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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: RALEIGHMarch 20, 2008Wayne EllingtonTy LawsonRoy WilliamsRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA Q. Could you just tell me, you had that difficult game against Duke, and since then your shooting and scoring numbers have been way up. Can you talk about whether that was any kind of motivation for you? WAYNE ELLINGTON: I think really I wanted to be more aggressive after that game. I set up for a lot of jumpshots, and shots that I didn't really want to take. From that, I just learned. I watched tape and just learned from it and just wanted to be more aggressive, get to the basket and get a lot easier shots? Q. For both guys, can you just talk about how ready you feel to play this game and to get started, because three days of the ACC Tournament obviously is very physical and draining, and how has practice been leading up to it, because you guys have told us several times this year that you didn't play as well when you didn't practice as well. TY LAWSON: I feel like we're ready. This is the time of year everybody has been waiting for. So we are ready to get out and get started and play games. We've been practicing hard the last to days, you know, getting after it, practicing hard. Because as you said, if we don't practice well, we won't play well, so we've been having two great practices the last two days. WAYNE ELLINGTON: We're all just excited. It's the time of year we're all waiting for and this is what we work for. Like Ty said, we want to practice with that mind-set and practice pretty hard, and we're ready to get after it. Q. You said about 30 minutes after the game after Sunday that your ankle felt great and that three games in three days was the best thing for it; how did it feel Monday morning and how does it feel now? TY LAWSON: It felt a little sore going hard on it but playing three games, that's strengthened it. Right now it feels good and hopefully it can keep holding up for the next three weeks? Q. Considering how much you guys talked about the Georgetown game last year, will this year be a failure if you don't get farther? WAYNE ELLINGTON: Personally, I feel like it would be, yeah. We all have the experience. You know, we've been through this before and we know what it takes, so for us not to get farther than we did last year, yeah, it would be a disappointment for our team. TY LAWSON: Yeah, I feel the same way. Our goal is to get past last year and hopefully get further than that. So, yeah, it would be a disappointment for our season if we don't go farther than last year, as Wayne said. Q. You played Davidson pretty close early in the beginning of the year; curious what you think their chances are against Gonzaga tomorrow. WAYNE ELLINGTON: They are a good team and they have a lot of talent. They are a tough team. Same thing with Gonzaga. I think it will be a big-time game. Q. In the second half, you seemed to sort of recapture the old Ty Lawson, going stronger to the bucket, getting that rebound and putting it back up; not looking to be so concerned about somebody hammering you. Was there a point where mentally you got through it finally? TY LAWSON: Basically I just started playing and stopped worrying so much and stop worrying about somebody going to step on it. Coach also talked to me about it, go out and play and stop being scared and stop worrying about the ankle. Once I started doing that, I didn't feel like I had pain or anything like that, just going to the basket and not being afraid to jump off, and things like that. I just don't think about it while I'm on the court. Q. Do you feel like your old self? TY LAWSON: I feel like I have the ability to do it, and now I feel like I'm just past the mental part of getting over the injury. Q. Would you talk about what it was like to see him play like his old self in the second half, because we all know what a weapon he is when he's being Ty Lawson and what that meant to you as a teammate to see him go strong and fast again. WAYNE ELLINGTON: As a teammate, you know, it meant a lot. You could just see that Ty Lawson is gaining his confidence back and just seeing him jump off that ankle and getting the speed back, it's good. It's all coming back at the right time. Q. How much more comfortable do you feel going into this tournament than maybe you did last year, being freshmen and starting and No. 1 seed? Just talk about going in as sophomores and now knowing what's going to happen. WAYNE ELLINGTON: I feel a lot more confident, more mature, more prepared, just all those things. Just feel like we're ready. You know, going into the ACC Tournament, felt the same way, going in there with a businessman-like approach and coming to the tournament to get it done, and coming to this tournament the same way. Q. Was there anything about last year's tournament that surprised you, just maybe during the games or off the court, anything like that? TY LAWSON: Probably just the atmosphere. I feel like the NCAA Tournament games is much different than regular season games. It's just the atmosphere was crazy