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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: COLUMBUSMarch 21, 2019Roy WilliamsKenny WilliamsCameron JohnsonColumbus, Ohio THE MODERATOR: We're joined by North Carolina student-athletes Cameron Johnson and Kenny Williams. Questions. Q. How important has Garrison been this season for you guys? And when did you kind of see him start to grow into what he's become, as consistent as he's become? KENNY WILLIAMS: He's been huge especially in ACC play. He's been the anchor of our defense. And the way he's played the ball screen has kind of made our defense a lot stronger because they can't attack off the ball screen the way the teams have somewhat in the past. So his growth on defensive end has been huge for us. And I think it was around after Christmas break is when he really started to turn the corner and his defense really took off. CAMERON JOHNSON: He also provides a bit of an offensive presence down low. He's been finishing around the basket well. He's been doing a good job on both ends of the floor. Q. Cameron, how do you buy the sentiment that you have to be playing your best this time of the year? And although you might not have won the conference tournament, you guys -- do feel like you're playing your best at this time? CAMERON JOHNSON: Yeah, I think we're getting there. I think we've been improving all year. So I think this is going to be the best products we put out all year. But you have to. You have to or you'll go home. So there's a lot more at stake. There's a lot more to play for right now. And you just gotta embrace it and do your best. Q. Cameron, how is your health? You sat out Monday and Tuesday at practice. Any update on that? CAMERON JOHNSON: It's good. It's March, everybody is feeling something. I'm all right. My shin is a little sore coming off the ACC Tournament. And I'm feeling pretty good now. Q. Did you practice? CAMERON JOHNSON: Yeah, I practiced the last two days. KENNY WILLIAMS: Cameron is just old. Q. How much does playing in the ACC help you guys for preparing for the NCAA Tournament? CAMERON JOHNSON: Well, three of the four 1 seeds are ACC teams. We've been playing against the best of the best all year. It's a demanding schedule. You play a lot of good teams night in night out, so you can't really take weeks off. So that definitely prepares you for something like this. Q. Cameron, your thoughts on Iona, a team that struggled the early part of the year but is coming to this tournament having won 10 straight games? CAMERON JOHNSON: They've won 10 straight, like you said. They shoot the ball well. They like to get up and down. They have some guys that like to score the ball. So we're just going to have to play our game. We'll have to do what we do. From everything we've seen on film they've got some guys that can do some things pretty good. They've got a good guard in McGill and a guy that can score down low in Agee. We've got to go out there and play our game and rebound and defend and do everything that Coach wants us to do. Q. Kenny, a lot of people say that you have to have great guards to win in a tournament like this, experienced guards for that matter. In what ways other than he's a freshman, but in what ways would you say that Coby is experienced? KENNY WILLIAMS: He's a player. He hasn't played like a freshman all season. Coby has played in big games. We've had a lot of big games this year. He's had big-game experience. I know March is different. But knowing him, it's not -- the moment isn't too big. He'll just go out and play his game. And that's what I'll tell him tomorrow; just go out and be you and play your game and we'll come out fine. Q. Roy's never lost a game in the first round. How does he get you stay focused or get you guys prepared for a game like this, especially when you're a No. 1 seed playing a 16 in a theoretically very lopsided matchup? KENNY WILLIAMS: Coach is all about respecting everyone but fearing no one. That's exactly what he told us. You step between those lines, especially in March, you're going to get everybody's best shot. Everybody's playing for their life. Everybody's playing for their season. So we have to take the same mindset. We can't go out there and overlook anybody and think it's just going to be easy just because we're stepping out there and just because we're North Carolina. So tomorrow we're just going to step out there and we're going to respect them, but we're also going to play our games. CAMERON JOHNSON: I'm just adding on to that. He emphasizes it. He emphasizes we need to play hard and well. Iona has been in the tournament four years in a row now, is what he told us. These guys, they're seniors. They've played in a handful of them. He emphasized that to us. And we've got to go out there and play. Q. I'm curious about that experience with Coach Williams when he has been in this situation so many times. Is he the type of coach that goes back and says we had this type of game, we had this type of