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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: JACKSONVILLEMarch 18, 2015Brice JohnsonMarcus PaigeRoy WilliamsJACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA Q. Marcus, Siyani Chambers says you guys go way back. I was wondering what you've seen on film. How has he changed since when you first knew him? MARCUS PAIGE: Yeah, we used to play against each other in AAU all the way back to sixth grade. We pretty much played each other at least once every summer coming through, and we played each other in camps and stuff like that. The main thing is he's become a lot better shooter, looking at his percentages and on watching on film. He's really comfortable shooting three ball now. Back in the day he was just using his speed to drive by people. So he's still got that really good end-to-end speed with the ball, but his jump shot has really, really improved and that's one thing we're going to try to take away. Q. Marcus, how much has the emergence over the last few weeks of Joel Berry and Justin Jackson made things a little bit easier on you and in what ways? MARCUS PAIGE: I think it's benefitted our whole team and made it easier on our entire team just because we're getting more efficient production from guys that play a lot of minutes. Joel's minutes have gone up and a lot better recently, and Justin's production has gotten a lot better these last eight or so games. It's helped me because they're both backcourt players, so it makes our backcourt more balanced and provides a tougher attack to defend against. But it benefits our whole team just because they're producing and their rotation players are playing well. Q. And then Brice, how much does the more developed perimeter game make it a little bit -- give you guys a little bit more room inside? BRICE JOHNSON: Well, for one, it opens up the defense for us. Teams usually try to go zone on us, so when those guys will be knocking down outside shots, it really opens it up for the post players down low, and it gets the other teams out of the zone and go back to man-to-man and we're really dominant when we can get it down low. Q. For both of you, what will Carolina have to do to set the tempo tomorrow night? Is it imperative that you try to play with a little more speed and a little quicker tempo? BRICE JOHNSON: Yeah, because that's just the way we're supposed to be playing. That's the way Coach has been emphasizing the way we need to play the entire year. The past two games, that's the one thing we've been trying to do. That really would help us in the long run. We really do need to be able to start the game with a faster tempo than we usually do. MARCUS PAIGE: Yeah, we want to extend our defensive pressure. Harvard will run, but they run when they have the opportunity. We want to run every time even if we don't get a quick shot, just to run and get pressure and get the tempo to our liking. They're more comfortable in the high 50s, low 60s, but we want this game up, more possessions, so we have a chance to get the ball inside and get our break going. We're probably going to extend our defense, try to pressure them into some turnovers so we can start that break. Q. Marcus, back to Joe and Justin, especially this past week in Greensboro, were you defended any differently when their shots were going down, especially the way they've been the last three weeks? MARCUS PAIGE: I honestly don't think so. Yeah, I hadn't really thought of it honestly. I'd have to go back and pay attention a little bit more to that. But I don't think I was defended any differently, but I think teams had to pay a lot more attention to them, so that might have changed the focus for how they're going to guard us as a team. But, individually, I don't think that changed anything for how I was defended. Q. Coach Smith used to say that each tournament was its own separate entity and that you'd have to build your own momentum as you go along. How do you take what you did last week with those four games up until the last nine minutes against Notre Dame and try to carry it over into this week? BRICE JOHNSON: Well, we had some positives throughout the entire week last week. Those are some of the things that we need to do that we should have been doing all year, the effort that we gave, the heart we played with, the determination we played with. It was all great to watch and it was great to be a part of. I mean, we just have to be able to take that and just add it to this game and the next game and the next game because this is the way we need to play the entire time. MARCUS PAIGE: Yeah, I agree. I think we've got to understand that what we did was pretty important for our team last week, but none of those games that we played last week help us win this game against Harvard. We don't get to start with any extra points or anything like that. We need to generate momentum by learning how we played last week. We played hard, we played smart, we played together, we did everything we needed to for a lot of those games. So we need to start with that same mindset and then that'll hopefully build momentum for this tournament. Q. Marcus, watching tape of Wesley Saunders this year, how do you feel like he compares to some of the better scoring guards you guys have seen this season? MARCUS PAIGE: Well, the coaching staff will probably have a better answer for you than I will, but in the limited time I've spent watching him specifically, he's really just a versatile player and can get to anywhere and score anywhere on the floor. He's