last year. Probably a little bit nervous, jitters in the beginning of last year, because I didn't know what to expect and things like that. Last year compared to this year, I think I'm more prepared for this year's tournament. Q. It's kind of ironic that you're playing at the RBC Center on NC State's home arena and you've been here for two games. What do you think that's going to be like tomorrow and it's essentially do-or-die for your season? WAYNE ELLINGTON: We're going to have a lot of fans here, so we'll feel very comfortable. Of course, it's still going to be that tournament atmosphere, and do-or-die like you said. You have to come out and you have to give it 100% and you have to stay focused the whole game. TY LAWSON: I feel like it's probably good playing here, because we're already used to the courts and things like that. It's not like a new atmosphere and new area to get used to. We're going to be playing here and we'll have a lot of fans here and might feel like a home game, so I feel like it's no problem playing at the RBC Center. Q. Just curious, did you guys watch the opening-round game Tuesday night, and what were your impressions of Mount St. Mary's? TY LAWSON: I watched a little bit of it, some of the highlights. I know some of the players on the team, like Jeremy Goode, they are a good team and they play hard. They like to drive the ball, so got to get ready for them. WAYNE ELLINGTON: Just watched bits and pieces to see who is going to win and who we are going to play against. Other than that, we are just excited to practice and get the scouting report and get ready to play somebody tomorrow. Q. I don't know if you have made comments yet on the brackets themselves, how they played out; how do you think North Carolina was treated and are you upset about any of it? COACH WILLIAMS: I said, I guess, on Monday, that everybody can talk about and say, you know, we've got the toughest region, and that's what we are supposed to do as coaches. I was a little surprised that Tennessee was put in the same region as us; if they said we are the No. 1 seed, because they have to be the No. 1, No. 2 seed. The 8/9 matchup I think is the toughest by far. Arkansas had a great one and Indiana was the No. 1 team in the Big Ten. All that said, I can go on and on but bottom line is you have to play on game day. We are focused on St. Mary's and that's it. Q. How do you think the ACC was treated, and is there anything that needs to be done, whether by coaches, Conference, media? COACH WILLIAMS: You know, I would have loved to see some other ACC teams in. I believe that some of the other ACC teams are one of the top 65 teams in the country; there's no doubt in my mind about that. What we have to do to get to that point, I'd hate to speak to each and every individual situation, but we've got to do some things, whether it's more marketing, playing tougher schedules, winning games; or my guess is, it's going to have to be a combination of all those things. I really, truthfully believe -- I was surprised that Virginia Tech, for example, was not in, because I do believe, for example, that they are one of the top 65 teams in the country. Q. In 2002, your Kansas team struggled for a while with Holy Cross; what do you recall from the 2002 game? COACH WILLIAMS: I think it's going to eventually happen, whether or not it's going to be tomorrow or not, that's what I hope doesn't happen. But you know, in that year, and it wasn't only the reason, Holy Cross played great, we lost Kirk Hinrich to an ankle sprain during the game and I didn't know if we were ever going to get him back. It was a tremendous motivation for our team against Stanford not knowing if Kirk was going to play, and we jumped out ahead of Stanford 18-0. That's the big thing I remember is going down the bench and seeing Kirk in the second half and the trainer saying he's not going to be able to come back. It was nip-and tuck. It was a three- or four-point game, maybe less than that, inside the ten-minute mark. We could have been the first at that point and I was sort of happy that it wasn't us. Q. As hard as your region might be, don't you think it's counteracted by the fact that you're the only school that will get four home games in your home state? COACH WILLIAMS: Somebody said maybe that's what the committee was thinking -- nice haircut. (Laughter) Don't turn your head like that. (Laughter). Somebody said they may have thought that's what the committee was trying to do was balance out the four games and making this the most difficult reason. I don't have any idea if that's what it was or not. Like I said, everybody has opinions, but the bottom line is you have to play on game day. I don't think there's ever been a time where I've reacted very negatively about the seeding or anything, because this time of year, you have to play the games. I think you heard or may have heard that people kept asking if I really wanted to be here. And I said, well, I guess I want, but I just want to be in the tournament because I've never seen a building or fans win games for you. I think that those things could have been balanced out and that