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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS REGIONALS: RALEIGHMarch 22, 2008Marcus GinyardTy LawsonRoy WilliamsRALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA Q. For both guys, just wondering, what do you know about Arkansas and what have you been able to find out lately and what kind of matchup do you think it's going to be? TY LAWSON: Arkansas, they are a good team. We know they have been playing well lately and they beat Tennessee a couple days ago and they are very good inside players. Darian Townes, very good shot-blockers and they are very good down low. They have good wing players, Sonny Weems, so we've been doing a little scouting and they like to press. We didn't see much of them during the season but Coach has been filling us in on them. Q. How much better has Quentin gotten since he had to take over, and in what areas -- where do you see the improvement? MARCUS GINYARD: I think Quentin has got tremendously better as the season has gone on this year, especially with Tywon's injury and him having to step up and play a lot more minutes than he's used to. I just think the biggest thing that we look at and we look at Quentin's improvement, it's just his confidence level. We always felt like Quentin was a capable player and we always felt like his own confidence level was holding him back. I just felt like him getting comfortable and getting out there on the court and playing those minutes allowed him to become more confident in his own capabilities, his great decision making and positive ability; and just being a senior leader out there, he's the only one that's been here and understood what it takes to get to those levels and get to the places where team wants to get to. Q. Arkansas did just beat Tennessee, which is a very good team, and it's probably almost more like a round 16 matchup than 32. Can you just talk about the mental approach required of you guys tomorrow, and being able to kind of get back in that groove after having last night? MARCUS GINYARD: Well, you know, first of all, just like to start off by saying last night, although it wasn't obviously the challenge that we were going to face tomorrow night; we definitely just wanted to use that game as a momentum-builder, to just get us in the groove of the NCAA Tournament. And I think that we did a great job of that last night. I think we did some good things last night that I think can carry over to Sunday's game. We know we are facing a huge challenge on Sunday. We talked about the fact that we may have the toughest matchup in the second round, but everybody that's playing in this second-round game is playing a tough game. There's no easy games when you get to the second rounds, so we understand it's a huge challenge for us, and I think that this team is focused and ready to take on that challenge. Q. How about the team, if you could address the team mentality at this point, because you were in the tournament last year, and y'all are a year older, how does that help in the way you would approach a game such as tomorrow? TY LAWSON: We know it's going to be a tough game, so mentally we are real tough right now and thinking about hostile teams and things like that. As far as being a year older, we know what's coming. We're not like freshman wondering what's coming next in the NCAA Tournament, so we were kind of more prepared than we were last year. Q. This will be the last day of ankle questions, I promise, but wanted to ask you, was there a point after you injured the ankle whether you wondered to yourself whether you would ever come back to a position where you could be close to your usual skill? TY LAWSON: Yeah there was a couple times I was probably thinking that, probably after the in-Conference Florida State game, it just kept hurting and I couldn't do the things I normally do. And probably just through practices it was still hurting and now it's getting back to regular, so it's starting to feel a lot better than it was back then. I felt like I had no worries about, it, and just little things like taking off on it, that's about it. Q. I don't know how many teams you have faced this season that have the size that Arkansas does, I know you have some bigs yourself, but maybe normally you're used to looking down a little bit at others. What challenge does Arkansas' sheer size, the long arms and large guys present to you? MARCUS GINYARD: Obviously those big guys are going to be a presence inside defensively. Looking at Steven Hill being a great shot-blocker and I think having 71 blocks on the year and Darian Townes, I think he could cause some problems for us defensively, him getting to the offensive boards and just being so strong inside. And so, you know, we're obviously facing some challenges inside, but I don't think it's any different than any other game that we've ever played all season. We are always facing some sort of challenge, but you know, it just comes down to this team, working together to get through those things, and I think it will be no different tomorrow night? Q. Have you faced any -- in your recollection in 30-some games this year, has