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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: COLUMBUS

March 24, 2019

Columbus, Ohio

North Carolina - 81, Washington - 59

THE MODERATOR: We're joined by North Carolina head coach Roy Williams and Luke Maye and Cameron Johnson. Coach, an opening statement?

COACH WILLIAMS: I think, needless to say, anybody that advances past this point you feel good about a win in the second round. Last year, we had a really, really nice year. In the second round we stumbled. We talked about it quite a bit this summer, and I think the kids were really good at times today.

Ten turnovers in the first half was very discouraging, but other than that I thought we did some really good things in the first half. Second half, we got it down to only five turnovers and still shot 50 percent. I think that was good.

Our work on the backboards was something. Luke, 14 rebounds to go along with his 20 points. I think Nassir gave us a big lift. And I think two kids really showed a lot of toughness today. Garrison, he'll have to go see the dentist before we leave town to get two teeth straightened out. And he had some stitches put in, and he came back and played almost the entire second half.

And Kenny strained his hamstring and came back and tried to guard like crazy when he got in there. And love our toughness, love the edge that our bench gave us today. And just love the way we kept competing. And happy as we can be that we're still; really happy with these two guys up here beside me.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Cameron, and Luke you can answer too, what makes you so effective attacking the zone? This is not the first time you've played so well against that?
CAMERON JOHNSON: The key today was getting the ball to the middle. The middle was a soft spot. They were covering the wings and the perimeter pretty well. And once we got it inside, it was basically a two on one for an easy jump shot or a dump down. And I think we exploited that a lot more in the second half than we did the first half.

LUKE MAYE: I would agree. I think the biggest thing for us was trying to score in a different variety of ways. And I think we scored inside. We were able to score out of transition. Coby did an unbelievable job pushing the ball and that really allowed us to get out and run.

And then offensive glass was really big for us. Coach emphasized it a lot coming into the game. And I thought we did a good job. Garrison had a few big rebounds. Naz did a great job off the bench. Naz was great. When you throw it to Naz in the middle and he just elevates over everybody, it allows it to be a pretty effective zone offense.

Q. Second game in a row you were much better defensively, seemed like, in the second half. Is that a matter of kind of feeling out the opponent in the first half? Is it a matter of the urgency that you guys talked about Friday night? What would you attribute that to?
CAMERON JOHNSON: I would say a lot has to do with the urgency. I feel like when we're defending the way we're capable of, we do a pretty good job. When we lose focus, when we lose urgency, we don't do as well. I think we did a better job in the second half today.

LUKE MAYE: I don't want to give Coach too much credit, but I think when Coach gets on us at halftime it fires us up a little bit, and I think it makes us want to guard better for him. And it just shows how much our coaching staff cares about us and cares about how much they want us to win.

And we've got to bring that from the jump. And that's coming from the senior leaders. And I take that upon myself, and Cam and Kenny. But I think the second half we did a lot better job and it was big for us.

Q. Cam, at the risk of embarrassing him, could you just talk, explain what Luke's development has been like since you've been in this program?
CAMERON JOHNSON: I saw it when I first stepped on the campus for my visit. When he was playing pickup, he was playing with a lot of confidence. And that confidence, as you keep playing, you keep getting experience, you keep getting, better and better and better.

And so the Luke I saw when I was playing at Pitt versus the Luke I saw in pickup that day, versus the Luke we see today, we just see a lot of growth. And the kid works. He's in the gym all the time getting up extra shots. And he plays harder than just about anybody. He works harder than just about anybody. And that's a testament to his character.

COACH WILLIAMS: When you're as old as Cam is you can call Luke Maye a kid. Gotcha. (Laughter.)

CAMERON JOHNSON: Yeah.

Q. Luke, maybe you can speak for yourself, what's it meant to you, your career, your growth and to be in this position now?
LUKE MAYE: It's been huge. I give a lot of it to my teammates just because of how much they've believed in me and getting me into my spots. And the coaches have believed in me since the very beginning.

And it's really been great to have such a great coaching staff to really give me the opportunities I had earlier in my career. Coach always said that he believed in me from the beginning, and he gave me opportunities when I didn't even think I wanted the opportunities.

And it was big for me to continue to grow and develop as a player. And I thought today it was a great win for us, and moving on to the Sweet 16.

Q. After the loss last year to Texas A&M in the second round, how does it feel to be in the Sweet 16?
LUKE MAYE: We talked about it all summer. To lose that way and to have Joe and Theo go out like that was really hard, especially for the guys who felt like it was on us. And, I mean, I feel like it's just a testament to how hard we worked and get back to the spot.

And I think it's been great to see how many guys have grown this season and really stepped up. And B-Rob gave us great minutes when Kenny went down. And Garrison came -- like, Coach talked about him. He was just huge for us. And it really shows how much character we have in the locker room.

CAMERON JOHNSON: Agreed.

Q. Luke, you guys are ranked No. 1 in the country rebounding margin. I believe they came in at 289. Did you feel you could exploit them on the boards? And what did you do to take full advantage of that today?
LUKE MAYE: Yes, it was in our scouting reports to take advantage of them on the offensive glass, and defensively we just gotta box out. I had a couple missed box-outs. I'll take the blame for that later.

I think it's big Coach emphasize rebounding first time in practice. And I try to pride myself in working hard and trying to get as many offensive rebounds as I can. And I think Garrison's done a good job, and so has Cam and Naz. It's been great to see how much they've grown offensively and defensively, rebounding-wise.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. Two games in a row that Nassir has seemed to embrace kind of getting the ball in the middle and really attacking the rim. Is that a matter of maturation for him? Is that a conversation you guys have had, maybe?
COACH WILLIAMS: You know, it's a little bit of it is maturing. But he was really coming along really, really well. And then he got his ankle hurt, and then he got hit in the face -- in the eye, excuse me. And those kind of things set him back quite a bit.

