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University of North Carolina Athletics
UNC-Appalachian State Quotes
December 22, 2015 | Men's Basketball
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement
“It was a weird game. They shoot 51 percent in the first half, but I think had 13 turnovers at halftime. Look down there and we scored 31 points off of turnovers. The other part that was weird in the first half: we didn't rebound it worth a darn. They had nine points off offensive rebounds; we had six. You look at the final results, we had 24 [points off offensive rebounds] and they had 15. So I think it's 19 [points] to six off offensive rebounds. So we did a better job there. Jerry's [Eaves] son Frank [Eaves] is a load to guard. I watched a couple of tapes on him and he has been incredible, but I thought that Marcus [Paige], Joel [Berry], and Nate [Britt], all three, really did a nice job on him. He was a focus of our defense because he is averaging 20 [points] a game; everybody else is less than double figures. But glad to have a W. Glad to do some good things so everybody goes home and sees Santa Claus in a good mood.”
On what gift he is going to ask of his team this holiday season
“Work harder. It's an easy deal to me; the harder you work, the luckier you get. So if I could have one gift from my team, it would be every one of them, especially Brice [Johnson] and Kennedy [Meeks] work a lot harder.”
On if this game offered the chance to experiment
“I didn't try to do that. I tried to be fair with those guys that were in there. I did want to get Kenny [Williams] some more time. I did want to get Luke [Maye] some more time. Luke had 12 [points]. Kenny had nine [points]. Kenny Williams can shoot the ball. He's not zero for 2015 because we've still got another game, but he is going to make one of those jump shots and he does a nice job defensively and made a really good pass. He could have taken the shot from the corner – his teammate was more open and he passed it to him and he made the three. But no, we did nothing tonight to experiment. We just tried to win a game and give everybody some confidence.”
On what aspect of the defense he is most concerned about
“Probably guarding the dribble because that's the hardest thing to do in basketball. That and then finishing the defense with good box-outs. We did out-rebound them a great deal in the second half, but I thought, first half, they got too many of those long shots-long rebounds. A lot of teams are just shooting tons of threes against us, and longer shots you get long rebounds. I did challenge Justin [Jackson] and Theo [Pinson]. If I get this right: Joel Berry had five rebounds the last game, Marcus had four, Nate had three. That's our three smallest guys, and with Theo and Justin combined, in 45 minutes, they got two. Theo got the same number as Wanda [Williams] – zero. So I did challenge them, and I was really pleased to see Justin had 10 rebounds and Theo had five. So my two guys who play the most at the three spot got 15 more rebounds than my wife; that's the way they are supposed to be.”
Appalachian State Head Coach Jim Fox
Opening Statement
“Well obviously, congratulations to North Carolina – a very good basketball team. I thought we didn't come out defensively and execute at the beginning of the game, and I thought it got some of their guys going. I thought we got better as time went on, and then at the end, I just thought they kept going inside on us, and it wore us out. I think we had a rebounding edge in the first half and then I looked at the stats and we did not have that rebounding edge anymore. Obviously, they are an outstanding team. I'm proud of the effort and the energy our guys had. We just have to clean up our execution and I think we will. I'm proud of our guys. I don't think our record is indicative of kind of team we are, and I'm looking forward to giving our guys a little break, and then come back and get ready for the next 20 games in the Sun Belt.”
Shabazz's night
“I think Ronshad [Shabazz] took that punch to the face, and got hit in the face on a rebound and he had to come out twice for that. But he got some good looks. They just didn't go in in the second half. I thought he was very efficient. Ideally, we probably should've done a better job of getting him more looks. I thought we did, but I'm proud of his development. I'm proud of our guys with the way they tend to progress, and obviously, Ronshad is one of those guys.
“I threatened him if he turned the ball over again, I wouldn't play him for a month. No, I mean I just think he slowed down a little bit. Ronshad is a very emotional player, which is good sometimes, and he was just feeling pretty good and tried to make plays. We want our freshman Ronhad and Emarius [Logan] and Tyrell [Johnson] to attack, and sometimes they get confused what 'attack' means. If I'm going on a [Joel] James and I'm driving right at him, I'm attacking but he's going to block the shot. It's the same thing that happened at Texas.”
How this game affects the future
“We did some things good, but no loss is positive. You take some things out of it, and we'll get better from it, and it'll help us down the road when we're playing in the Sun Belt Conference. So that's a positive in that, but as good as North Carolina is, our execution was not where it needs to be, so we have to get better from that, so that in itself was disappointing.”
Isaiah Hicks, F
On starting vs. coming off the bench
“I think just taking that role, because that's what [Roy Williams] expects from me. All the coaches say play like you were starting, because it's good to have one person coming off the bench with that type of energy. I will sub in, I will take it, there's nothing wrong with that.”
On team-wide improvement on offense
“Definitely. I know we've been together for a while, my freshman year, sophomore, so we've been here for a while. When we start gelling, when we really start going, getting each other going out there, it's really effective.”
On ability of team's passing
“That's just where the chemistry comes along. You know where a player is going to be. Especially with Theo [Pinson]; he will pass it sometimes and you won't even know where it will be. He just knows where his teammates are going to be. He drives and he knows he's got me, Brice [Johnson], one of the bigs down there or he got the corner open with Nate [Britt]. This is all what the coaches tell us to do, somebody drop baseline, somebody fill the corner and stuff like that. It's just knowing the spots that we are going to be at.
On teammates finding Johnson for touches
“There was a size advantage with myself and Joel [James] down there, so that was one thing that Coach [Williams] wanted to emphasize, to take the ball inside and use our size against them, since they weren't a very big team down there. That's one of our biggest things – we want to get the ball inside and kick it back out if we can't get anything.”
On having 20+ points past three games and what is working for Johnson
“Just being aggressive and just going to my strengths, scoring down low…just taking it to the basket, getting dunks and just playing to my strengths and staying away from my weaknesses.”
On 11 assists, one turnover and level of comfort so far this season
“Yeah, I think so. The assists came from my teammates knocking down shots. You just try to put a little bit of emphasis on getting Marcus [Paige] open a little bit. Halfway through, he [Paige] only had one shot, and then just everyone else knocked it in.”
On fewer turnovers committed
“I tried to cut down on it a little bit. I never want to turn over the ball because then that means we don't get the opportunity to get a shot up. I'm just trying to take care of the ball and put our team in the situation so we can get a shot and that's what I've been doing and that's one thing I take pride in.”
