UNC's Roy Williams: "You Have To Congratulate Them"
North Carolina head coach Roy Williams discussed the loss to NC State with the media after the game.
Opening Statement:
I congratulate Kevin and his staff. They’ve really done a nice job. Their club has gotten better and better as the season has gone on. Yurtseven is really a threat. He challenges every shot on the inside. He scores inside and also defends inside. It’s difficult.
You’ve also got to congratulate Allerick... seven for seven from the three-point line is pretty good. Also Markell with 11 assists and three turnovers. That’s good basketball, too. You’ve got to congratulate them.
I’m not pleased with the way we played. We missed a bunch of free throws in the second half and in the overtime. We missed some layups and turned it over two times during crucial times in the game. We almost had a miraculous steal there and sort of panicked. I put the biggest guy we’ve got on the ball to make the inbounds pass a little bit more difficult. The ball comes to him, he’s a freshman and sort of panicked a little bit, but that’s on me, not on him.
We got 4-for-19 (from three), with Luke making three of them and Andrew making one. We’ve got to shoot the ball better, we’ve got to defend better. We out rebound them 48-34, but they outscored us on second-chance points, 22-18. So we’ve got to finish more of our opportunities and defend around the rim more than we’re doing right now. That’s about it guys.
What is the most correctable issue?
I think making shots would definitely help. There’s no question about that. We’ve got to cut down on their second shot opportunities. One big possession... they miss, Yurtseven gets the rebound and I think that put them up three... so we’ve got to finish the defense by getting a better box out and getting the ball.
I think also the execution down the stretch, you can’t have two turnovers in three possessions when it's a one-possession game.
You talked at Virginia Tech about wanting more free throws, but you missed some free throws...
It’s a six-point lead and we had already missed some free throws at that point. They make two threes in a row and then we come down and miss a free throw again after that. We’ve been a good free throw shooting team when we get there, but we missed some opportunities today, there’s no question.
Why were they able to hit 15 3's? Was it more of your defense or them hitting?
I think it’s a little bit of both. We gave them too many open looks. Andrew, when he was in there, really came out and challenged great, but it still went in. Allerick had one that we really challenged, and it still went in.
It gets hard to go seven-for-seven when there’s no defense on the court, and you’ve got to congratulate them. If I had to pick one thing, I’d say we have to do a heck of a lot better job defending the three-point shot.
Were you relatively pleased with your second half offense?
The only thing is that you turn it over six times in the first half, eight in the second half, and a couple of them were crucial times. Theo’s drive and Cam’s drive... you don’t like those things. You don’t like giving them second-shot opportunities and you don’t like giving them open threes. We started switching the ball screen, and it worked great and then Braxton Beverly makes a three, so it wasn’t very good on that possession.
Theo Pinson did a lot more today than against Va. Tech...
I thought at times he was sensational. It would have been great if he could have made a play on that time on the break when he lost it out of bounds, but 22 points and 15 rebounds is sensational. If he hadn’t been in foul trouble he probably would have done even more.
Yet those one or two plays at the end always stand out.
I thought he was sensational. If you've got Luke, and Yurtseven is on Luke, then he’s got to go out and play him a little bit. That opens up the lane a little bit, and I thought Theo did a great job of driving to the basket. I was more pleased with how active he was because in the Virginia Tech game it wasn’t just two shots, he was just walking around and wasn’t very active. Today I thought he was really active.
If I told you that you would be 5-4 after nine ACC games?
I would have been discouraged... I just want to play better. That’s my whole thing. I don’t think we've moved as well as we need to on offense.
A lot of times when we’ve been really good you need a shot that when we shoot it and it goes in. We had Cam wide open in the corner one time and you just knew it was going in and it didn’t. Then you had Theo at the free throw line shooting 80 percent and you knew that was going in, and it just didn’t.
We’re not ready to panic or abandon the ship or anything like that. After we lost one game, we won four in a row before Virginia Tech. We’ve got to play better.
How much does the three-point defense have to do with stopping dribble penetration?
They play four guys who can really handle the ball, and they create and have great spacing and penetrate. They played well.
You better ask Kevin, he has a better evaluation of his team, but I watched parts of three of their games, and they’re so much different than they were early in the year. Yurtseven has just given them another dimension.
Allerik was 7-for-7, a lot of really good players can go out there with no defense and not go 7-for-7. You have to congratulate them.