Feb. 10, 2004
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– North Carolina head coach Roy Williams
“Tough night. I don’t think either team played very well in the first half. I know we didn’t. We didn’t compete as well as we wanted to. We got frustrated. I did too much yelling. It’s my first technical back in the ACC and I wish I was going to be able to say more if I was going to get a technical. In the first half, I think Rashad is 1 for 7, Sean is 1 for 8, we were 1 for 8 from the foul line and still we were only down five points because Paul’s club wasn’t playing as well as he wanted, either. At that point, I told our guys that we ought to feel happy that we were only down 5. You can’t do that kind of thing against a very good team on their home court. If you have a chance to catch them when they are not playing well, you better play well yourself and try to get some cushion. We came out in the second half, made some shots, went to a zone and they missed some shots, and we got right back there and then all of a sudden BJ just started making every shot he looked at. I told him after the game ‘that’s about as good of a performance as I’ve ever seen’ and I grabbed Paul out there and told him that he ought to be awfully proud of his team because we made such a significant run at them and they didn’t get frustrated, they didn’t get harassed, didn’t start bickering – they just kept playing. It does give you a good feeling off the bench when a guy like BJ starts making shots like that. The other thing is that we had a chance, but didn’t miss many free throws. They are 15th in the country and 18-5 for a reason but at times we are really good but the problem we’ve had is trying to be really good for 40 minutes and in this league, you can’t do it for 20 and expect to win.”
Have you learned anything from playing three ranked teams in a matter of six days?
“First thing I’ve learned is that it’s not very good scheduling. My team didn’t have anything to do with that, but in this league you are going to have stretches like that. I think Duke and UNC are the only two teams that have had to play three games in a six day stretch so the schedule didn’t fall very fortunate for us. We had a quick Thursday/Saturday turn-around and then had to come here. The last two have been on the road against three very good teams but we played better against Duke and better against Wake Forest than we did tonight. There’s no walk-overs in this league and you’ve got to be ready to play every single night. If you are not on top of your game you are not going to win because there are no Saint Mary’s Sisters of the Blind in this league.”
On going to a zone defense:
“The zone tonight was due to the fact that we weren’t doing a good job stopping their dribble penetration. At the half, they were 7 for 14 from three point line and it’s only because we weren’t doing a good job of stopping the dribble and somebody was having to come off the screen and help and they’d throw it to them so I went to the zone to see if we could stop the dribble penetration.”
Georgia Tech head coach Paul Hewitt
“I hope you all enjoyed that game because I found myself getting caught up in it. A couple of shots that B.J. made, a couple of shots that McCants made and of course, Isma’il’s dunk. I’ll tell you what, in seven years as a head coach, I’ve never been caught so off guard; he came out of nowhere. You don’t want to hear what I said. I really hope people enjoyed that game. I’ve been talking about our crowd all year and how good they’ve been to us, so it was nice for us to finish out the game, making free throws. We got a great effort from B.J. Elder. And that was a very good team we played. And Rashad McCants -wow, he was tremendous. It’s a good win for our guys. I thought our defense was a big key. We held them to 40 percent, which is something we really try to shoot for and take a lot of pride in. I hope people recognize that this is a good defensive team. We’re number one right now in the league in field goal percentage defense and top five in the country. That’s something we take a great deal of pride in, and it’s one of the reasons why we’ve had the year that we’ve had so far. If we continue to play defense and rebound the ball, then we’ll continue to win basketball games.
[Did you say anything to B.J. in the second half] “I know well enough to stay out of his way. Defensively I thought we needed to tighten up on McCants. He’s such a good shooter, if he gets the slightest of room, he’s going to knock down the shot.
[On Elder] “We have placed a great deal of emphasis on setting screens for B.J., and also for Will Bynum. We really talk a lot about getting those guys open. On top of that, he’s just a great talent, so if you give him a little room, he can put up big numbers.
NOTING GEORGIA TECH: B.J. Elder’s 30 points are the second best figure of his career, bettered only by his 36-point effort against Clemson two weeks ago. Elder had 20 points in Saturday’s win over Tennessee for the best two-game total of his career (previous: 46 last season vs. Tennessee, 21; and Troy State, 25). Elder’s seven three-pointer are also a career best . . . Luke Schenscher had a career-best five blocked shots, and Tech finished with a season-high 11 blocks . . . Tech’s 13 three-pointers were a season-high . . . Tech is now 11-1 at home and has won 26 of its last 29 games at home . . . Tech has won the last three meetings with UNC at home.
GEORGIA TECH PLAYERS
On making the free throws down the stretch “I just tried to relax, follow through and do the same thing every time.”
On managing the game in the final 5 minutes “With five minutes to go we just tried to get a good shot every time down the floor. Just take time off the clock and make sure we got a good shot.”
On the physical play of the game “I don’t think we were tired, I just think it’s late in the season. I cannot believe we were tired because we do so much running, I just can’t see us getting tired.”
On the emotion of the building “It was great, it’s always great playing at the Coliseum.”
On going head-to-head with Rashad McCants “It was just both of us out there competing. We both have a lot of respect for one another and we have played against each other before, so we know how to step up our games.”
“I don’t think I thought about it, but I was aware of it. In the second half he kind of stuck his hand out and I slapped it, so we both were aware of what was going on out there.”
On feeling it out on the floor “When you’re feeling it like that you just want to get a good look at the basket and let it go.”
On stopping Carolina this time around “We stopped their transition offense a lot more this time around. They got some baskets off of it, but we really tried to get back and prevent the easy basket and force them to play half court offense.”
On the emotion of the building “It was just great, the fans were unbelievable. It’s been three or four games in a row that they have given us a big lift during the course of the game and made it difficult for the other team to play. It’s been a great atmosphere and it’s fun to be a part of it.”
On the wear-and-tear of the game “It was definitely up and down and I was really sucking wind there for a while. It was tough, [Sean] May was struggling too there and fighting with his injury and everything. We just stuck through it and the crowd kept us going.”
