Jan. 16, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery
– Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Hewitt
Opening Statement:
“I’ve got to give credit to our players. They made plays down the stretch. Felt we played with a great deal of intensity last Saturday and with some on Wednesday, but not enough, Virginia played with more. I felt today our guys really competed. They made plays down the stretch, because Carolina made some great plays and we responded, and it is obviously great to come out of here with a win.”
About the timeout
“Trying to run a little ball screen action. That helped us last week, that’s how we got the ball inside. Again, Zack just made the play, that’s exactly what I am talking about. In terms of not looking over to the bench, but trying to figure things out and try to out-smart people. Zack kept saying the whole game ‘I can take that guy,’ and at the end, he got his opportunity, and he did it.”
Describing his team withstanding a rally
“We are a good team. It is a matter of them understanding. We are dealing with young guys. We have four freshmen and two sophomores in the top six rotation. Especially the freshmen – like Brian Oliver, he is very talented, but I don’t think he understands how hard you have to play at this level. The Virginia game was a big eye-opener for him. He came off a nice game against Duke, then Virginia they jumped him right out of the door. I saw in practice the last couple of days he had much more serious presence to him when he got on the floor. The shot he made at the end of the game is indicative of his talent, but in order for him to be on the floor he has to do other things.”
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement:
“There’s not much to say. I said congratulations to [Georgia Tech head coach] Paul [Hewitt]. In college basketball you have one team that feels great at the end and one team that doesn’t feel very well. We were so tentative and tight early on it was unbelievable. I tried to give them confidence, and that’s hard to do, but it was unusual basketball playing for us in the first half. I felt like we had a chance to win the game and [Zachery] Peacock made a nice shot. We didn’t do the best job defending the play at first, and he had to make the shot over a couple of guys’ hands. They made the shot, and we came down and Larry had a contested layup and a tip. We would have liked to gotten one better; there’s no question about that. Then it took us an awfully long time to foul, and we only had one timeout left. We had wasted three timeouts during the game in my opinion.
“I told Will that was big-time for him in the second half and I’m very proud of him. I’ve been on his case for years, and deservedly so, and I said it like that as well and he understands that. He was so competitive and making shots, too, but I just loved his competitiveness. We felt like we had to do a great job with their big guys but Iman [Shumpert] was just sensational. We didn’t do a great job on Derrick [Favors] or Gani [Lawal] or [Peacock] but [Shumpert’s] 30 was what really killed us.”
On Lack of Confidence:
“I’m not used to coaching Jayhawk basketball or Tar Heel basketball without any confidence. We’ve put ourselves in this spot, and we’ve got to figure out a way to get out of it. We can go belly up but I choose not to do that and I told them that in the locker room. We have a Special Olympics clinic tomorrow, and we’ll do a great job with that, and then have a great practice on Monday and try to get better.”
On key play of the game:
“Probably the key play of the game was when we got it out of bounds and throw it in, and they get a jump ball with Ed [Davis]. We were supposed to go into the back court to get the ball, and we didn’t do a good job setting the screen, we didn’t do a good job using the screen, we didn’t go into the backcourt, and we didn’t get it to the point guard, which is what we wanted. They still had to make a good play, and they made a good play, and we didn’t make a good play, and then it’s their possession. Needless to say that was in my mind a big play in the game.”
Key Factor for second half comeback:
“I think the dominant thing was a greater sense of urgency. We started talking about turnovers early in the season, and we’re still talking about them.”
When the hesitancy and lack of confidence originated:
“I think probably the [College of] Charleston game. In the Charleston game everything that could go wrong did go wrong. A guy dribbles the ball off his foot, it bounces back to another guy, he passes it to another guy, and he makes the toughest three I’ve ever seen anybody make in terms of being guarded. We didn’t execute in that game, and that shook us more than anything.”
On ACC play:
“In the ACC people don’t give you wins, in the ACC you have to play, you have to take things, you have to compete, and you have to compete with your brain.”
On future practice strategy:
“You don’t try to kill people. I could kill Tyler Hansbrough, and he didn’t care because he thought he was better than you today, tomorrow, next month, next year, and if you came back in the second half, he thought he was going to beat you then, too. We’ve got to work on things and we’ve got to concentrate better. I don’t think I can get out Doc Allen’s book or Coach Smith’s book and find any secrets, but we’re just going to have to work at it.”