there been another team that's had that many big guys? MARCUS GINYARD: I don't know necessarily that many, but Miami, they have got some big guys inside. Boston College is kind of big. I don't know if they have as many bigs. But Florida State is kind of big inside. It's nothing that worries this team. Obviously they have some big-time players in there but it's nothing this team is going to back down from or anything like that. We are going to look at this challenge in the face just like any other? Q. I read in the notes that Carolina is 22-1 in-Tournament games in the state; talk about the home-court advantage and the comfort level you have playing here, and if you have a favorite story about Tyler that illustrates his intensity, if you could share that. TY LAWSON: The 22-1, I mean, that's good. We've got a good hometown crowd. It feels like a home game sometimes. Yesterday the whole place was filled with Carolina Blue and it got very loud when we scored and it does feel like a home game. That record says a lot that we play well as a home team or in front of a lot of our fans. MARCUS GINYARD: One thing about Tyler and his intensity, I can't remember what game it was, or it might not even have been a game, might have been practice, but Tyler made a huge play, whatever it was, and he got so excited and he pumped his fist so hard and we ended up watching some film, he pumped his fist so hard, he swung all the way around and almost hit himself in the face. Just Tyler out there just giving a hundred percent all the time. There's no doubt about it that he's the hardest worker on the floor. Q. Can you talk about the home-court aspect of playing here? MARCUS GINYARD: It's great being in this environment and being so close to home and just allowing the fans to have to travel a minimal distance to come see us play; and to see the Blue in there, it just great for this team and to know that we have so many people behind us. Q. I just want to expand on the gentleman's question back there, beyond the bigs. As an overall team, is there a team you played this year that maybe reminds you or Arkansas reminds you of going into this ballgame? TY LAWSON: Personally I don't think we've played a team like this. They are big inside and they are big all around, except for their two guards. But other than that, they are 6-6 and above. I don't remember a team, playing this whole year that were that big inside or like that. So it's probably going to be -- I don't think it's going to be a challenge, we're not worried about the big men, but they present a little bit of a challenge for us inside. Q. Following up on the ankle question, there might have been questions about how comfortable you were going into traffic, and where are you now with getting the ball and going into the lane and so forth? TY LAWSON: I don't think too much hesitating to go inside now. When I first got back, that was a big concern and I would not go in the lane for nothing. If I had a fast break I would pull up instead of going in and trying to challenge somebody. Now I feel a lot more comfortable going inside and laying up and gaining contact? Q. How huge was it last night that you guys got so much production from the four-spot, given it was Mount St. Mary's, it was still production from Alex, and especially from Deon, knowing that you're not only going to need it tomorrow, but to continue advancing the rest of the way? MARCUS GINYARD: I talked about it at the end of the ACC Tournament in Charlotte last weekends. I felt like Deon and Alex were going to come out and have big-time tournaments this weekend and hopefully into the following weekend. I think that it's big for this team to be able to rely on Alex and Deon and to have that confidence in those two guys that they are going to come out and give efforts like they did last night. And I think that everybody feels confident in their capabilities and I think that they are going to be ready to play tomorrow night and I think that they are up for the challenge, they are definitely capable of it, and is as long as they come in with that mentality that they can do it, I feel like they can contribute to the team in a very positive way. Q. This is a team, as you said, that likes to press and also they like to get out on the break as soon as they get a rebound. Doesn't that play to your strengths? And what kind of teasing has Marcus gotten about his almost-dunk last night? TY LAWSON: About the style of play, we like to run up and down the courts, that is how we like to play and that makes us a lot more comfortable, they have to worry about teams throwing the ball down, get them to change their style of play, so that's good for us. About Marcus, once he missed and came to the bench, we were talking about how he missed it. Tell him to ice his shoulder and things like that. (Laughter) Coach said, "That's probably one of the worst dunks that they had as a player," but it looked pretty bad, we seen it last night on the news. It was terrible. (Laughter). MARCUS GINYARD: Where to start? That's not too much to say about it. Didn't work out the way it was planned obviously. Was feeling a little stiff out there. I told