could have been the reason that the tournament committee did it, but I have no way of knowing. How would you look like with Greg's haircut? Q. Pretty bad. (Laughter) Deon said in the locker room that he had a talk with you earlier this week and he put in some extra work. Can you say what you told him about what he had to do this week in light of what happened in Charlotte? COACH WILLIAMS: I won't get real specific, but just that he had to play better and not just focus on what he was doing offensively. Do the job rebounding-wise, do the job defensively, and that gives me an opportunity to play you more. If the shots are not going in four, and, you're struggling on the other end, you don't give me anything to hang my hat on. But it was partly private but other than that, it was just let's get focused and put that stuff behind you. I think the biggest reason is I think he's finally starting to feel better. It's been a long run for him not feeling well since the Virginia game at Virginia. Q. It's been pretty clear from listening to you and the players this year that when y'all practiced poorly, you didn't play as well. When you practiced pretty well, then you turned around and played well. So what was practice like this week? COACH WILLIAMS: Well, practice was okay. We just did practice a lot, because we had had such a stretch there; we did not practice Monday or Tuesday. Yesterday was a full practice and today we practiced earlier over at the RBC Center it was a typical practice the day before. I would have to think about -- I know one particular, before the Wake Forest game, I thought we had not prepared and had not had good practices but we played very well. Kids nowadays, 18, 19, 20, 21 years old, if I knew how they were going to react to certain things, we would never lose because I would send them out hard a half hour and if I didn't like it, send them out and keep them coming back. I do remember the Wake Forest game -- Q. Maryland I think, too. COACH WILLIAMS: I don't remember, sorry. Q. The other thing, do you feel like Ty got over some type of mental block in the second half where you told him, you're going to make your next bucket, and all of a sudden the rest of the game, he looks a whole lot more aggressive and a whole lot more like what we are used to seeing. COACH WILLIAMS: I don't think we'll know until the game starts tomorrow. Practice yesterday, he and Quinten split the time again because I'm still trying to get past Quinten's knee and his ankle but I think he is practicing better. And he should be feeling more confident on it, I think, with each and every day that his ankle is not going to explode or anything like that. Q. You've talked about, I guess, a building doesn't win a game for you and you being comfortable at home. Is there a flip side of that with playing at home that you have to be concerned about? COACH WILLIAMS: I think so. I even gave the option of whether they wanted to stay in Chapel Hill or over in the hotel. The staff gave me their opinion, and I let the players basically choose, but the staff thought it would be easier to be here because it would be less distractions and they would have access, and the players said the same thing. I think there is a little bit of a trade-off there, yes. Q. Do you sense that Wayne is even more driven now, and even going back to last year with the Georgetown game, do you think that's added any additional motivation for him? COACH WILLIAMS: I think the Georgetown game added motivation for his work ethic during the summer and the off-season. I think that once the season started, I don't think he's been that concerned, if at all, about that. He's just been trying each and every day to work hard on his game and be better than he was the day before. I don't think there's any question that, in my opinion, Wayne may disagree, but in my opinion that missing that shot did provide him with an extra motivation to work in the summer and try to get stronger and all of the things that we talked about. Q. You guys played Davidson pretty tough earlier in the year and they are kind of a trendy pick. Just curious what you thought about the mid-major matchup with Gonzaga? COACH WILLIAMS: I wouldn't call it a mid-major basketball matchup because those are two pretty good basketball teams. Last year, Gonzaga blew us out by eight or nine or whatever it was. I think it's two big-time programs and two of the elite teams in the country. That would be a game that if I were just a basketball fan, I would make sure I would watch that game because I think it's got a chance to be a really interesting game. Q. I know that where you play and where you stay hotel-wise, it was ranked low priority-wise in terms of the impact on the game. But given how the NCAA assigns hotels, the higher-seeded seems get the better hotels in the area; did that have any impact than staying in a lesser hotel or accommodations? COACH WILLIAMS: No. I've stayed in some daggum dumps and my team played like crazy and we have stayed in some top-of the rise places and stunk it up. If I did know that, I would pay the difference in the hotel rooms myself. If you