But he's such a gifted guy around that basket, so quick, jumps so high that I think he himself is realizing it more now than he did early in the practices and early in the games. I was very happy when he went out to shoot that 3 right in front of our bench because it was a shot that everybody wanted him to take. And we've seen him take those and he works extremely hard on the shot.

But he has an ability to get around that basket and with the jumping ability and the quickness he has and the power that he has, he can hurt a lot of people inside. So it's a little bit of maturing, but it's also him getting healthy again, because I really thought during that time period that he was going to really take off. And he had about a four, five-game stretch, maybe more or less, I don't know, that he wasn't as effective. But the last two games he's been something else for us.

Q. Coach, seems like with the popularity of the 3-pointer gaining each year, that some teams lose a mid-range game. They either dunk or hit a 3. Is Luke leading the revival of that in the game?
COACH WILLIAMS: All our guys, I tell them all the time I want great balance. I want to shoot the 3-point shot by guys who can make them. I want to get the ball inside because you get the other team in foul trouble.

We wanted to get Dickerson in foul trouble today and we weren't able to do it. We were able to get Iona's big guy in trouble yesterday.

I like balance and 3-point shots and -- shots inside to get the other team in foul trouble. And Luke Maye can make it from 12 feet and 14 feet, and he shoots a high percentage there than he does from the 3-point line. I like those, I like makers.

But our team was very unselfish today and after, as I said, the turnovers in the first half I really liked what we did with the basketball, too.

Q. I know it's early but could you assess where you guys fit in, some of the challenges you anticipate you may face?
COACH WILLIAMS: Yeah, I could, but I really haven't thought about that. I swear, guys, nobody in the history of basketball has ever just played one game and then started thinking about the other one after that is over with as much as I do.

I know who we play next and I know who -- no, I don't. I know who we play next and I know where that is. And that's about it. Because I really do try to live in the moment and coach that game. And I'm very pleased with what we've done to get to this stage.

I told the guys Marty Schottenheimer, coach at Kansas City, always talked about enjoying the wins until midnight. In the locker room I asked them, do we play Thursday/Saturday or do we play Friday/Sunday? They said Friday/Sunday. I said maybe we'll enjoy this one a little past midnight. But that's all it's going to be.

But for us we're extremely happy to be where we are, but at the same time we just want to enjoy this one and we'll start focusing on Auburn, I guess, who is the next team that we play.

Q. Maybe you can speak to as far as what kind of growth you've seen over the past two games. What in particular has gotten better? What needs to get better?
COACH WILLIAMS: Well, we've got our tails beat at -- is Cason (phonetic) back there? That's my boss back there. She's been my boss for 46 years. And my grandson is waiting for me, so we'll get this done quickly.

Throughout the course of the second half of the season I think we got better and better and better. And our teams, a lot of our teams have done that because they really focus and our staff really pushes. We don't just get too high over a big win or way down over a loss; we try to get better every single day.

And I think if you talk to our team they'd tell you that's the focus. And we've gotten better. But so has Auburn and some of these other teams that are going to be playing. But I do like how our kids have focused down the stretch and gotten better every game.

Q. Luke had 20 and seemed to be thriving in the middle of that zone. Could you talk about what he was able to do so well against this defense?
COACH WILLIAMS: Same thing he said. We played against Syracuse's zone, we've had some good success. But they've beaten our tail sometimes too.

But I don't mind the other team playing zone. But I don't mind -- I don't care what they play because we're so much freelance, we don't run a ton of set plays. So we really don't care what offense -- excuse me, what defense they run.

When you move yourself and move the ball intelligently and try to find the holes -- and we've had some success, but we know we've gotta do it again next week.

Q. What Luke was saying before, you believed in him from the beginning. What was about him that made you believe in him?
COACH WILLIAMS: I knew his father was a great individual, when he was in school and a quarterback for us, and he comes to camp I'll miss the years, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth grade, I kept telling his dad: don't be in a hurry because I think he's going to be good enough.

The thing with me, he had great hands and he could shoot the ball and a brain that he used, and a work ethic. So I'll take all those qualities all the time. But I did have confidence and faith in him and still do. And I hope to do it for a long time.

Q. How did Coby's 3-pointers there, one, two, three, four in the first half, kind of spark that offense? One from the corner was a very deep fade-away there?
COACH WILLIAMS: Yeah, it was a bad shot. It went in. All of a sudden it's a great shot. But Coby has an ability to score. They were trying to cover him. They were trying to have somebody in front of him the whole game. And he picked his spots. And I thought he really did a nice job for us. He didn't have many opportunities the second half because they tried to cover him more, but he was good.

Q. Two years ago Luke was really important to you guys making the title run. What he did tonight, and even the impact he had in the second half, Friday night, how good does that make you feel and how important is that going to be going forward?
COACH WILLIAMS: I agree with you, couple of years ago he's the MVP of the regional and he does score a field goal at the Final Four. But he was important to us. And last year maybe as good a year as I've ever had a kid from sophomore to junior, the biggest jump he's had. He's an intelligent young man. He finds the holes in the zone really well. Knows how important rebounding is and adjusts his game to be a great rebounder, because you look at him you don't think he's going to be a guy that's going to get 14, 16 rebounds against really good competition.

So I say it's his intelligence and his desire more than anything. But he's just a remarkable young man. And I'm very lucky to coach him.

And I will tell you, you and I are okay for another year. If you want to try to jinx me next year -- I know you didn't try to, that's not what I'm saying, but I showed -- my wife even laughed because she did say I was smiling when I did say that. Thank you. I'm going to go see my little grandson.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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