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March 19, 2015
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
NORTH CAROLINA - 67
HARVARD - 65
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Congratulations to UNC. What a tremendous basketball team they are. As we knew coming into the basketball game how challenging it was going to be with their transition game and then their offensive rebounding. Certainly those two areas were assets for their ballclub as they've been all year. Can't say enough about the effort that our kids put forth, the battle to get back in it. I thought we played with great poise and Wesley Saunders and Siyani, these guys are the two main guys that do everything for our ballclub, carried us to put us in a position to have a chance. I'm very proud of our team. I thought we did exactly what we tried to do from a game plan standpoint, but they're certainly talented and worthy of victory.
Q. Wes, just take me through the last few moments, the last shot when you put it up, and then obviously when you see it doesn't go in, the emotions running through your head?
WESLEY SAUNDERS: Yeah, the play was actually set up for Corbin to get the ball, try to get him open off a screen. So me and Siyani -- Siyani exchanged it with me, I looked for Corbin, but they obviously knew he was a great shooter, so they were kind of cheating towards him. So I realized the clock was running down so I had to get up a shot. It felt kind of good, and it just went off the backboard, and it was just demoralizing, but we came out and battled and we fought against a great team, and that's all you can really ask for.
Q. Siyani, after Corbin made that three-point shot, how did it start snowballing for you guys?
SIYANI CHAMBERS: Coach just told us to keep fighting, eventually our shots would go down. We had some good looks in the first half, they didn't go down. Coach just really emphasized at halftime to keep getting stops and having offensive possessions, and when Corbin hit it, it really gave us a shot in the arm because when Corbin makes threes, it gives us a shot in the arm. When he made that, it got us on a nice run that we kept riding till the end, and we weren't able to capitalize at the end of the game. But give UNC a lot of credit, they played a great game. I'm really proud of the senior class. They left a great legacy. I learned so much from them, and I can't thank them enough.
Q. Siyani, on that note, you're kind of going to be inheriting this team from these guys. Did you learn enough from them to carry that legacy forward?
SIYANI CHAMBERS: Definitely. Definitely. I've learned a lot from Wes Saunders, and especially Alex Nesbitt who doesn't really play a lot. But over my three years he's really taught me a lot, and I have a lot of faith in the coaching staff and the rest of the teammates that are coming back next year, and we'll continue to do what this senior class started for us, and hopefully can just follow in their footsteps.
Q. Siyani, just the four-point play, that happened because Wes was able to tip an offensive rebound out to you. How hard was it just battling on the boards? You guys knew it would be tough, and then how much of a shift was that play as far as an injection going into the final minute?
SIYANI CHAMBERS: Right. You know, rebounding, keeping them off the glass, and even attacking it ourselves was a very big emphasis that we had going into this game. We didn't do very well in the first half. Coach mentioned it at halftime, and I think we did a great job in the second half, our bigs battled, Jonah Travis, Kenyatta Smith, Steve Moundou-Missi. And even our wings and Wesley, like you said, when the tip went in, and -- when the shot went in, I think it gave us a lot of energy. Thanks to Wes for making the play, but it was close. We thought we'd be able to pull it out and they made a great play, and we just weren't able to execute enough at the end, but it was a good momentum play.
Q. Obviously you end up getting asked these questions about perspective like five minutes after when you can't really have perspective, but if you look at what you were able to do with this program, what does it make you feel?
WESLEY SAUNDERS: Yeah, I mean, it's great. I mean, I wouldn't rather go out there and battle with any other group of guys. I mean, our coaching staff, I love them. Everybody is like family. We've been through good times, bad times, and I mean, it's just been a blessing that I've been able to be a part of this. This obviously isn't the finish that I wanted to have, but we knew it was going to end eventually, so it's just been great. It's been a great four years, and I'm just so thankful that I've been able to be a part of this program.
Q. I was just wondering, on the last play it looked like y'all were playing to win. Was there any consideration to trying to get kind of a closer shot, go for the tie?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: You know, we certainly have situations that we go over when we're down one possession and things that we're looking for. We wanted it in Wesley's hands. As he mentioned earlier, we were trying to see if we could steal something from Corbin, but Wesley is our play maker, and certainly it wasn't there to get the three, and we wanted obviously for Wesley to make a decision. The way he's been playing, he played tonight, he was outstanding. I thought he was as good as anybody that played in our game here this evening. So if he was going to get a three, get a drive, get a two, we were going to live with his decision there, but we certainly had something called when we were down one possession.
Q. Before the game, we were talking about just how much Wesley does, but there was a point where he either scored or assisted on all of the first half buckets. How much does he do to keep you guys in it?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Well, it was obvious that Wesley is an outstanding basketball player. He's a terrific all-around player. He's been playing great coming into this game and certainly played exceptionally well tonight. We need him to do so much for our team. As I've said before, it's not always the points he scores, it's the points he's responsible for, and I can't imagine -- obviously we didn't sub for him. He played 40 minutes, and he was responsible for a heck of a lot of production for our team this evening.
Q. Was there ever a question that he wasn't going to play 40 minutes?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: No, not unless he was in foul trouble.
Q. You talked a little bit about just the rebound control in the game. There was a stretch in the first half, five minutes go by, you miss five shots, they turn all of them into buckets. How hard was that?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Yeah, it's really deflating. We thought we had some pretty good looks early in the game in the first half, and we weren't able to get them to fall. We didn't finish around the rim, we left one free throw there on the foul line. Wesley, actually his only miss at the foul line. Against a team like North Carolina you have to cash in when you get opportunities, and I thought early that really hurt us and put us in the deficit that we had going into the half. But we certainly gave everything we had in the second half and how we battled and showed a lot of poise, and I thought a lot of toughness to make this a nail-biter right down to the stretch.
Q. Two of the things you talked about Wednesday were rebounding and keeping the pace under control. How would you grade yourself in those two categories?
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: I'm looking at the numbers for rebounding, and I wouldn't have thought that we would have had the same number of offensive rebounds that they had, assuming this is correct. I'm shocked at that. But certainly they're really, really big and long and athletic on the front line and deep. I thought the transition points -- points in the paint and transition points, not only did they get it off the glass at times, but they can throw it in there and post us, and they were certainly doing that a lot.
Q. Siyani is already a captain. Just talk about going forward with him in an expanded leadership role.
COACH TOMMY AMAKER: Yeah, he's been front and center for us since the day he walked on campus. I anticipate that he's going to continue to show his leadership and all the things that he knows how to do in terms of being a winner. That's what he knows, that's what he's done his whole life, that's what he's been able to contribute to our program, and I anticipate that he's going to do that and then some for his senior year with the returning guys and incoming guys. I have all the confidence in the world having our team and our program in Siyani Chambers' hands.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports
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