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EA SPORTS MAUI INVITATIONALNovember 21, 2012Reggie BullockJames Michael McAdooRoy WilliamsLAHAINA, HAWAII North Carolina – 112 COACH WILLIAMS: Needless to say, it's a better feeling right now than we had last night. But last night's game had a great effect on how we played today. We were all extremely upset and extremely mad, however you want to describe it. But really wanted to focus on today's game and have a different energy level. I think we did. But we were more gifted than they are too. I felt badly for Eric. He really does a nice job with his team, but we were sharing the basketball tonight. I thought at halftime we had 17 assists out of 26 baskets, I think or 24 baskets. And four or five of those were steals and breakaway lay‑ups where you cannot have an assist. So we had 17 assists out of 19 baskets. Second half I still thought we passed it very well, but didn't have as many assists listed by them. But for us, it does make you feel better, but you also have that hurt that you know you didn't play as well as you wanted to play all three days. We didn't get what we wanted out of the tournament, because we wanted to win the championship. We didn't get what we wanted because we wanted to get better every day, and we didn't do that. Still I feel really happy for our guys right now, and I feel sad for Eric, because I think he does a nice job and he's got a good club. It just happened that they caught us on a bad night for them. THE MODERATOR: Reggie, James, any thoughts on the game? REGGIE BULLOCK: For me, I just felt like we shared the ball well and tried to pick up the defensive intensity, even though they were getting a lot of open looks for us not containing the ball. On the dribble drive that was kicking out to open man on the three‑point shot, we've got to do a better job at that. They're a great three‑point shooting team. They always get some open looks. Other than that, I felt like our team tried to be better on the defensive end of the floor and try to rebound better and take our anger out from last night how we played as a team. JAMES MICHAEL McADOO: A lot like what Reggie and Coach were saying, trying to refocus and come back today ready to play, knowing that we still had another opportunity as a team to go out and play better. For us to go out there and get the victory, like Coach said, Chaminade is a great team, and they'll win a lot of ballgames this year. Sorry to beat them that bad, but we were really trying to go out there and get better as a team. Q. Reggie, I think four of you had at least two three‑pointers. When each of you is hitting like that, does that fuel everybody else? For James Michael, how does the three‑point shooting when they're going down, how does that benefit you in the post? JAMES MICHAEL McADOO: For me, I came out shooting the ball well in the first come minutes of the game. So once I get going, my teammates are knocking down shots and it gives them confidence that I can knock down shots and pull the trigger.  Our big men expect us to shoot the ball if we're wide open. But if we got a contested jumpshot, I definitely got it down low. But I felt like our big man believed in us to take shots and make them and that's what we're trying to do to build confidence in everybody. REGGIE BULLOCK: When our premier players are making threes, it makes it a lot easier. I know for me and the other big guys. First off, when we don't have to score the ball, it makes the game a lot easier when they're knocking down threes. It just helps us when we do need to establish the inside presence. We just have so much more time and room to operate when they're spacing out the floor and having to draw a defender. Q. Reggie and James Michael, five games in, how would you characterize this? This is where you are as a team, and the next game is at No. 1 Indiana. How prepared do you think y'all are for that? REGGIE BULLOCK: As a team, I feel like we've been growing through the first five games. There are still areas that we need improvement on, and that's what we have practice for. I felt like we've been growing as a team. Everybody just still trying to find out their role. It just starts in practice with us doing the things that we do as a team being able to perform on game night. JAMES MICHAEL McADOO: Like Reggie said, we're right where we want to be, but we have so much room for improvement. And that will just come with putting the time in. A lot of that comes in situations like kind of yesterday where we didn't really show up ready to play. But we'll have to look back and learn from those type of experiences and look forward to our next game. But more importantly, these practices coming up where we kind of take the time and hit the drawing board and learn from our mistakes and get better as a team. Q. For both of you guys, this is day seven on this road trip. Has this been beneficial in terms of team chemistry, team bonding that kind of thing? REGGIE BULLOCK: It's been great, besides the homework part and being away from school. But we've been doing a lot of team bonding. Like tomorrow, we'll have time as a team to do a lot of team bonding. We'll have Thanksgiving together. So I feel like this trip was great for us to get away from school. Still do school work, but we're definitely doing a lot of team bonding. COACH WILLIAMS: We had one guy have to take a test. So they can still work on the academic side. JAMES MICHAEL McADOO: I think the team bonding is awesome. I just feel like team bonding is a weird word to use. We're all brothers. We love each other and fight all the time. But it was definitely a great opportunity. I think Coach said it was a nine‑game road trip. Just being away has been hard on our