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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2018Joel Berry IILuke MayeTheo PinsonRoy WilliamsNew York, New York North Carolina - 74, Duke - 69 ROY WILLIAMS: I have nothing to say about the last five minutes. Coach Robinson coached that part of the game. You guys be sure and tell Coach Rob I said that. It was unbelievable. I thought from a big stretch in the second half, we were really, really good. We were making shots. We were defending. And then all of a sudden the five-minute mark, we have five turnovers. Thank goodness when we missed a bunch of shots, we also got the rebound. Theo goes to the line and makes two free throws to salt it away. Kenny took a big time charge for us. But you've got to congratulate Duke, but gracious sakes, they made a bunch of shots. They beat us over there seven days ago, I thought we were timid or tight or scared, remember I told you that, you guys get to choose. I didn't necessarily think we were that today, we were just sloppy. We threw one look away pass and turned it over. We turned it over and Kenny is running down there to get the ball in the back court and I'm screaming no, no, no, because I knew that they threw the ball, it was going to be a backcourt violation, and he slips and falls and it's their ball back out of bounds. It was some of the weirdest stuff I've ever seen. But the bottom line is we made enough plays and we're still playing, so I'm happy. And if you guys will direct your questions towards the players first so we can let them get out of here, that would be good. Q. Theo, could you describe what that last six minutes was like? What's going through your head, and how are you handling that? THEO PINSON: I know personally, it's just another thing I can say that I've been through. I mean, me and J.B. been through literally every single situation you can go through. I mean, going down the sideline, I got the ball in my hands, and I feel it slip out of my hands. I'm just like, oh, my God, you've got to make up for this one. But I just like how we fought back. At the same time, you've just got to keep playing. You can't just stop. The game is still going on. You just want to make plays. We got some big time offensive rebounds. That's part of the game, also. We extended a couple drives in the time window -- extended possessions. JOEL BERRY II: Yeah, I think towards the end we were just trying not to make mistake and we ended up making mistakes instead of just continuing to be aggressive. Coach always wants us to make the smart play, but at that time we just stopped being aggressive and they were the ones that were being aggressive. Situations like that, we've just got to keep playing and just remember that we can't stop being aggressive. And at that time that's what we did and that's why we made the game so close. Q. Theo, completely opposite game for you as far as overall from the last game, but how did it feel to have the game in your hands at that point to sort of end it well for you? THEO PINSON: Yeah, I mean, I made a big time turnover that I needed to make up for, and I'm going to be honest, I was like, you're making these two free throws, like you just almost blew the game for your team so you have to make them. I went up to the line, Coach was like, be big time, make the shot, and I stepped up to it and knocked them in. Q. Talk about playing against Virginia. The last time you guys played them it was a tough game. What do you have to do tomorrow to win the game? JOEL BERRY II: Yeah, we've just got to make sure we're taking good shots and making sure we're moving them on the defensive end. They're great defensively, and we've just got to make sure we limit our mistakes. If you make a turnover, you know that you're going down and you're about to play defense for 30 seconds because they keep moving the ball until they get what they want to get, so we have to limit our turnovers and make sure that we're getting great shots on the offensive end. LUKE MAYE: I think also defensively we really stepped up these past couple games and played a lot better, and I think that's important for us to continue, especially against their team. They're very good defensively, as well. Q. You guys played three games in a five-day stretch earlier in the season and won them all. You played three in a three game stretch now. Are you guys tired at all? THEO PINSON: No, I feel great. LUKE MAYE: We've got some of the best people on our staff to really help us out. They do so much for us behind the scenes, and we're really lucky to have them with us. ROY WILLIAMS: Luke is talking about they stayed here last night and they got in the hot and the cold tub, they do all those things to try to restore their legs. Jonas Sahratian, our trainer, and Doug Halverson, I mean Jonas is our strength and distance coach and Doug Halverson, our trainer, really do a great job. They don't get the credit, but behind the scenes they do a great deal with all of these guys. They saw Joel last thing before he went to bed last night, saw him first thing when he got up this morning, and those guys really do try to make sure that they're as refreshed as they possibly can be, and then other than that, it's all in your mind, and I hope it's not in our mind. Q. Theo, what's been key to this team's success against the 2-3 zone? Did seeing Syracuse earlier this week help prepare for this game? THEO PINSON: Just playing against 2-3 zones. I mean, we went through it, went through it couple games going against Syracuse and Duke. We already got passes on this team, like I said before, we look for each other and very unselfish and that's one thing we don't have to worry about. We're willing to move and cut when you know guys are looking for you, so I think that's the biggest thing for us. Q. Guys, Duke shot 41 percent, third straight game in this tournament that you've played very good defense. You talked about needing to flip that switch. Do you feel after three games that switch has been flipped defensively? JOEL BERRY II: I think so. I think we can still get better on the defensive end, but that's the one thing that's just been killing us. Like I always say, we can score the ball. We have people that can score. But it's just about can you stop other people from scoring, and when we're playing defense and we're out there just running around and being active and competing, you know, it's hard to stop us. That's why each and every time whenever I get a chance, I just let them know we've got to get stops, we've got to get stops, because that's what it's all about. Like I said, when we're playing defense and we're competing, we know we can get the ball and go down and score. So it plays into our hands, so we've just got to continue that. Q. After Grayson Allen's flagrant foul, what were you discussing out there on center court? JOEL BERRY II: Oh, yeah, I told them, they're always going to get on him about