opponent, when we had this team in '96 or '93 or whatever? Or is he a coach that's very much, we're looking at the next game? CAMERON JOHNSON: I think it depends on the situation. There will be times where he'll bring up something that might have happened in the past, or reference it. But most of the time he's kind of in the moment, kind of focused on what the other team does, how we are going to attack them. And we've been watching film on Iona now and we've been preparing for them, scouting them out, running against what they like to run on offense, defending that. So we're pretty locked into this one. We know we can't get it any further if we don't win this one. Q. Cam, you spoke about how this tournament run means a little more to you because you weren't on the national championship squad from two years ago. How much more motivation do you have going into this weekend? CAMERON JOHNSON: I have a lot. I can't sit here and tell you that Kenny and Luke don't have motivation. It's also their senior years, and obviously they want to be part of something, especially like another Final Four run. But for me, personally, I've never been there. So I'm really excited for this opportunity, to shine, to embrace it the best I can and make the most of it. Q. Kenny and Cam, to build on what you were saying before about how seriously you take this, what did you think last year when Virginia lost to a No. 16 seed? Did you watch it and what was your reaction to it? KENNY WILLIAMS: We were actually all watching it in our meeting room at the hotel together. And it's just something that you don't really expect it, especially with a team like Virginia. But we told each other, let's not let that be us. And so we wanted to focus in a little bit more going into our game. But we all were shocked. CAMERON JOHNSON: I'd say shocked was what it was. We were watching it in the meeting room, like he said, and everybody was just, like, woah. THE MODERATOR: Go ahead and start with a statement. COACH WILLIAMS: Same thing everybody else would say we're happy to be here, thrilled to still be playing while some others are not. We had a good practice this morning. A shoot-around is all we'll do this afternoon. Kenny, Luke and Cam have done a great job of leading our team, and Garrison, Nassir and Coby, those guys have really done a great job for us helping the seniors get from game to game. And Coby has been a scoring machine for us several times and we've needed it every time, and he's been great and listening to Cam, Kenny and Luke, and also understanding he's been pretty doggone good himself. Q. What are you seeing from film on Iona? What are your impressions of the team? COACH WILLIAMS: Every time I hear the word "Iona" it reminds me of Jim Valvano, "Iona College." He said, "you own a college?" You have to be old enough for me and Feinstein; we remember that. But when I watched them, I watched them play against Monmouth in the finals of the conference tournament. Tim Cluess, good guy, he was Danny Green's high school coach, so I've known him a long time. Not trying to act like we're bosom buddies or anything, but I thought he was a really good coach then; think it even more so now. We watched a part of that championship game, even watched part of the championship game last year when they played. But playing them, for us, we've got to understand they'll have five guys outside the 3-point line a lot, and all five guys can shoot the 3-point shot. Earlier in the year it was 40-something percent of the shots they took were 3-pointers. The last four or five games it's been over 50 percent. So we realize we've got to get out on the floor and cover out there, that means Luke Maye, and Garrison, those guys have to get out and cover the 3-point line. They do like to play at a fast pace but so do we. We understand that part of it. Trying to cover them on the offensive end with the 3-point shot and free throw line are two huge parts of their offense. And it's the easiest way for to you get beat if you give them free shots at the foul line or free shots from the 3-point shots. That's the biggest emphasis for us. Q. Roy, did Cam, his shins was that a wear-and-tear kind of situation? Or did something happen last week in Charlotte and was holding him out of practice a couple days just a precaution, or are you concerned? COACH WILLIAMS: No, I'm not concerned -- well, I'm concerned, yeah, but it's not something I've laid awake at night kind of thing. Doug and Cam and the doctors have looked at it, taken X-rays or whatever it is they do. And I think it just flared up last week. I don't know if it was one specific incident that made it happen. But we thought it was good. He's 23 years old. I held him out of shooting practice. I told him when you get to be 23 you get to hold out of shooting practices. And yesterday he did almost everything. Today he did everything and doesn't seem to have any problems. But you're talking about a guy who has probably handled pain for a longer period of his