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University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Texas Quotes
December 21, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 21, 2011
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Postgame Quotes
UNC vs. Texas
"We feel very fortunate. I think we played better tonight. I think we were more in tune to detail. We were much more active defensively than we have been. Let's be honest, they're not going to shoot 25% in the first half just because of our defense. They missed some good shots. At the same time, we shot 42% in the first half, and I counted five layups we missed. That's part of college basketball as well. For us to be a really good team, we've got to defend better, we've got to rebound better, but we did rebound better at times. For us, it was a good night - 26 (points) and 10 (rebounds) for Harrison. I did tell him in the locker room that he had 10 more rebounds than `wicked' Wanda tonight. I'm proud of him. John was active defensively. Kendall made some really nice passes. And I told him he made some I didn't even think about. One time he said, `well that was the only pass I could make to get to him.' I said, `well you didn't get it to him.' For us, we are very pleased. The rebound margin is pretty big, but you have to look at the points on second shot opportunities. The rebound numbers are misleading. We didn't finish some of those plays. Texas is awfully young. They're going to be a big-time club; they've got to grow a little bit more. But we're happy they weren't quite as big-time tonight."
On improvement from last game: "We were more aggressive, we were alert. We didn't miss 27 free throws, or whatever it was the other night. I think we were better in every phase of the game, and I expected that. We worked really hard and had a good practice yesterday morning."
On Harrison Barnes's performance: "I told him I thought he'd be great tonight. I really thought that he would be more active than the last few games. At the same time, you only play 21 games. Everyone only looks at the points, but I look at what we're doing defensively, and I really thought he was more active tonight. If he's attacking the basket, I like that. I also like when he shots the three-point shot. He's got a wide variety of options, and hopefully we moving forward where we can use all of them."
Texas head coach Rick Barnes
On rebounding:
"I'm disappointed because we started the game knowing we were going to have to block out because of their length. The very first two plays of the game [John] Henson catches the ball in the block, and we just turned and acted like we were going to try to jump but just didn't do it. It's disappointing from our point of view, and all you have to do is look at our front line guys. When they have more offensive rebounds than we have defensive rebounds that's a major problem. Then when you look at our front line guys, Alexis Wangmene has no defensive rebounds, Clint Chapman had two, and Jaylen Bond - our smallest guy - had five. Then Jonathan Holmes had one, so that's a big problem right there. Our guards needed to come down and rebound and be a part of it, but our problem started on the offensive end. We just weren't disciplined on the offensive end - and that's my fault. I told them that we will get that fixed after Christmas because we are going to get the guys out there that understand that it's team game, and that we are going to really do the things that we practice. Not to take anything away from North Carolina, but we never gave ourselves a chance to win the game."
On where a lack of discipline was most evident:
"Offense, no doubt. On the very first play of the game, we had talked about for two days what we wanted to run, and we don't run it. That's discipline, four guys know it and one guy doesn't. So, we have got to get somebody that is going to run our team and run our offense. We are starting three guards, so it's not like it should be a problem, but we are not playing with a purpose on the offensive end. We've got a long ways to go, but we've enough guys that want to do this thing and we'll get it fixed."
UNC Players
Harrison Barnes
On his assertiveness
"The points are nice, but definitely just focusing on rebounding. I was happy with the fact that I was able to get ten rebounds tonight. It definitely gives us second opportunities as a team."
On the team's defense
"We tried to come out there with a lot of enthusiasm. This team this year has been a little slow getting started, and remembering last year's defeat, it was just little things and we tried to minimize that."
Tyler Zeller
On what this win means
"My sophomore year, they (Texas) kicked our butts, and that's kind of always been in my mind. Last year, Brown hit a big shot and put us away and we couldn't come back from that. It's something that 1) we really wanted to beat them and 2) we're going home for Christmas. You don't want to be sitting on a loss for five days."
On intensity
"It is easier to get up for these big games, and I think that's kind of what we are capable of. Obviously we need to get better, but we need to continue to do that for every game, we can't just show up for the big ones."
John Henson
On Harrison Barnes
"We gave him a funny nickname: Big Game Ames. He always shows up when we need it and that's what we need from him"
Kendall Marshall
On Christmas break
"It's great. We really wanted to go into the break with a good win, and not just win the game but play well doing it. We didn't play a complete forty minutes, but I think our energy was there the majority of the night. Coach was happy with that. I think we're all looking forward to going home and spending time with our family before we get back at it."
