Wake Forest Athletics
NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament
3/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 18, 2007
Press Conference Quotes
March 17, 2007
North Carolina vs. Michigan State
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening statement
We are happy as we can possibly be. We showed a tremendous amount of toughness tonight. We talked to our kids about being physically aggressive, mentally tough and being aggressive with the basketball. Once they made their run early in the second half, after about six or eight minutes into the second half I thought it was our best defensive performance of the year. I didn't take Tywan or Tyler out of the game the entire second half, they played the whole time. The only reason I called time out was to give them a breather. Reyshawn had migraine headaches all day and at pregame we didn't know [if he's going to play]. I felt like if we could get him in the game, he'd sweat it out a little bit and he was sensational in the second half. It's extremely hard to get the ball inside against
Were you concerned about Reyshawn not playing?
After I saw him play a few minutes my only fear was that he was going to run out of gas, so we kept running people in and out to try to give him some more breaks. One of the timeouts I took I told him that I didn't have anything to tell him, I just wanted to give you a breather.
Talk about
He is a physical player, but he's got great touch. He's worked so hard that he has made himself more athletic than people imagined. That touch is a gift and that stamina comes from how he works so hard all the time.
Talk about
I was happy when he took it off because I though psychologically that would give him a little bit of a boost.
Would you say this was your best game to date?
We've played pretty doggone well sometimes. If you asked Lute Olson he'll tell you the best game I ever coached was this year at
Address your team's toughness and maturity.
Toughness can be described in a lot of different ways. I think toughness is the willingness to run around those screens all the time. They set a million screens tonight and our guys were tough enough to keep going and not give in. Toughness is not just aggressive play, its aggressive attitude. The toughness issue is not just are you the toughest guy in the neighborhood, but mentally how tough are you going to be to have that poise.
We can say that we've played 36 games and these guys are no longer freshmen and sophomores, but it is the first time half of our team has gone through this. From maturity level I think it gets better every single day. When you have experiences like this, it definitely makes you better.
Talk about Tywan's performance tonight.
When the other team gets something, we always wanted to attack. I don't ever want one of my teams to be hesitant, to be on their heels. Let's put the other team on their heels. We want to come after people. I said it when I recruited him, that for the way I want to play, Tywan Lawson has all the abilities I've ever wanted in a point guard. He's a tough little nut. He's stepped up and made big plays. He's defending better now than he was three weeks ago. His game has really developed in a lot of different areas.
Talk about how important it is to have big guys at this point in the season?
You need to have guards, but you need some inside scoring and you need to be able to get the other team in foul trouble. My own personal view is that you have to be able to attack the basket each and every round of the NCAA Tournament. I don't think you can say I'm going to shoot more 3-point shots and shoot a better percentage from the 3-point line. Fortunately we've got a guy that's awfully effective on the inside.
REYSHAWN TERRY
Talk about your performance in crunch time.
Once again the opportunity came and I felt comfortable with the shot that I took. It felt good and it went in.
How did you feel tonight and how did the migraines affect your play?
Earlier on it was kind of tough because every time I ran my head was banging a little bit but I tried not to think about it and just worry about the game. I knew once the game started and during the stretch of the game I tried to keep it out of my mind for the most part.
How bad would you have had to felt today to not play in this game?
I was thinking about that the whole time I was having headaches and stuff I was thinking to myself, Rey you have to play in this game, it could be your last game. Coach told me to try hard in your warm-up and let me know what your thoughts are. After warm-ups I told him, I want to play. Coach stuck me in there and played the whole game.
How are you feeling now and is this a chronic thing for you?
I am feeling good, we won this game. I don't get headaches like this that often. I guess its one of those days that everyone has. I fought it off and we won the game so I don't worry about the pain at all.
Do you think this may have been your team's most mature point of the year?
Brandan is always effective whether or not he is scoring or not. He is so long and he gives us a great defensive presents. If he is not scoring we always have guys that can step up and make the shots and it showed today. Tyler and Ty carried us for the most part, I made a couple shots down the stretch of the game but I definitely feel like our depth has been a big plus for us this year.
Do you feel like you have answered those who said UNC is not a tough team?
I think that we showed poise and composure. We got some defensive stops. We were pretty confident about getting defensive stops at the end of the game. I am pretty sure everybody else could see that. We are tough enough to get the job done. We have the philosophy of one game at a time. We let everybody else worry about what they have to worry about and we worry about what we have to worry about.