stayed in the classiest place or most expensive place, I would even tell Mr. Baddour that I would pay the difference if that was something. Local committee would have a task and it's not very easy. In '91 before some of you were hardly even born, we played in the National Championship game in Indianapolis and we stayed 45 minutes out of town. I couldn't find it now with a map and GPS system, either one. In'81, we stayed 45 minutes outside Philadelphia and we played in the National Championship game, both those years, lost. No, as long as they have got a soda machine and room service late, late, late, I'm all right. Q. Wayne and Ty said they thought this season would be a failure if they didn't get farther than they did last year. Do you feel the same way? COACH WILLIAMS: I don't have to try to put a label on it like that because I'm old-fashioned, old school, whatever. We are just going to try to do the best we can every single day. It would be hard for me to understand the season could be a failure if you win the ACC and Conference tournament both and No. 1 seed. You can be extremely disappointed that you didn't do more, but I'm never going to be one of those coaches that looks at a second- place trophy and throws it down and smashes and said we only think about No. 1, that's just not me. But we are going to try our butts off to see what happens. Q. Mount St. Mary's, they said their style, they like to push the ball up the floor but they said that's what you do better than just about anyone; after watching film and seeing similarities, would you expect them to try to slow tempo down? COACH WILLIAMS: It wouldn't surprise me but most coaches feel like you've got to dance-with-who-brung-you kind of deal. I've been in situations where people who ran like crazy decided to hold the ball. Depends what the coach is comfortable with. I think for me, I never try to determine what a coach is going to do before the game starts. We take the scouting report and make our educated guess and try to prepare in that manner. But once the game starts, you've got to be able to make adjustments. Q. Given the understanding that you do not have seniors, how much more mature is this remaining group than a year ago? COACH WILLIAMS: I think they are much more mature, almost everyone except Reyshawn West and those guys are back so they have been through this. Last year for Ty and Brandon and Wayne, it was their first time and second time for Tyler and Marcus and Bobby. So I think we are much more mature this year so hopefully we will be able to handle adversity better than we did last year. I think this team did handle adversity better in the regular season better than last year's team did so hopefully we can do it in the tournament as well. Q. How much has the last month matured Ty? COACH WILLIAMS: I don't think it's been great for him. I'd rather have him healthy, that kind of thing. But I do believe it's helped him mature and helped him realize the sky is not falling, the world is not going to end, chicken little is not falling, that kind of stuff. Q. We get to see you in a setting where you're laughing, telling jokes; what are you like at a practice when somebody maybe for gets to play defense for a little bit and you have to light into somebody? And by the way, we just got some really cool answers in the locker room about this. (Laughter)? COACH WILLIAMS: Everybody talks about that there's a vein that starts to explode in the head and all that kind of stuff. I'll give you an example, Raef LaFrentz was one of the greatest players I ever recruited and coached and after practice brought him in, and one of the questions always asked is, "What's the biggest surprise for you," and he said truthfully, and I said yeah. And he said, "Man, the change in you when you go out on that court." I said, Okay, I can buy that. I do feel comfortable with our kids. I do enjoy their relationship. Their relationships to me, in fact, are more important than stats. But once we go out on the court, I'm pretty passionate about the way we want you to play. I'm pretty passionate about the effort that you give and the concentration. If you fail to give the effort, if you fail to give the concentration, then woe be unto thee. If you don't give effort and you don't think, then Attila the Hun comes out. Q. To take you back about 16, 17 years, what do you remember about your game against Howard in the tournament and Milan Brown when he was the Howard point guard? COACH WILLIAMS: I remember early that I was impressed by their guard play. I have not told Milan yet whether it was him or the other guy. But the biggest thing, and a little bit about what we were talking about back there, my daughter thought the dancing by song (ph) was the coolest thing she had ever seen. Butch was the coach and I knew Butch and we had been in Dayton before and had not played well the last time we had been in Dayton, so I really wanted our team to play very well. I think as the game went on, we started playing pretty doggone well. Q. Is that Butch Beard? COACH WILLIAMS: Yes. End of FastScripts |
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