CAMPING WORLD MAUI INVITATIONAL

December 2, 2020

Roy Williams

Armando Bacot

Garrison Brooks

North Carolina Tar Heels

Postgame Press Conference

Texas - 69, North Carolina - 67

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with players first.

Q. Can you tell us what Roy told y'all in the brief time you've had to talk with him and what kind of lessons can you take from this game with a very young team from this loss?

ARMANDO BACOT: The first half we came out really flat, just not playing hard and just not competing.

In the second half coach just told us to go out there and fight and just be competitors and we did it, but unfortunately we just lost on a last second shot. I mean, there was a lot of things we could have did better, like, make free throws and just simple plays, but I can say we just learned that we just need to just stay playing hard the whole game and not taking any play for granted.

Q. Armando, at the same time, what can you learn from the way you guys opened the second half and you turned it into a battle whether at one point I think you guys were down like 16.

ARMANDO BACOT: I mean, I think just that shows like when we play hard and go out there and fight we can compete and just come back, but that's not how we want to play. We want to play like that the whole game and not just when we're down.

Q. Is that a lesson for the young guys as much as the older guys or how do you kind of work that out?

ARMANDO BACOT: No, I think that's a lesson for all of us.

Q. Armando, what do you think about how ya'll are really passing the ball in the post and what can ya'll do better to get ya'll more involved down low offensively with the big men you'll have?

ARMANDO BACOT: Yeah, I mean, I would say, first, with the bigs we could do a better job of just fighting for position and getting the ball lower because obviously that's one of our strong suits.

But just also just trying to give the guards a target and the guards just bringing it down more.

Q. Garrison, what would you say was the difference in the second half with you guys being so focused about getting the ball inside? Was that simply Roy Williams' message at halftime?

GARRISON BROOKS: That is always his message, but I think the biggest thing is we didn't turn the ball over as much. I think we defended better in the second half, more intensity. I think we tried to get the ball to the basket, so being more aggressive.

Q. Garrison, a lot of the talk has been that the young guys have to adapt and learn how to play the UNC way with some of you guys, but how much of an adjustment has it been for you to learn how to play with them and do you feel like maybe you started making some progress in that respect tonight?

GARRISON BROOKS: Yeah, we're still learning, still getting better as a team every day. I think that it's an every day process to keep working every day and getting better, get used to how everybody plays and just keep growing.

Q. For you personally --

GARRISON BROOKS: I can't hear you (audio cut out.)

Q. For you personally -- (audio cut out.)

GARRISON BROOKS: Well, just for me personally, I think it's just something that's going to get better over time.

Q. Garrison, three games in three days, how did you guys get better as a team during this time frame?

GARRISON BROOKS: I think we showed a lot of toughness, especially in the second game. Winning a close game and losing one like this when we're down and we come back, I mean, it's kind of, I mean mit's kind of, I don't know, it kind of shows the toughness that we have and to prove we can fight and come back and we're still one of the best teams in the country when we do what we're supposed to do, not turn the ball over and play hard.

THE MODERATOR: All right. We'll take start with an opening statement.

ROY WILLIAMS: All right, guys, it was, the first half, I think their attention to detail and their sense of urgency was much better than ours. We turned the ball over way too many times. Yes, we have freshmen guards, but at some point in your life you got to stop turning the ball over, and so we need to do a better job of that.

We dug ourselves a big hole not making free throws and turning the ball over in the first half.

Then second half, I think we only had four turnovers, but we still missed three free throws in the last two minutes and at the end of a game you got to make free throws and not turn it over and that's the two biggest problems that we had today.

But Texas, they play exceptionally hard. They're very experienced. Somebody told me they have a hundred percent of their scoring and rebounding back from last year and they added Greg Brown to it and I knew Greg would make a three today because he had missed his first 10, so I knew we would cure his problem there. So he did make one. But we just got to play better and can't get behind to beat a good team like we did today.

Q. There at the end there, the last 25 seconds, did you feel like Texas would probably go to Coleman the way he had been playing and were you trying to tell RJ anything of what to expect of what he might to do there?

ROY WILLIAMS: You can tell him anything you want, but guys, if you've ever played basketball, it's up to you to guard that guy, and RJ tried to do a good job and Matt hit a tough shot.

If we had had a little more experienced team, we would have probably tried to double-team, but we haven't been doing a very good job of that in practice and I didn't want to give up a layup by not getting a goal tender in there. But that's what it was and you got to congratulate Matt for making a shot.

Q. What do you think the primary one or two things that Caleb learned from the three days here this week?

ROY WILLIAMS: Well, I hope he learned not turn it over, not taking bad shots, you got to shoot a higher percentage to get, zero assists, four turnovers, that's not good. But I love him to death as a kid. He's going to work really hard and I think he will learn those things.

And it's, I looked out there at one point today and we had four freshmen on the court, but that sounds like an excuse, but they have got to grow up quickly because we're playing them because they deserve it and the way they practice.

But Caleb, RJ, Puff, Kerwin, Walker, Day'Ron, they have all got to get involved and get a little bit better along the way.

Q. What are some positives that you guys can build off of as a team from this game?

ROY WILLIAMS: I think playing three games you get a lot of different looks. I think we made some adjustments and they did themselves in the game. I thought we were much better defensively in the second half than we were in the first half.

So I think in every game you play, you add an opportunity to get better or ignore the simple things and not get better, and I happen to think that our team will not ignore the simple things and they will try to do a better job and get better as we go along.

Q. When you look back at the turnovers from yesterday and then just from what you saw today, do you feel like Caleb and RJ, are they pressing too hard? It seemed like a number of times they were driving, trying to make something happen and there was just no plan once they got in the lane.

ROY WILLIAMS: That's experience. I don't think they're pressing. You just got to make better decisions. Two, the first two turnovers in the first half we just dribbled the ball and lost it.

So I think it's part of the growing pains, but at the same time that sound like an excuse and they have got to grow up quickly. We can't keep doing that and saying, well, they're freshmen. It doesn't make any difference because it counts in the loss column and you can't have seven turnovers with two guys running your point guard spot.

Q. What impressed you, especially with the younger guys, the fact that they battled back the way they did in the second half?

ROY WILLIAMS: Well, I did. I liked that part of it. We started playing better. We were more attentive to detail on the defensive end of the floor.

First half there were three times that a guy got the ball outside the three-point line and drove it all the way to the basket and laid it up, and so we didn't allow those kind of things in the second half like we did in the first half.

But I did like the fact that we kept playing and kept playing and made some shots, and except for three misses, we made the free throws, but we had three misses in the last two, three, two and a half, three minutes of the game and so we got to learn that you got to step up there and make those free throws at crunch time.

The easiest way to come back on people is get the best shot you can get, don't turn it over, and make your free throws, and we need to do a better job at all three.