that. Any little trip he does, if he puts a finger on somebody, you know they're going to react. So it's always a joking thing with me and Grayson. I don't have any hatred towards him. We're good friends. We're both from Florida, and we played with each other. But I just told him that you've just got to watch yourself because anything you do like that you know they're going to get on you about. That's why we laughed it off. THEO PINSON: All of us are good friends. Me and Joel played with him on the same team in the summer. There was nothing -- we're cool with him. Just after the game we told him good game and stuff like that. Q. How big was the contribution that Garrison Brooks gave you tonight, and was it just a matchup thing you needed to get a big in there against their bigs? ROY WILLIAMS: Well, a little bit of both. Theo got the two fouls, so I was trying to be very cautious with him in the first half and hopefully didn't get his third. And then when he got his third I put Garrison back in. But I thought their bench had outscored our bench dramatically in the first two games, and so we did challenge our guys. And I think with Garrison getting 10 and Sterling getting 6, that was big for us. So part of it was Theo's fouls, part of it was trying to get some other guys involved, and part of it was the match-ups. We had Theo guarding Marvin for quite a while. We had tried to guard him with Cam for a while. So it was a little bit of both. But the most impressive thing to me, and I just looked down now and I remembered that Steve Kirschner said, guys we had 28 field goals and we had 24 assists. That's pretty doggone impressive there, too. Q. Before the first Duke game, I asked you if I had switched identities with Duke this season. I'm wondering if you're going to pull off this -- complete the analogy here by winning this tournament four games in four days and by beating them. ROY WILLIAMS: Yeah, you know, it is strange. I'm not as comfortable with this change in personalities, I can tell you that. But for us we need to be North Carolina. We're a good shooting team, and we haven't shot the ball very well yet. We're a good attacking team, and we haven't attacked very well yet. The thing that we've done better here for these three games is we've been very unselfish, and we've guarded a little bit better, which I've always want to do that, but we need to shoot the ball better. The turnovers, the sloppiness that we have at times can really kill you against Virginia because they're so efficient on the offensive end of the floor. If you don't continue scoring yourself, it's really, really difficult. So we've got to understand that, and I'd like to -- for one more day, one more day, yes, I'd like to change personalities. I'd like to be able to do what Duke did last year. Q. Those last 20 seconds, have you ever been involved in such a back and forth, down to the wire like that? ROY WILLIAMS: I don't think so. You know, I'd have to -- I've coached a lot of games. I've been over there for a thousand, 1,100, 1,200, however dadgum many it is. But I don't remember seeing anything like that. But yet last year in the Final Four we missed four straight free throws and got the offensive rebound. I'm up there and Kennedy Meeks says, oh, yeah, I've seen that. I said, I've seen a million games and I've never seen anything like that. Luke loses a dribble on the baseline. Theo drops the ball out of bounds. Kenny is coming to pick up a loose ball in the backcourt one time, I'm screaming no, no, no, because their guy clearly threw it backcourt and he falls and knocks the ball out of bounds. You can't make that crap up. It's just something that happens. So no, I've never seen anything like that. Q. Talk about your bench tonight, you guys outscored them 16-0. Is it better from last night when you guys had to put them in early? ROY WILLIAMS: Yeah, and we said something to the guys before because the last couple of games -- well, the last two games their bench has completely out-manned ours, points, rebounds, everything, so we wanted our guys to give us a good lift. I thought Garrison was really good. Sterling was -- what was is it, six. I thought he gave us some moments. He's around that basket. I get on him all the time about going up strong with it because I thought he's too soft. His first two attempts were blocked. And I forget which time at it, might have been after the flagrant foul or something. I think that's when it was. I grabbed him by his shirt as hard as I've ever grabbed any player. I think I've only grabbed three players in 30 years, but I grabbed him by by his shirt and was screaming at him because I'm talking to my players about what we're going to do. And I'm really good at math, and I counted one, two, three, four. My big fella is standing over there -- my man was checking the crowd out. Now, he's in the game. So I grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him over there. So if anybody sees that I assaulted somebody I'm asking for forgiveness before you guys accuse me of doing it. But then Theo said that I could grab him, and I told him, I said, I've wanted to grab you a lot, too, but I've never done it. But the bench was big for us, yes. Q. You mentioned the UVA game, turned it over 19 times, shot 30 percent from the field roughly. Do you say that was two months ago, your lineup is different, you've gotten better, or are there things you can take away from what happened on January 6th? ROY WILLIAMS: I'll say that we've got to play a heck of a lot better. Guys, they're the No. 1 team in the country. They are the No. 1 team unanimously, and they beat us by 77 points or whatever it was. So we've got to go in there and try to play the perfect game. If we try to play the perfect game and play as close as we can possibly play to that, then we'll have a chance to win. There's nobody that has more respect and admiration for the way another coach coaches than what I feel for Tony Bennett. I'm serious. I really enjoyed his dad, liked his dad, liked watching his teams. We had some golf conversations. And I think Tony has just been a marvelous job. You realize they weren't even picked in the top 25? What he's done this year is the kind of year for a coach that you dream about. So I'm going to say those things because they're well-deserved, but we have to play better. We really have to play a lot better, and if we play a lot better, then we'll have a chance. I think we have improved in some areas. I think the personnel is a little different, the way we play. For us, a lot of things have to go right in order to beat Virginia. It's 20.9 seconds average time of possession on the defensive end of the floor for them. So we've got to be tough enough to bend our knees and stay in a defensive stance long enough to get good shots from all over, and again, we'll have a chance. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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