Coach before when I came in, he looked at me and said, "Are you okay?" I said, "Yeah, I'm all right, a little stiff." He said, "You haven't been playing, you had two fouls." And I said, "I'm a little stiff staying on the bench and when I'm playing, I'm sore, I don't know what to do." He said "Get out there, old man," and I got out there and got out there and next thing I know, I'm out on the break, things slowed down a little bit, didn't quite feel right, and I tried to get my steps together, tried to go up kind of smooth, didn't want to get too much emphasis or anything like that, but I guess knees just tightened up on me and didn't get up quite as high as I needed to and just didn't come down right. And then the worst part about it was falling on my butt afterwards, so I got a lot of texts last night telling me how my butt was feeling; it's doing fine, thank you for the concern. I'm hoping to get it back and I'm planning to, so just be on the lookout for that. Q. Last night you were able to kind of rest in the second half, you were able to get some of those backups off the bench, how fresh do you feel coming into the game? Do you feel maybe more refreshed than you would after a normal first-round game? MARCUS GINYARD: I definitely think that this team is feeling a lot fresher than we may have I think last year, for example. We felt like our key players were playing a lot more in that game against Eastern Kentucky. So last night, I think it was good that we got to get the reserves in for a good amount of time and to let our key players relax a little bit. So we are feeling great right now. We just had a great practice, we didn't kill ourselves physically, but we got in there and got some things done and we're mentally focused and ready to go. So I think there should be nothing holding this team back tomorrow night. Q. I know you are especially close to Wayne, could you just talk about how he has developed since Ty went down to the ankle sprain? He's become consistently that second scorer next to Tyler that you can count on every night and he's expanded the way he's played the game, running the court more, doing a lot of things. Can you talk about him, please? TY LAWSON: Ever since I went down, Wayne's been playing a lot better, knocking down the big shots, 3s, pulling up j's, running up the court, everything Coach is telling him to do, he's doing. He's playing a lot better throughout. I think me going out probably has helped because he's relying on his shot and scoring a lot more and doing the little things, and he's also getting steals, too. So his whole game has expands, too, since I went down. MARCUS GINYARD: Just like Ty said, when he went down a lot of things changed for this team and a lot of people had to step their game up and start to contribute a little bit more. I think that Wayne, I think that from whatever everybody has seen, and it's obvious to everybody that I think Wayne has done a tremendous job accepting that challenge, and like you said, in all aspects of his game just doing it a lit bit better and getting to the basket, getting foul; so much more confidence in his shot. And the biggest thing is just making the big shots. He's always been the guy that wanted to take those big shots, and I feel like he's always made them consistently, but you know, even now, you just feel like he's making them more and more, and he's doing everything. And like tie said, I think that his defense gets overlooked way too much. I feel like Wayne is a very, very solid defensive player, and he's a key player for us in all aspects of the game. Q. I know you are especially close to Wayne, what kind of things has he talked to you about during all of this as far as how he feels about how it's going and what he wanted to do? TY LAWSON: He's been talking a little bit, he's been doing little things like getting to the gym, putting a lot of shots up before class and after practice and things like that. I mean, he's just wanted to keep his shot going the way it was, and just expand, probably just going to the basket and things like that sew wouldn't be like a one-dimensional type player and have more dimensions on offense; and just playing a lot better on defense. Like last year, he's just strapping everything up. He's getting steals, getting in passing lanes and making it hard for his defender to score, and that's the main thing he wanted to work on? Q. You guys were not even born in 1984, but Arkansas beat North Carolina when North Carolina was No. 1; has Coach Williams ever talked to you about it? TY LAWSON: He has not brought it up yet. He might bring it up in one of his game-time speeches but he has not brought up anything like that. Maybe he will, or probably he will. Q. Just wondering, what goes into preparing for a second-round opponent? Did you guys scout a little bit Indiana and Arkansas going in, and also, did you consult or try to call anybody or talk to anybody this morning that you kind of know that knows Arkansas? COACH WILLIAMS: Well, when the pairings came out last week, Sunday, we decided at that time who was going to scout the Tuesday night game, and then Steve Robinson had Indiana and Jared