TYLER HANSBROUGH
Talk about the way you never gave up.
They were physical. I think movement was the key for me tonight and my teammates gave the ball inside which I felt comfortable with. I just felt like some of my shots were falling down.
What was your reasoning for taking the mask off?
It was in the first half. I think it may have been early to midway. I was frustrated, it was heating my face up, it sweats a lot and I just felt comfortable taking it off. It was one of those things where I was trying to wear it for this game and if we win and advance to the next game I would have taken it off anyway. I felt more comfortable with it off.
Does your offense wear teams down?
We do like to run a lot and it's tough. That's one of our keys. It's tough to run with us for forty minutes. I think it does wear some teams down but I think we could have worn some of their guards down and some of their big men gave us opportunities for Ty's penetration and things like that; some fast break points which were key.
What was uncomfortable with the mask?
It's one of those things that's like a little bee around your face that you try to slap away but it won't go away. I am not sure that's a good analogy.
What was it like playing inside?
The coaching staff said when we were going over scouting that they were tough and as a team we couldn't have any casual box-outs. I think we worked on it in that one practice and how ever many practices we had between games. It wasn't much, a short preparation but I think it was one of the keys that we came out and tried to rebound and we knew we had to box out in order to execute the way we wanted.
TY LAWSON
How did you defend Neitzel and how would you rate your performance against him on the defensive end?
Basically I was trying to challenge screens and stay in front of him. He is a great player. He knocked down big shots in crunch time. He is a great player and its tough to guard him.
How did you have the stamina to play 36 minutes and produce the way that you did?
I used the timeouts to catch my breath. Marcus and Wes helped me guard Neitzel. Guarding Travis Walton gave me my legs because he didn't do as much running around and stuff like that. It wasn't too hard to catch my breath.
On what this team means to Izzo and Marquise Gray's earlier tribute to Izzo:
This team to me means a ton, because they did give me everything they had. Marquise and I spent a lot of time the past couple of weeks (together). (Like) I kept telling all (of) you, I think he's a better player. His free-throw shooting - he really, really spent some time on (it). I thought he went to his jump-hook tonight, a shot that he hasn't shot, and I thought it was a good shot. We just couldn't keep him in the game. We've had some bizarre lineups this year. When I'm looking out on the court the last four minutes of the first half and I see things like Jake (Hannon) at the five and Raymar (Morgan) at the four, I had to start laughing. Then I looked at the five subs, that little hockey substitution that (UNC head coach) Roy (Williams) has there with his different line. I was proud and yet disappointed because I thought we made a couple of foolish fouls. As I've said all year, our margin for error is just so small that we just couldn't overcome some things.I appreciate that from Quise. I hope he loves me as much in a couple weeks because this team's going to work this summer. Earvin (Johnson) had a lot of great things to say at the pre-game meal in here and we're going to savor some of those.
On playing against UNC's Tyler Hansbrough:
I don't know if everybody knows it, but I've never seen a guy like him that has (such) good hands. He gets his fingernail on the ball, he keeps it. We had a kid, Zack Randolph, that was a lot like that. I think sometimes everybody expects everybody to have good hands, but that's one area that's his strength. I didn't realize he shot that well from the line, but his hands make him have the abilities (he has). Hands and balance are probably two things that he has superior to a lot of people. He's always on balance. He draws a lot of fouls. I thought some of them we were vertical on, but he does draw a lot of fouls. He's a heck of a player.
On having to play Drew Neitzel so much and the prospects of playing him less in 2007-08:
It was really sad when Travis (Walton) got his fourth foul. I don't know how many minutes were left, maybe nine or eight. That's when we started wavering. Drew had hit a couple of big threes, and all of a sudden, his legs just went. When he had to have the ball in his hands all the time, that takes more energy out you. I tell my team and I told Earvin (Johnson) that we're going to run more than his teams did. Everybody thinks of us just as a defensive team and (of our) rebounding. We got our tails kicked on the boards tonight, although with some of those bizarre lineups, we should have. I thought our execution on offense tonight was maybe as good as it's been all year. We have been trying to spend more time in the last couple weeks on our offense. We had a little practice time with everybody together and I think it's paid many dividends. We had some great back-door plays. We felt like if we could run good enough stuff and we could get some shots, we just ran out of gas to make them. Then we ran out of bodies. We really went through a stretch where we couldn't throw it inside because we had Quise and (Goran Suton) on the bench. Then they (UNC) just started pressing up. I'm looking forward to next year already. We have three guys coming in and we're going to have depth at the position that we had zero at this year. We're going to have speed at a position we had little of this year. We're going to start running when we get to the airport tomorrow and hopefully quit when we finish next year.