a really tough match-up. I think J.P. will have his hands full, but he's accepting that challenge and he's excited for that challenge to match up against him. He's had a chance to play against some really good wing guards all year, so hopefully that'll prepare him for this battle. I think he was First Team All-League in Harvard's League or Player of the Year or something. Obviously, we're going to respect him and try to make everything tough for him. Q. Marcus, UNC is not known for your outside shooting. You guys have been pretty efficient the last couple months. Is it difficult at times when the shots were falling to kind of want to lean on that a little bit? MARCUS PAIGE: Yeah, we're not a team that shoots a lot of threes or does a lot of attacking from the perimeter, but we can't fall in love with the jump shot if we make a couple early. We've got to understand that our bread and butter is getting the ball inside, either throwing it in off an entry pass or driving the ball to the basket. Obviously, it's important to knock down some shots to keep some balance, but we've got to know, especially myself as the point guard, that just because we hit a couple outside shots does not mean that we need to deviate from going inside early and often and trying to dominate the paint. Because I think that's been a better sign of success for us this year than hoping that we're going to make shots on a given day. Q. Do you happen to know where Harvard's coach played his college ball? BRICE JOHNSON: Was it Duke? MARCUS PAIGE: I'm pretty sure he's got connections to Duke. Yes, Duke. BRICE JOHNSON: I think it was. MARCUS PAIGE: Was that it? Yeah, we know. Q. I didn't know if you wanted to add anything to it. MARCUS PAIGE: I don't think Duke has got a whole lot to do with what's going on with this game, but it's an interesting side note. Put it this way. Yeah, that's it. Q. Harvard is going to come to the floor with senior leadership. They played that up in their press conference. You guys get it from your juniors. Is there that much difference in that one year of playing experience? MARCUS PAIGE: That's hard to say. I consider juniors and seniors upperclassmen, guys that have been through it. They've won their first round tournament game a couple years in a row. We have, too. So we're kind of in a similar boat there. They're not going to come in scared to play. They're going to be ready to play, and we're not going to come in fearing them. It's not one of those things at all. Both teams have enough experience to where this should be a highly contested game from the beginning. Both teams have gone on runs and played some battles, had some struggles throughout the year. It'll be a game where leadership is important, but I think it kind of cancels each other out because both teams are so experienced. COACH ROY WILLIAMS: I just told them back stage it's the best few minutes I've ever had at a press conference. I about fell asleep back there waiting for the Westwood One interview. It's nice comfortable couches back there. We just got in late last night. We've already practiced off-site, had a good practice, good workout. We'll go out and shoot it around a little bit and try to get used to the surroundings, feel ecstatic about being here, and so far have made it through the first practice we've had today without anybody getting hurt, so we're feeling good. Q. When you were on the coaching staff and Tommy Amaker was a high school senior, you guys had a pretty good guard coming in in Kenny Smith, so I understand why Tommy says you didn't recruit him. But do you see anything from him as a player at Duke or him working at Duke in this Harvard program, do you see that DNA there? COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Completely. Because I loved Tommy when he was in high school. I thought he was the most complete point guard out there in his class. He could score, he could defend, he was a coach on the court. He didn't make silly mistakes. He didn't try to do things that he couldn't do. And I'm not saying he was limited because he was not, but there were certain things -- he was not going to try to drive down the lane and jump over and dunk on somebody. He'd make the smarter play. And I think when I've watched Harvard, I've watched two of their games since Sunday, and I see the same kind of things in his team. They don't try to do things they can't do. I think one of the greatest skills in basketball is knowing your strengths and playing to them and knowing your weaknesses and making sure that's not the biggest factor, and that's what I see when I see his teams play. Tommy has been a guy that I've really enjoyed. We had a moment to visit out there before our required meeting, and when we say hello, it's a very genuine hello. It's not just wave or give him a dead fish handshake or something like that. I really did have a great deal of respect for him as a player, and we've sat in the stands several times over the years watching recruits play and had some good conversations. Q. Coach, Harvard and its core group of players have had some success in this tournament winning the last two years in the opening round. From your vantage point, what's the value in that type of success, and is that something that you bring up with your players? COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Yeah, well, I think there is a value of playing in this tournament and being successful. I think you get rid of the jitters quicker, you get more focused quicker, you understand truly what is important. So I think