of your best players play well and some of our best players didn't."