Harrison (ph), and so they spent some time this week getting some tapes and watching some tapes and both of them stayed for the game yesterday. I went back and watched the first part of the game, went back with the team and part of the staff graded our film from last night's game and I went back and watched the second half or tried to watch the second half on TV, then was brought a tape. I cut the tape off this morning at 2:44, and so we've done as much as you can do reasonably, I guess. Maybe somebody would have stayed up longer and watched another tape. I had a problem because the remote kept falling out of my hand. Q. Given the way that Ty played the second half of the ACC Tournament title game and the way he played last night, can we officially declare the ankle to be a non-issue, non-story, finally? COACH WILLIAMS: I guess you can declare anything you want to, but I wouldn't do it, because I still -- last night, just give you an example. What did he have to do to make that move that everybody got so excited about? He had to spin. Six weeks ago, what would he have done? The guy would have caught him, okay, so that's a pretty simple thing to me. I still haven't seen him go running past everybody and nobody be able to catch him, and last night, the youngster was quick, I'm not saying he wasn't, but to me, still there's a huge difference there of having to make a move and just blowing past somebody, which I've seen him do in the past. Q. I guess Carolina is 22-1 in tournament games in your home state; does that add an advantage to the comfort zone? And do you have a favorite story about Tyler that illustrates his intensity? COACH WILLIAMS: There has been so much written about where we're playing, and what I think they should do is just lobby and let the NCAA Tournament determine where you're going to play and then not play the games and go and have a party and just move the people on who play the closest to their home site and not even play the games. I really believe -- I am not trying to be mean or anything, but my gosh, fellas, you've still got to play the game. Bob, you weren't around or didn't come to the press conference, you had better things to do in Arkansas, but at Kansas, all I heard one year in '95, all I heard was just if you win two games, you'll get back to Kansas City. Yeah, that's what's going to happen if we win two games, and we win two games and got back to Kansas City I was a pretty daggum good student and I know a lot about geography and Virginia is not nowhere near Kansas City they beat our ass and that building and those fans did not help us win and all everybody said was you've got to get back to Kansas City and it's going to be great. And we did. And we went to some nice restaurants and got our butts beat and went back home. I've never seen a building beat me yet or seen a building win me yet. It is nice for the parents to come and for the fans to come. As a matter of fact, Arkansas was in Kansas City I think that's the year they won -- is it one year removed from the National Championship, the year of or the year after or something like that? But everybody talked about, oh, yeah, you're going to get Arkansas and Kansas City. Yeah, but our butts were over there watching golf on TV so, that part of it, I do, I get tired of talking about it. Tyler Hansbrough story, there are so many, but the people that cover him, each week or each month for sure, they have seen him growing and opening up more. He is really a very humorous, funny character. I mean, for somebody to say -- and he says it with a straight face, well, Marcus should use the bark board. When you're teaching third graders how to shoot layups, what do you teach them to do? Use the back board. Tyler has that that ability, but every time I see Tyler and every time he is standing off with one of the players or giggling, he's getting after one of the players and it's usually Frazier or at Bobby's expense, but he's a wonderful youngster that I've been the most fortunate person that you can be having an opportunity to coach him. Q. The players that I've talked to have said the biggest thing that Quentin has had to overcome has been his confidence; that his game was already there. Was there anything that you did or were able to say that was able to speed up that process, and what's been your take on his growth since he has had to come into that role? COACH WILLIAMS: I wish I could think of something I had done because it would make me feel better but really the youngster needs 100% of the credit. The only thing I kept telling him is he could be a better player and I wish he could be as confident in himself as I was in him. When Tyler went down he got a better opportunity in each game and got better and better and reinforced his own confidence a little bit. But no, it wasn't any trickery by me or anything, but I believed in the youngster four or five years ago when I recruited him and thought he could be really good, and he's been huge for that basketball team during that stretch. Q. Somehow, your depth, now, some of it was because of injuries during the regular season, some of it, and maybe by design; how much down the