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CBS SPORTS CLASSICDecember 20, 2014Roy WilliamsCHICAGO, ILLINOIS North Carolina – 82 ROY WILLIAMS: Opening thoughts is thank God it's Christmas. Let's get the crap out of town and enjoy Christmas for a while. That's the opening thought. We were fortunate, I thought we did some really good things. I thought defensively we were pretty good, and then all of a sudden at the end we started fouling about every possession and they were fouling, and our best free‑throw shooters were missing free throws, and we turned it over, and then Kennedy missed a lay‑up or maybe two inside six inches, and it didn't look good. But we kept getting them to take one shot, and us rebounding it on the other end. I think they cut it to eight at one time, but I was very discouraged with the way we finished the half because they scored the last four points of the half on easy, easy shots and we made an extremely difficult‑‑ not extremely, but I'm trying to figure out the right thing to say without cursing or anything. I was really ticked at halftime. If I want the last shot, you know what I want? The last shot. I don't want to shoot the ball with six seconds left to play and give them on the lay‑up on the other end, so that's my fault as a coach. We've got to get people to understand the last shot means the last shot. They scored the last four points, and yet early in the second half, we would miss, they would miss, we would make, they would make, and then we had some good plays, but totally for us it's just a weird, weird game at the end. Kennedy rebounded the ball very well, but we didn't make enough shots, and yet our defense was pretty doggone good, or they missed some open shots that they normally make. Q. (No microphone). ROY WILLIAMS: I'd say both. A coach can't say, oh, gosh, we were really good for 33 minutes, I'll forget how we stunk it up the last seven. That just doesn't happen. I congratulated them, because I think Ohio State is a really good basketball team, and yet we did some very good things and had, I don't know what the lead was, at one point in the second half, I know we had 16 in the first half, but we were controlling the game, and then all of a sudden we didn't. I'll tell you one thing, Marc Loving made a very difficult three from over in the corner that goes all the way around, goes up, comes back down, and it was challenged, so you have to congratulate him. But I can't separate‑‑ if any coach can separate that, he's a better man than I am. Q. (No microphone). ROY WILLIAMS: No, I wouldn't say that, but we turned it over, we had 17‑percent turnover percentage in the first half, so usually that means that somebody is trying to hit a home run instead of just making the easy play. I don't think we had anybody in double figures. We had a lot of guys score. We share the ball. We're not a selfish team. Every now and then you'll make a silly play and J.P. trying to throw it in the middle against the zone when the game is on the line and they bat it up in the air and turned over. Kennedy's got three guys guarding him and he has got Marcus Paige pretty good player standing out there wide open what does he do? He fakes the pass to Marcus. Faking the pass to an open guy is a very selfish act, and we talk about that a lot. I told him Tyler Hansbrough, I let Tyler try to score against two guys, but I even made Tyler throw it out against three. So we'll have some of those moments, but we are an unselfish bunch. Q. (No microphone). ROY WILLIAMS: First half Joel gave us air nice lift. I was mad at him in the second half, because of a loose ball. He should have gotten a loose ball over there on the far corner, but he did some good things. I guess he's had at least three games in a row that he's given us a spark and hopefully that'll get him started off good. Q. They've gotten an awful lot in transition this year off turnovers, and for most of the game you guys handled it pretty well. How did you do that? ROY WILLIAMS: Well, until the very end, we didn't make many silly turnovers. But we missed a shot‑‑ I forgot now who missed a wide‑open shot and it bounces out and Bryce tries to stop the fast break high. I mean, Bryce against Shannon in open court is not very smart, so now they have a three on one. I didn't think we did. In fact, I'll put it to this, in the second half that's what I harped on in the timeouts more than anything was sprinting back and getting picked up because I thought that was one of the things that really hurt us. But they've got ball handlers and shooters and they're athletic. They do a better job of making you turn it over and playing the zone than anybody except Syracuse, and I think they really did a nice job of that. Q. What was working so well against their zone, especially in the first half? ROY WILLIAMS: Well, we had good movement, movement of the ball and movement of the bodies. I always say move yourself and move the ball intelligently, and I think we did that. We didn't make many shots. I've never seen Marcus Paige miss as many open shots as he had in the second half, and two