	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NIT POSTSEASON

April 1, 2010

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK

ROY WILLIAMS: It's a tough feeling right now, there's no question about that. It's been an unusual year for North Carolina basketball and been an unusual year for Deon Thompson, Roy Williams. I've lived a charmed life in the past, and this has been a little tougher.
I'm so proud of our guys for coming to play in this National Invitation Tournament and playing so well up until today and getting us to this point.
We just didn't finish the job. Have to congratulate Dayton. I thought Brian's club was so active and so -- the intensity level was so high that you just have to congratulate them. We made a nice run early in the second half and just could never get over the hump. We got it to two and missed a pretty good shot and they would make a three on the other ends and I don't think we ever got it to within five. We would get a stop, I think three out of four possessions we got them to miss the first shot and chased down a long rebounder, battled for the loose ball and got the loose ball. It's hard to give a team as good as Dayton second opportunities.
Told the kids in the locker room, it's the worst feeling as a coach because you are so inadequate to what you can say and take away, the pain and the sorrow that you have. But I've lived a charmed life because I'm doing what I want to do.
Deon Thompson, Marcus Ginyard, senior walk-ons, but especially Deon and Marcus because of the relationship that I have with them, it's made Roy Williams a better person. It also makes it harder, there's no question about that. It makes it harder right now to know that you are not going to be able to coach these youngsters anymore.
I've been very lucky in my life to coach people like Deon and Marcus and hopefully, Lord willing, I'll be able to continue doing it. He's probably got more important things to think about than what Roy is doing, but congratulate Dayton. Love their intensity and enthusiasm and how hard they have played. We have had teams like that in the past that have played really, really hard and very talented. Also I think we started playing hard once we got in this NIT. But I'm a lucky, lucky guy because I've coached Deon and Marcus.

Q. Now that you've played these last five games, what did it mean to you to be able to play these extra five games in the NIT when you didn't know three weeks ago if you would be able to?
DEON THOMPSON: It starts with the coach, just the fact that he would allow us -- even though a lot of things didn't go our way this season and every day he continued to show up with the attitude that we are going to work. He gave us no other options but to continue to work, and so it started right there. And it just continued to trickle down and guys continued to work and we just went on a little run here and didn't end the way we wanted it to.

Q. When did it hit you it was your final game?
DEON THOMPSON: I think on the bus ride over here, it started to set in a little bit that it was the last time I'm going to wear this jersey. I have a lot of good memories and I've been blessed to wear this jersey and all of the things I've been able to do over my four years.

Q. Is it a little weird to wear that jersey as a home team, the designated home team?
DEON THOMPSON: You mean the home team?
ROY WILLIAMS: We were the away team. That was an unusual question.

Q. Being that that's your last game as a senior, what's your plan going into next season, is it the draft or continuing in basketball?
DEON THOMPSON: Definitely it's been a dream for me to play basketball on a college level. Being a kid from Torrance, California, when I was 15, I never really thought that I would be here in this place where I'm at now, being able to see the things that I've seen and played and the places I've been able to play.
I'm definitely just going to continue to chase the dream.

Q. Can you talk about what you said at halftime, you came out with the 12-1 run and got back in the game early in the second half?
ROY WILLIAMS: I told them I was disappointed in how tough we were in the first half. I told them they were much more intense than they were but there was still 20 minutes left to play. But I thought if we came out and played with the intensity and sense of urgency that we needed to that we would get right back in the game.
And we did. We got right back in the game, and we just never got over the hump. We had one straight stretch there, I think we had three turnovers out of four possessions, and those kind of things always kill you.
But you know, it was a nice run and I've always felt like with my teams, we always come back and I believed that since we started and I'll believe that in my last breath. But Dayton made some plays, and like I say, we got it to two and missed a good shot and they made a three and they really showed a lot of intensity and effort chasing down the long rebounds and loose balls. We couldn't get them -- we couldn't get stops by just giving them one shot. They would make two or three shots and we would eventually make one.

Q. What do you think just getting to this game, will that ultimately change your outlook on the season when you look back?
ROY WILLIAMS: Probably. That's a hard question this soon after the game. No disrespect intended for the NIT. I mean, I love the people involved, the old coaches -- they don't want to be called former coaches but they are all old, let's be honest. I'm with them; I'm just not retired yet.
My dreams and goals are not to play in the NIT, and that's not any disrespect intended and I hope people don't take it that way. It's not what my dreams and goals are.
I'll have to wait and see. This was the hardest year I've ever had coaching, there's no question about that. I didn't do a very good job with this team and that is hard for a coach to say, but I can say it because I believe it. Time will tell.
I know this run was extremely important to me because it gave Marcus and Deon a better feel; it showed our kids the sense of urgency necessary to be successful. I love this run because it showed the effort and resolve and positive things that happen, and I think that was extremely important to me. So, from that viewpoint, I'm going to appreciate what we learned from it.

Q. Considering how this season went, and you're very competitive, how long do you give yourself before you start looking at the future, whatever that is, be it looking at next year's team or getting back to the grind?
ROY WILLIAMS: We'll start that tomorrow. That's the way I did it in '05 and '09 -- that's the way I did in '05 and '09 when our team won a National Championship. It's the next day, you start trying to think about what your program is going to be and what you want it to be. So we'll address a lot of that.

Q. The Atlanta Ten will always be overshadowed by the BIG EAST; you seem like two of the better teams in the last 72 hours; what did you see?
ROY WILLIAMS: I don't know about the Conference but I know quite a bit -- is that a stats sheet on one page?
Still, New York is the only page you can go to to get stat sheets on two pages, front and back.
Again, I'm not trying to dodge the question but I can't speak for the Conference but I can speak for Rhode Island had us scared to death and we felt very, very fortunate to beat them. I was scared to death playing Dayton because I loved how hard they played. I loved the pace of their play. I loved their intensity. I loved their unselfishness. You know, we knew they were really good. They beat Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech beat us three times.
Again, I'm not trying to avoid your question, but I can speak for those two teams. They were big-time teams, and some people beat them regularly; I'm glad we don't play those other people regularly.

Q. This could be the last NIT game ever in this postseason. Do you think there should be a larger NCAA Tournament and would college basketball miss the NIT?
ROY WILLIAMS: You know, I usually don't sit on the fence but I have no direct confident feeling about going to 96 teams or not. If you like 96 teams, you can talk about all of the good teams and so many good players and there's a team like a Dayton that could make a great run in the other tournament, as well and I'm going to walk away from it and say, yeah, he's right.
And someone else could say, God, the tournament with 65 teams is so special. I make every football coach in America mad because in football, you can go 6-6 and go to a Bowl game. But 65 teams is something special. And somebody else could say you don't want to lose that. The regular season will mean so much more with the 65 teams.
So when I walk away from that person, I would say he was right, too. So there's a split feeling in my mind. I don't know what's best. I just know there's a lot of great basketball -- back up. There's a lot of really good basketball teams and those kind of kids enjoy playing in tournaments, and if you could have a tournament that you don't commercialize it any more, miss more class, do all of those things and get 96 teams involved, who knows, maybe it will be better. But what we have is pretty doggone good right now.
Now the NIT, I don't know if it will go the way of the elephant or whatever if they add 96 or whatever, I have no idea. Right now just trying to be very positive about the dag-gum sun coming up tomorrow morning.

End of FastScripts

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297