stretch here have you cut back a little bit at practice, it looks like more guys are getting a lot more minutes here in March. COACH WILLIAMS: Well, I have definitely cut back our practice times, probably for health reasons more than anything. Playing time, yesterday, we've got a lot of playing time, but the game dictated that. And the ACC Tournament, I looked at it and I was mad at myself for Tyler playing as many minutes as he played. So I think it's just the game itself and how it's going. I'm always going to give eight or nine guys an opportunity in every game, but the game itself is going to determine how much No. 8, No. 9, how much those guys play. Q. Whether it's been Kenny, George or whoever, Tyler has not seen too many good shot-blockers, and that game last night, could you ever get tired of your current teams to that 2005 team? COACH WILLIAMS: Tyler has done well against some shot-blockers. Remains to be seen what he'll do against Stephen. We recruited Stephen when I was at Kansas, knew his family and the whole bit. He's a little different because he's not the greatest leaper, and I'm not trying to say that in a negative; he depends on timing more than anything. He's more of a cerebral and he watches the guys at last moment and he's long enough to still get there, which is a good skill that he has, too. We try to be forceful and take it right at him just like you do every shot-blocker. I don't get disappointed at him comparing teams, especially the 2005 team that won a National Championship. I'm very pleased that we did that. This team doesn't really remind me that much of the 2005 team in a lot of ways, but you know, in '82, we won the National Championship and we played two games in Charlotte and then two games in Raleigh. And to answer again, you know what people talk about now is the 1982 team won the National Championship and in 1979 we got our tails beat in Raleigh and no one around here remembers black Sunday when Duke and North Carolina both last in Raleigh. The '82 team, though, got on a great run at the end of the season and won the Conference regular season tournament and continued that run, and so far that's what this team has done. No, it doesn't bother me to compare teams, especially if we're going good. Now if we're real bad, I don't want to have another team to compare to them. Q. Just what problems do you see Arkansas presenting and what keys do you think it will take to beat them? COACH WILLIAMS: No question in my mind, we have to play really well. They have some big-time wins down the stretch. They beat Tennessee and beat Vanderbilt after Vanderbilt beat Tennessee. So we have a great deal of respect for them. I love their athleticism. I love their 6-10 guys inside that give them depth that can rebound, and Weems, he can score, last night that was pretty impressive I think his last miss was 15: 45 in the first half, so I think after the last four minutes and 15 seconds in the game, that's a heck of a long time that he didn't miss any shots. So I think their athleticism, the guys that can score, the pace they can play, their unselfish defense, they change it up and play man and zone and they press and they don't let you get in rhythm and I think they are a very good basketball team. I've been a big fan of Arkansas for a long, long time. I used to go to Arkansas every spring and play in the Nolan Richards golf tournament, I can't remember if it was the Pinnacle and changed to Champions or Champions and changed to Pinnacle, but I have some good friends there. Q. You kind of touched on this, but what's going to be the key for Tyler, with Arkansas they have so many big guys that they can put on him, Steven Hill, Townes, Michael Washington, what's going to be the key for him had there's so many guys that they can put on him? COACH WILLIAMS: Well, he's faced that quite a bit, but they have four or five big-time size or big-time athletes there and I don't know that he's been guarded by that number of guys that have that kind of athleticism. It is going to be a challenge and we have to get him the ball and he has to make some quicker decisions probably, throw it back out, repost, throw it back out to you again. So his decision making is going to be something that is going to have to be a little quicker than it has in the past. And when he throws it back out, those guys have to make good decisions to shoot the ball or throw it back to him. Q. Could you just talk about Wayne's development since Ty went down, he has expanded his game in so many ways, driving the ball, he's making assists, he's rebounding and playing defense. COACH WILLIAMS: I think he's been doing that all year, not just since Ty -- I think when Ty, we had lost 11 or 12 points a game, and we didn't get that and Tyler did and Wayne did it, but Wayne was already our second-leading scorer I think before Ty went down. But I think it's been a natural maturation for him throughout this entire off-season, whether it's the spring, summer, fall, trying to do a better job putting the ball on the floor so people cannot play his outside shot. I've definitely stayed on him eight great deal with his rebounding and he's done a better