bodies, but it's been a great opportunity not only to get closer to each other but to our coaching staff, really being able to learn about each other. Q. I was going to ask you what is something you learned about, one of the freshmen or upperclassmen that you might not have known about those guys before spending so much time on the road with them? JAMES MICHAEL McADOO: One thing was really funny about Joel was his choice of music. Wherever we went, he would listen to‑‑ like we were in California, he would listen to Tupac and California Rappers. Then we got here, and he was listening to ukulele music and weird music. But that's just Joel. REGGIE BULLOCK: For me, I would probably say Brice. I think to me, part of being a player and part of this team, I feel like he tried to fit in with the upperclassmen. He was trying to be with the upperclassmen and all that. That's what I felt like. He just tried to fit in. COACH WILLIAMS: They learn I can't explode. Because my first explosion here was last night, first time out. JAMES MICHAEL McADOO: That's true. Rest in peace to that clipboard. COACH WILLIAMS: Yeah, we have to have a second clipboard. Does anybody else have a question for the guys because I'd like to let them go see some family out there. Is that all right? Q. I asked you before about your team in the West Coast Swing? COACH WILLIAMS: We're responding pretty well in a tough situation. I think that was good for us. I also think that they understood what we were talking about all the negatives that we had last night and they were willing to try to work on them. I think we found out that going small sometimes might be one of our better lineups, particularly on the offensive end of the court. We played P.J. today as a four. We played J.P as a four. Only had one post player in there. So I think that might help us down the line as well. But I think each and every day trying to practice and go through the games and teach. And at halftime, we were still teaching. At the end of the game when I put Code Blue and Jackson in the game, I had Joel out there and I was talking to him still trying to teach. So I do believe most coaches feel the same way. We're teachers and still trying to teach regardless what the score is so we have more opportunities. Q. Can you talk about what went into the decision to help Brice and how he handled his first start? COACH WILLIAMS: We've done some different things. We started Desmond maybe every game, but I'm not positive about that. We started somebody different in the second half three of the five previous games. We thought Brice did a better job than any of the other guys in the games. It was a tremendous hatch‑up problem because you look at their starting lineup, and they list four guards in the four. So it's hard to match‑up and use our big guys. When we had John and Tyler Hansbrough, and Zeller and all those guys, we didn't mind them going out and chasing little guys around on the court, because those little guys couldn't guard them on the other end. So it might be a match‑up problem for them on one end. Like it was for us on the other. Right now, with Joel catching the ball, making a quick decisive, and moving the post was not like Tyler Hansbrough. So match‑up concerns was part of the reason to go for Brice was well. You look down, 7 for 8 from the floor, two blocked shots and everybody should be pleased with that. He is going to get better and better. He's just got to increase the intensity and tempo of his own game, because right now his intensity level is different from what I visualize. Q. Luke was 7‑1, is he starting to prove to you to be a valuable option there? COACH WILLIAMS: He gave us a little lift last night in the game when he was in there with that group. Luke works on it on so, so hard. I'm tough on point guards. It wasn't just that Marcus's back was bothering him. So I went with Marcus, and didn't play him after that. He tweaked it a little bit in last night's game and just didn't feel good today. Having Luke to get extra minutes is going to be something that will help us down the line. Not like it had to last year. Remember last year we were starting the game to go to in the Final Four. We had our third or fourth point guard, and back‑up power forward. So we've got to have some guys that can get some minutes at the point guard spot. Q. It obviously doesn't get any easier next with Indiana on that road trip. How prepared do you think you are for that? What will be the practice schedule leading into that? COACH WILLIAMS: There is no way we're prepared for that. Until you're there, you don't know what you want to face. Long Beach was a very enthusiastic crowd, but it's nothing like we'll face in Indiana. Long Beach, they came in from the beach to watch the game. Indiana they've been camping out for three days, that kind of thing. The intensity level of the crowd and the emotion will be different. It will be a game that they probably have been looking to their schedule for quite a while. We're not going to practice tomorrow. We're not going to practice on Friday, and I think the game is Tuesday. We'll practice Monday night and go up there. Q. Coach, any final thoughts on your trip to Maui? COACH WILLIAMS: It's a fantastic experience. I've been here five times now. Every time I've left I've asked to come back four years now. I hope they'll let us come back. We went to Kansas and had a great experience this year. Won one, lost another one, and we've been here three times with NorthCarolina. When I make out my schedule and people call us about all these tournaments, every four years I'm going to go to Maui, and I won't give that to anybody. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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