Dec. 27, 2007
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North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
North Carolina vs. Nevada
Opening statement:
"On the court it was a really good night for us. We played pretty well in the first half and then at the start of the second half we were very efficient offensively in terms of turnovers into made baskets. We shoot 64 percent in the second half and missed some that we could have made as well, but you sort of lose the thrill when you see a kid like Bobby Frasor who's a little gym rat, who does everything in the world to make himself the best player he can possibly be and thinks about the team first every time, talks to the guys [on the court] when he's on the bench.
He's like a coach over there. I don't know what he wants to do, but if he decides that he wants to be a coach, he's going to be a great coach because he has tremendous savvy. He can handle this. It's not going to be easy. It's not easy for any of us right now. I told the team it should put things in perspective that every day you don't take things for granted. Everyday you do the best you can do and enjoy that day because you never know what's coming around the corner. I also told him he could have gotten hit by a car in the parking lot and torn his ACL that way. He's got a wonderful group of teammates that'll try to help him. He's got a group of coaches that truly love him. I hate to see somebody who has really made himself into a much better athlete than he was when he got here, has taken whatever has been given to him and he's tried to do the best with it. I was scared to death when I was walking off the court with him. I told him it was a cheap trick to get a standing ovation. I was scared to death, but I was trying to make some comments that would be funny.
In the game I thought that we were good defensively again and offensively we were really efficient. I thought Ty Lawson was really good. It's not a very big deal about Wayne [Ellington]. He didn't start because he didn't get back from Philadelphia yesterday. He had some problems with the machines trying to check in. [...] He had missed his flight. [...] It's no big deal. I told him it wasn't a big deal. He admitted that he should have gotten there earlier, and at the same time he didn't practice yesterday. It's hard to start someone when they don't practice the day before. I thought he handled it very very well. The other team handled it. I realized that by starting Danny [Green] that the crowd didn't get to watch him dance so I probably should have gotten somebody else out there. Wayne played really well coming off the bench. He really concentrated and did what he's supposed to do. Marcus [Ginyard] had a tough job trying to guard [Marcelus] Kemp because he's really good. I thought he did a nice job. We knew [Kemp] was going to score. We tried to hold his percentage down. He was 7 for 21."
On the improved on the ball defense in the second half:
"I just told them to do a better job staying in the front of the ball. I'd like to give some coaching credit, but it wasn't. We did say that we wanted to keep the ball out of the middle. [Marcelus] Kemp would much rather drive up the middle of the court. In the second half we tried to emphasize sideline more with him. [Quentin Thomas] got beat right down the middle one time. Ty [Lawson] got beat down the middle with five seconds on the shot clock and jumped up, if he stays on the ground they have to jump over him to shoot it. I think we did a better job defensively in the second half. The big guys did a little bit better putting pressure on their guys when they got it to them."
Nevada Head Coach Mark Fox
On what to take from this game:
"We lost to a great team, but we need to grow up. I think it shows that there are some areas we can improve on. There's no shame losing to Carolina, but we didn't play our best basketball and you have to give Carolina credit for causing that."
On how to improve the reaction to a press:
"Well I think it was the half court pressure that they applied all game long that they're known for. It was the last minute of the first half and the first two minutes of the second half and they were able to really separate. You have to have a little more poise in those situations."
On how the Wolf Pack came out strong:
"Well we came to win. They didn't play well enough to win, but we came to win. But, we got beat and we got soundly beat."
On Armon Johnson who had a career high:
"We were having a tough time running our offense because of their defensive pressure. So, we went to some situations that called for Armon and he was able to finish some play and had a nice scoring night."
