Feb. 13, 2007

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UNC Head Coach Roy Williams

Opening statement:
"Congratulations to Seth [Greenberg] and his staff and the kids of Virginia Tech. They played very well. Zabian Dowdell was really something; we had a difficult time guarding and keeping him off the free throw line. I've been coaching for 19 years and however many games it is, that was the worst coaching job that I've ever done.

"I was trying to go with mixed lineups there because they were small and I didn't want to have Brandan [Wright] chase guys around. I did a poor job. I did absolutely the worst job I've ever done in my entire life. The kids deserve more than that and I told them that yes, I would like them to make free throws, and I'm not just talking about Tyler [Hansbrough]. We had three different times tonight where went to the line with a two-shot foul and missed both of them. I told them I would like for us to not turn it over by going and spinning around and falling at the free throw line and all that kind of stuff.

"We have to be tougher at the start of the game. They kicked our tails and Deron Washington had nine rebounds in the first half and the only thing we talked about was trying to stop him.

"But it was just one awful, awful job of coaching by me, that's the bottom line of the whole thing. The kids deserve more than they got from me tonight. And congratulations again to Virginia Tech, they had to make plays and had to make shots and make free throws. Coleman Collins, I told him congratulations, especially after what he went through last year. It's what is great about college athletics; he said it was one year today. I told him congratulations and I was awful sorry. That team went through a lot last year. Seth did a nice job with them. It doesn't mean I wanted to lose to make them feel better, that's not what I'm saying. But, congratulate them. Roy Williams did an awful job and Virginia Tech players did a nice job and won the basketball game."

On the game plan for the final shot of regulation and final seconds of overtime:
"Ty [Lawson] was supposed to penetrate. We tried to open a lane up and set two down screens with his penetration. But he is still a freshman and he didn't penetrate. But still that is bad coaching. And at the end, since it was a one point game all we needed was two, I've always said with seven seconds or more, rush down the court but draw two people to you, you got to either beat them or pass it off and we didn't get it passed off quick enough. And that is just poor coaching."

On the Virginia Tech lineup matching up:
"They are good players. Early in the game they were by far the aggressor. We couldn't clear the ball, they beat us to every offensive rebound. At halftime, there were two trains of thought, one, we felt really lucky because we could have been down by twenty and yet, two, they only shot 32 percent, they had to feel really good to be only down by four. In the second half we get it to 4-6 and we all of a sudden missed shots, some of them were pretty good shots, but we got to make shots.

"The first play in overtime, Coleman Collins who was three for 12, but he made one when it counted. [Zabian] Dowdell and [Jamon] Gordon, they are really good. That is part of it right there. I think the way they played, they man the basketball, they dominate the basketball, they make shots, they can make shots in the lane. That's difficult shots for a lot of guards right now. They can get to the free throw line and make shots. Deron Washington was a hard match-up for us, [Lewis] Witcher got in foul trouble and brought [Markus] Sailes in, that makes it a much more difficult match-up for us because that means our four man is matching up with Deron who is one of the best athletes around. We didn't do a good job of keeping him off the boards either."

On the effect of not being in many close games over the past two years:
"It could have been. Who knows. I felt very comfortable at the end of regulation that we would get a much better shot than we did. I felt very comfortable at the end. If he made both free throws we were running a set play for three because we would have been down three. But if he missed one of them, we had another play called. We just didn't get it right."

On why he is so upset with himself:
"My job is to have kids know what they are supposed to do. We had an unusual lineup in there because Brandan [Wright] struggled at the free throw line, so we wanted to have good free throw shooters in there. Drawing up a play and one guy doesn't know what he is supposed to do because he is in a different spot. I'm supposed to do better than that. It is just bad coaching. Kids deserved more than that tonight."

Virginia Tech Head Coach Seth Greenberg

Opening Statement
Probably the understatement of the day is I couldn't be more proud of our team. I know Zabian had 33, Deron had 14 rebounds, but that was as good a team win as I've been associated with. How competitive we were, in this environment. I always tell our guys the hardest playing team wins. And I don't know if we were the hardest playing team, but we played very hard tonight. That's a special group that we played against and we were just fortunate to get one more stop. It's like anything else, you know, they score the last possession and people say, 'boy that was another close one, they competed, they played hard.'

"There's such a thin line between winning and losing, and last year we couldn't impose our will on the game. This year it seems like we've gotten stops when we needed to. Why? I don't know, maybe the basketball gods are on our side. The job Jamon Gordon did defensively on Ty Lawson. Chris Paul and Ty Lawson, the two toughest guys we've had to defend in the open court. And Jamon to play as long as he did with four fouls, I thought he did a terrific job. Deron as active as he was; Lewis Witcher gave us great minutes to start the game; Cheick Diakite gave us great minutes.

"But in the end, Zabian Dowdell. Dowdell offensively just put us on his back. And he got to the lane and he made plays. He always jokes and he always tells me he'll make plays. Well, he made great plays and it was a hard-fought game, they're so talented and we're really fortunate. I told Coach Williams after the game, for this one night, we were just extremely fortunate to find a way to win."

On his team's poor shooting in the first half:
No, we were getting decent shots, not great shots, you don't get great shots. Ok, we were getting good shots. Coleman had some good looks. I mean they all had some good looks. Again, you're talking about 6-10, 6-9, long, angular, athletic, quick guys and sometimes they are going to contest and affect your shots. It's just the way it is.

"We ran our offense at a really good pace. I always talk to our guys about making our opponent guard a lot of the floor, because the more they guard, the more we have the ability to drive the ball. We did a good job at that because of how hard we ran our offense. The pace of our offense was good.

"That was a defensive win, even though at one time I didn't think we could stop anyone. We came up with enough 50/50's. That to me, when you get those 50/50's, those loose balls, that's what it's all about. There's a mindset, a toughness that you have to possess that you are just going to compete. It's really simple, it's hard to do and it's hard to define, but if you just play really hard. Like I always tell our guys we're redefining how hard you think you can play. That's just a constant process. You know I read an interesting article last week, which I gave to all our players. They probably didn't appreciate it, but Bobby Huggins was quoted saying that playing hard, you're not born with it, you learn it."

UNC Player Quotes

Ty Lawson
On the last play in overtime: "We were supposed to run a play, but they came and doubled so that messed everything up. I couldn't find anybody open, so I tried to get a shot off, but they blocked it in the lane. They were clogging the lane. That was our main objective, but they clogged it. I think they knew what we were going to do."

On not being in this situation before:
"That was probably a big reason, because when we ran the play at the end, we tried to come off a screen but we weren't in the right positions, so if we had a little more experience, everyone would have been set and ready to go to run the play."

Tyler Hansbrough
"This game's very frustrating, especially at home, against a team that's already beaten you. We wanted to come in here and get a big win since they beat us like they did at their place. We just didn't make the big plays that we needed. I missed a free throw that would have been big for us. It was a home game, it was against a team that beat us at their place, and it just felt like before the game that this would be our chance to come back out here and prove that we could be a better team. I think they're physical and they run a lot, so they're tough for us."

Wayne Ellington
On performing as a young team:
"Those are the expectations we have because we're a really talented team. I think it's good that we have those expectations. I think we need to step up and get better and better everyday. Yes, we're still young, but I think that we're good enough to still win.