job with his assist ratio and I think he's worked extremely hard to become a more complete basketball player, and not just in the time period since Ty got hurt, but I think he started doing that earlier in the season. Q. I asked Ellington and what he would call your style, and he said 40 minutes of fun; would you agree? COACH WILLIAMS: Well, I like that, because what I hope it is is 40 minutes of fun for us and 40 minutes of the other for somebody else. We played Arkansas in '91, and Nolan, again, who is a great friend of mine, a guy I have a great deal of admiration for and he said it's going to be 40 minutes of hell and I said, no, it's going to be 80 because we are going to run back at you. That's the way it was, we were down by 14 at the half and won by 14 and to go on to the next rounds of the -- and as a matter of fact that was to go to the Final Four. I do think that we are going to try to continue putting pressure, and to me that is fun, being aggressive and pressuring people and not just betting up and playing a full-court trap or anything like that. But I like to think that when you play us, we will keep you on your toes and if you relax, we will hurt you and hopefully that relentless approach is something that we'll always have. Q. Can you talk about Danny Green's progression this year and do you feel with the big-name players, he gets lost in terms of recognition for you guys? COACH WILLIAMS: Well, Danny has been huge for us. He started off great, first 12, 14, 15 games and then he had a stretch where he struggled a little bit and he's really comeback alive down the stretch. He had a very good game yesterday, but he's been extremely important to us. He doesn't get the recognition that Tyler or Wayne or Ty won gets, but I would hate to think what our team would be without him. We had a great comeback, we're down at 11 with three minutes to play or whatever it is against Clemson and Danny started comeback with two 3s, bang, bang. He has a great deal of respect for his teammates and coaching staff and the people that follow North Carolina basketball know how important he is to us. Q. What do you remember about the Arkansas Carolina game May 4, the last game that you played with Carolina was No. 1? COACH WILLIAMS: Jonesborough (ph), Arkansas, we were 21-0, had the last shot to win the game, some guy named Jordan went the wrong way on the play and Steve Hale got a shot from the corner and missed it; not that I remember everything, but I remember that day pretty clearly. Alvin Robertson, boy, was he good that day. I just thought he was sensational that day. We had lost Kenny Smith after the 17th game against LSU when he had an under-cut and broke his wrist and won four more and stayed No. 1. The people from Arkansas were out in full force with a great deal of enthusiasm. It was a great atmosphere. Q. It was Pine Bluff. COACH WILLIAMS: You're right, Jonesborough (ph), that's Catfish Cabin. Seriously, if you go there, try Catfish cabin. It was Pinebluff, Arkansas, I apologize. Q. Does Arkansas reminds you of any other team that you've played this year? COACH WILLIAMS: You know, I had not thought about that and I'm hesitating to see if I can think of somebody. It doesn't jump out at me. But that's not a negative or a positive either one. It's just sometimes my brain doesn't work very well. But their athleticism and their size, their 6-10 guys are long, too. They are not 6-10 with really short arms. They are long guys. The depth they have, it's hard to try to pick out one team that we have played, particularly up front. Now I don't know if Steph, and I know he sprained his ankle yesterday, I don't know if he'll play so they don't have as much depth on the perimeter, but up front I have a hard time thinking of somebody that has that kind of athleticism, size and depth up front. Q. What specifically do you see him doing better? Where is his biggest area of improvement then? COACH WILLIAMS: It's a little bit of that same thing, where his confidence is so much that he really does it in every way; defensively, he's far superior to where he was two months ago. His ability to take the ball to the basket with confidence is so much different than it was two months ago. His outside shot, he's making because he's so much more confident. I keep going back to that. I think he's finally -- he's faced so much adversity with two surgeries, numerous injuries, tough deals. It had not done very easy for him. But I think the confidence factor is finally allowing him to believe he is good as he is and has been. Q. Where do they compare with Clemson in terms of pace and big bodies down low? COACH WILLIAMS: Clemson's press is more aggressive, trying to steal your basketball. Arkansas has two presses, one that they are trying to steal the ball and the other they are trying to slow you down a little bit. Because yeah, they do try to play the full court. They do try to change the defenses on you. So I guess that would probably be the closest comparison. But like I said, I had not thought about it very much, but they would probably be the closest. End of FastScripts |
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