life than any basketball player I've ever been around. So he does a great job of that. But I fully expect that he'll play the way he's been playing. Q. For Coby, a lot of people say you need experienced guards to make deep runs. What makes Coby different than other freshmen guards in this tournament? And when he's not on the floor how does that kind of change? COACH WILLIAMS: I don't know what is different from other freshmen guards in the tournament. But we've played 30-something games. We're 26-6 or 27-7, something like that. So he's played 30, 35 games. We held him out of one game because, I think it was his foot. I'm not sure. Can't even remember that long ago. But I like scoring point guards. And Coby is a scoring point guard. He's a guy that scored more points in high school basketball in the state of North Carolina than anybody in history. So I'm not going to get him and say, okay, you can't shoot. That would be sort of silly. And I do some silly things but that's not one of them. He has the ability to put the ball in the basket. He's a good shooter and I think will eventually be a great shooter. He can attack the basket really, really well. He has no fear attacking the basket. He's better defensively than anybody ever even thinks about. He's won our defensive player of the game I think the second most of anybody on the team. Garrison's won it the most; Coby's won it second most. And he's a complete all around player. The kids nowadays aren't like freshmen were 20 years ago. Kids nowadays are freshmen, they've been everywhere. I can remember when I started coaching we tell a kid you come here, we're going to take you to Hawaii once every four years. Every high school player goes to Hawaii now. It's no big deal. But he's extremely gifted, extremely competitive, extremely good. He's really a good player. And really good players, even in their freshman year, even if you go back to Pervis Ellison or Michael Jordan or what, some freshmen have done some great things in this tournament, and usually they did it in the regular season as well. Q. You said earlier in the week that the teams that have either won titles or made really deep runs have always had really good weeks of practice before the tournament starts. Wondering how your guys were earlier this week. And you've never lost in the first round. How do you keep guys -- COACH WILLIAMS: If we lose, don't let me know where you live. (Laughter) If that's perceived as a threat, it's true, okay? (Laughter). Q. How do you keep guys focused and engaged in a game like this where you're theoretically a pretty heavy favorite? COACH WILLIAMS: First part of the question. The team that came to mind quickly when I started thinking about that and talking about it, because we've had a lot of teams that really got better as the season went along and played their best basketball at the end, but was the '09 team because I could never convince them you have to guard somebody; they sort of thought we would outscore them. But those last three to four weeks of the season that year they really concentrated hard on the defensive end of the floor and really got a lot better. This team, we just finished practicing an hour and a half ago or something like that and we had a really good practice this morning. That doesn't mean they don't screw it up and make a mistake, but that's the game of basketball. But I think our practices have been good this year. I think a lot of it is because we push so much. But I think a lot of it is because with Luke and Cam and Kenny they sort drag everybody else along. It's an experienced group that does that. And I think you have to play well -- excuse me, practice well. I've never had a good team that practiced sorry every day and then played great. I've never had that. But I think this team has gotten better as we've practiced all year long, and particularly I'd say the last couple of weeks we've shortened practice a little bit and perhaps they've realized that and focused even a little bit more, or just that they've gone out and done their work. Trying to get focused on playing against everybody, regardless of who you're playing in your seed is something I've thought ever since the first day I became a coach. And my first couple of years as an assistant we had some bad memories of those first-round games. I remember over in Raleigh, Black Sunday, us and Duke both lost when everybody thought we were going to win, playing close to home. So I've always tried to focus on now we're in the tournament, but if you're looking down the road -- and this is corny -- I tell our guys all the time, if you're looking down the road at what might happen, that's usually where you're going: Down the road back home. And we try to focus on just playing this next game. And I guess somebody could use it as ammunition, but somebody asked me something a day or two ago about the tournament, I couldn't even remember who our pairing was in the second round. And I was being truthful. I got one of the two