On Reyshawn Terry's strong second half for UNC:
The one three he hit late and then the two he hit over Neitzel were big shots. He made some big shots. .He had some energy. Everybody's playing 23-25 minutes, except for Hansbrough. I felt like he did what Lewis did for
On the prospects for next season with everybody returning:
We have the same dreams that probably a lot of fans have, that we could knock off
On the many defenders Drew Neitzel faced and his fatigue:
We talked about getting him a rest at the nine-minute mark and then let him go the stretch, (but) Travis (Walton) picked up his fourth foul. I just didn't have another guard I could put in. He was walking on his knees, as you say. (UNC's Ty Lawson) is that power driver like (Mateen) Cleaves was, except he has that warp speed. He is as impressive a guard as I've seen. We broke down. Our bigs did a great job of corralling, we call it corralling, all year long. We did a great job against
FRESHMAN FORWARD RAYMAR MORGAN
What was it like going up against a player like Tyler Hansbrough?
He's a very strong versatile player. I give him a lot of credit. He stepped up when his team needed him the most. He made plays.
Did Magic Johnson say anything in the locker room?
To work on our game over the summer and be ready to get back to this point.
Do you think it was an advantage for
It really wasn't that big of a factor for us. We've been playing big teams in their houses all year, so it was just another game.
JUNIOR GUARD DREW NEITZEL
Do you think it was an advantage for
Yeah, they did have a lot of fans here, but we're used to going up against those Big 10 arenas with packed houses every night. It wasn't a huge change for us. It got loud a few times, but definitely nothing like
Do you remember the last time you had this many quality shots in a game?
No, I've never had this many shots. My whole basketball career, I can probably say. I got a lot of open looks, and it felt good coming off my hand. That's my role on this team, to be the scorer and the go-to guy on offense. I tried my best to carry us and make big shots. We just came up a little short tonight.
Did it ever feel overwhelming with all of the fresh bodies that
Yeah, I think that was their gameplan coming in, to try to wear us down by sending fresh bodies at us and pressuring us trying to break us down a little bit. I think we did a good job of handling the pressure. We only had 10 turnovers, which is a low for us this season. That says a lot about our preparation going up a team that is as talented and athletic as
You said yesterday you guys have played at
I think we played our butts off. I think we left everything we had on the court. Like Coach said, we got in foul trouble. It limited our depth, especially inside. Travis (Walton) got into a little foul trouble. We just got worn down a little bit. But I'm proud of this team. It's a good group of guys, and we left everything we had on the court.
Did you want to slow the pace of the game down?
We didn't really talk about slowing the game down. We just talked about limiting their fast break, trying to get back and stop them from getting easy layups and penetration. Like I said, anytime you play a team like that, that's so athletic and can get up and down the court, it takes a lot out of you. It just took a toll on us the last 5-6 minutes of the game.
Can you reflect on what you guys accomplished this year and what are your expectations for next year?
I'm proud of these guys and the things that we've been through. From the very start of the season, people didn't expect us to have this type of a year....make the NCAA Tournament and win a game in the NCAA Tournament. We just fought a lot of adversity this season with a lot of injuries. We'd get a couple guys back and then another guy would be out with an injury. We just fought a lot of things to have this kind of a season. We're still young, we have everybody coming back. We're excited to get back to the tournament and make a deeper run. We'll see what happens next year.
SOPHOMORE GUARD TRAVIS WALTON
Did Magic Johnson say anything in the locker room?
Yeah, just we're going to be back here next year. We're going to work hard in the summer time. He told everybody to work on their game and what they need to improve on, and we will be back here next year.
Did it ever feel overwhelming with all of the fresh bodies that
They got a lot of bodies, but I feel we played pretty good. We were leading in the second half, and I got in foul trouble. That kind of hurt us a little bit. We just ran out of energy. For the most part, I feel we did a good job.