there's a great deal of value, and I've even been on the other end, where in 2009, we walked in the locker room before the semifinal game and Bobby Frazier said, all right, remember what we did last year and what we felt like. So I think that is a value. In 2001 I saw Maryland make some mistakes down the stretch. In 2002 they won the whole thing because they didn't make those mistakes. I do think there's value in being here, and they've won -- Harvard's won last the last two years, and we've won games the last two years, and I would always rather have that with my club. Q. Roy, Coach Smith used to treat every tournament, the ACC Tournament and then each regional, as its own separate tournament and you build momentum as you go along. After the success you had last week in Greensboro, how do you try to keep the ball rolling and re-create some of that? COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Well, I think you do gain confidence if you've had success, so you start at a little bit of a higher point. But I told our guys that we're going, and if we play real well and focus on Harvard, perhaps they'll let us hang around and play another game. We're not trying to win six games tomorrow. We're trying to win one game. We're trying to play exceptionally well and hope that that helps us win the game. But I do believe you build your momentum once you get into the tournament, and I think we did that in Greensboro in the ACC, and hopefully we'll do it here. Q. I gather Theo made it through practice okay today. Do you expect him to be available tomorrow night? And also, bigger picture, he's been in, he's been out, he thought he might play against Notre Dame, decided not to. The players draw so much energy from him anyway, but how hard has it been for Theo to be going back and forth? COACH ROY WILLIAMS: I think it has been hard, but I don't think that he's been back and forth. He's been trying to get to a certain point where he feels comfortable and confident that he can do something, and he hasn't been to that point since, I guess, the Duke game. Was that the last game he played? He played Georgia Tech for a couple minutes, but I think he played at Duke and he hasn't been to that point. It hasn't been going back and forth with him. He's just had a little bit of a steady climb trying to get back to that point because he did bother it, and it was maybe the first practice after the Duke game at the end of the regular season. Before the Notre Dame game if you had asked me after our shoot-around, I would have told you I thought he was going to play, but when he got to it in warm-ups, he came over and sat down on the bench with me during warm-ups and we talked, and he decided that he didn't really have that confidence. Really that part hasn't been as bad on him because he's trying to get back to that point. Our players have accepted the fact that he's not going to play, and then if he does play, oh, well, we've got another player, and so that's the way I've tried to look at it, too. Q. Justin says his ascension in play the last few weeks has been because he's been more assertive. Was there a conversation that you had with him where finally that light kind of went on, or was there a moment that you recall where, okay, he's a different guy now, he's that more assertive guy? COACH ROY WILLIAMS: I don't think there's been one particular moment. You know, at Duke he didn't play very well. We since got him to come up and sit beside me on the bus on the way over. It was only 10 miles so it wasn't exactly a two-hour conversation, and we talked at that time, but I've been trying to get him to understand all year long I want him to be more aggressive. One game, and I can't remember which game it was, we passed it around, he should have shot it and he didn't shoot it, and I said if you're going to be a baby, come over here and sit down. So he shot the next one and made it, and shot the next one and made that one, too. It's been a little bit of a continuous process but I believe it has been going up, but I don't know of any one moment -- let's understand, after the Virginia game, 22 points and the sky was the limit. What happened the next game? He was 0 for 7. He's still a freshman, he's still a wonderful kid, but he's not ready to guard No. 23 and play like him all the time. Q. How important is tempo with this year's team or setting the tempo and kind of adjusting it as you go along? COACH ROY WILLIAMS: Well, I don't think it's as important because we haven't been able to set it where we wanted it very well, so we've had to sort of play other people's tempo more than I want to. We've had some teams in the past that were good enough to make them play our way, and we haven't been able to do that, not very often at all. It's like using that word again, assertive. We haven't been as assertive at establishing the tempo ourselves, which is okay. I've said a hundred times that I'd much rather win 90-80, but if we've got to win 60-50, you've got to be able to play different styles. If you can only play one way, you're going to meet somebody else that's really good at their way and then you're really going to have problems. I've never been one to say, Gosh, if we can't run the ball, we can't beat those guys. I've just never believed that. But there is a way I like to play so much more, but heck, we won a game a couple years ago, we scored 48, and I've had a team that scored 83 in a half before, so 48 is not a lot. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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