teams right. I didn't get the other one right. Somebody could probably use that. But it really is, that we're trying to get ready to play Iona. And I tell the guys come on now, if we play well, maybe they'll let us stay around and play another one. But I think the kids are experienced enough to understand that part of it as well, too. Q. Was there a light bulb moment for Garrison, especially on the defensive end that kind of got him playing as consistently as he has been recently? COACH WILLIAMS: He was okay last year defensively, but I think at the start of the season, you look and you have Luke and you have Kenny and you have Cam, and what can they do? They can all three score. Kenny is good defensively. The other a little bit of a liability sometimes. You look and you have Coby as a freshmen who can score. But you think, well, freshmen can't defend. And you look at Nassir and say, well, freshmen can't defend. I think he saw that, because he's very bright. He says I have a better niche with this team if I do a good job on defensive so coach can count on me. And I think the other thing is when you praise somebody, reward them, they tend to do the same behavior over again and even try to do it even better. So when we talk about how well he's doing defensively and how dependable he is and everybody should thank him for covering up for your mistake, I think he likes those kind of things. And I even think something as simple as grading the tape and listing who is defensive player of the game, he likes to see his name go up there, as everybody does. But I think he has bought into it. I want him to score every basket around the basket. If he goes out and shoots 3s, the next horn you'll see it will be him coming out, because that's not who he is. But he understands that. And I am really, really proud of what he's done for our team. Q. Have you seen any extra motivation from Cam being that he's the senior that wasn't on the national championship team from two years ago? COACH WILLIAMS: I'm sure Kenny and Luke talked to him about it enough that he's probably got that motivation. They live together. So they talk about the greatest time of their lives, best three-week stretch in 2017 that he didn't experience. But I think Cameron is a youngster who has really wanted to be successful and has worked extremely hard. As I said earlier, I don't know of anybody that's had as much pain as he's had during his college career. He's very -- I almost call him an old man. But he's very mature about everything he does and looking at everything, looking at the big picture. So I think he's hungry. But I wouldn't be surprised if those guys say some things to him away from me. But I know he's personally really hungry himself. Q. Tennessee, of course, is here. I wanted to get your thoughts on the job Rick's done with that job as they make their move here in the NCAA Tournament. COACH WILLIAMS: Rick's a good friend, a really good coach. A guy that I enjoy being around. We were in Maui together last year, I guess, and they started out poorly. And they got better and better. We played them in Knoxville. He's a guy from Western North Carolina that I do really enjoy. And I've watched his teams. And Williams and Schofield, those guys, they get after you, competing on every possession. And I gotta think Rick pushes them to do that all the time. So I think he's done a fantastic job. And he's one of those guys that, when I see him, I start grinning, so that's a pretty good legacy, too. Q. To follow up on what you were saying before about how much more experienced players are before they ever get to you. How does that affect your dynamic? Is it always a good thing? Is it sometimes a bad thing? COACH WILLIAMS: You know, I think it's good to have a little new enthusiasm. Sometimes I call it youthful exuberance. I think it's good to have that on your team and not just be, oh, we've done this before kind of thing. But I also like the old guys to understand how lucky we are that you're still doing it; that we're back. I loved -- I really did -- the only ones we have are in-house cameras, but at my house, when we were watching the Selection Show, when they announced North Carolina as the No. 1 seed, put our name up there, they jumped up. And it was spontaneous. And I'm not of their generation. I tell them I'm glad I'm not. I'm three or four generations away. But I watch some teams being announced -- it's not a cut to the way some kids do it -- but I saw teams jumping up and everybody had their phone in their hand taking a picture of their frickin' self. Come on now. Sometimes it's got to be being excited about your group. This group, old guys like Cam, Luke and Kenny, or the young guys, Nassir and Leaky, Coby, they were genuinely pleased, enthusiastic about what went on. I like that. It's not a cut against anybody else. It's just I really appreciate the way our guys handled it. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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