lay‑ups. But I still think that says a lot about how good we can be, because eventually he's going to start really playing. But I think it's just ball movement and player movement. Q. A setting like this is probably good for matching up teams that are obviously top‑ranked teams. Do you like this for later on in the season especially? A.Well, I like it a lot better than I did against Kentucky and some of those other games that we've lost. But we play, I think I'm right on it, the previous 11 years, I think our schedule has been ranked in the top 25 almost every year. One year it was ranked as the most difficult schedule, and I do believe in playing a tough schedule and hope that gets you ready for later on. But I'm extremely relieved. I'm not sitting up here saying I'm as happy as you can possibly be. I don't hear the happy song in my ears right now. We stunk it up down the stretch, and I think we've got to get better there. Q. Were you expecting to have a big advantage on the inside, or did that surprise you a little bit? ROY WILLIAMS: Well, you know, their zone, there's a big hole right in there below the free‑throw line, but they're so athletic and quick that sometimes they cover up for it. In practice trying to get our blue squad to simulate that, we'd throw it in there and it was a bounce pass and a dunk almost every time, but they can't simulate Ohio State's practicing as much as they do and their athleticism. I think the first half we shoot 52 percent and we missed a ton of really easy shots. But in the second half we didn't shoot it as well. Q. Big win in the house that MJ built. Do you talk to your players at all about that, and do you get any different feelings when you come play in Chicago? ROY WILLIAMS: Well, I think yesterday's practice was weird for us because it was almost like we were out in left field. I said, guys, come on, we've got to have more enthusiasm, got to have more spirit kind of thing. But they're sort of looking around, we practiced in the practice facility and then came over here and practiced over here and then we went outside and had a team picture made in front of the statue and all that kind of stuff so it's a great experience for all the guys. He's the greatest player to ever play the game. I feel very flattered and very honored that I helped recruit him, helped coach him, consider him a great friend, and every time I come up here, I think of a few times in that locker room after they won the world's championships I was up here two times when they won the world's championships. One of them may have been in the old Chicago Stadium, I'm not sure, but the House That Michael Built will always stand, I can tell you that. Q. You did a really nice job at kind of shutting down D'Angelo Russell who's had a great freshman year. Can you talk about your defensive execution? ROY WILLIAMS: Well, we really thought D'Angelo was really an effective player for them and really has been in every game. He can shoot the ball from three, take it to the basket, he had left‑handed but he can expand and go right hand. I think all of our guys knew how good he was and we tried to emphasize to stay in front of the basketball. I watched last night up until, gosh, 1:00 in the morning or something, their tape of the Louisville game, and in the Louisville game the whole second half he played almost point guard the whole half. He was pretty doggone good in that game. And we recruited him a little bit early, so I know a little bit about him, but we hit him on a day where he missed some shots that he would normally make, and hopefully we bothered him a little bit. Q. Heading into conference play what would you like to see your team improve upon the most? ROY WILLIAMS: Nothing other than the game of basketball. I mean, I'm serious, and everybody sort of giggles like you did. There is not one phase that we can't get a lot better at, which is good. We need to shoot it better, we need to rebound it better, we need to defend better, we need to talk more on the defensive end. When they got the little lob for the dunk, it infuriated me because it was just one simple little screen and we didn't talk on it. So we've got to talk so much better and get better defensively. The other thing is that the kids got to have some pride and toughness because it's a man's game out there, and we missed an awful lot of easy shots today. Q. Will appearing in Chicago help the program, or does the program recruits itself naturally? ROY WILLIAMS: Well, no program really recruits to itself. I mean, if I go see a game, Calipari is there, if Calipari goes to see a game, Krzyzewski is there. You know, we all work extremely hard. I'm going to see a game tonight, so I don't think any program just recruits by itself. The coaches really work extremely hard. But we try to play about everywhere, and I think that North Carolina can recruit nationally and will always try to do that, and there's a couple guys in this town that are really doggone good, every year, not just this year. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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