UNC senior guard Marcus Paige's struggles continued Sunday in the Tar Heels' 75-70 win at Virginia Tech.
Paige finished with 7 points on 2-10 shooting from the field, including 0-5 from 3-point range. That brings Paige's scoring total in a four-game slump to 15 points on 5-35 shooting from the field, including 1-22 from beyond the arc. He did hand out 7 assists, a few late in the game that were crucial in the victory, but he's struggling and showed sings of it affecting his confidence.
UNC coach Roy Williams said Paige has become frustrated and also acknowledged he was a bit hesitant to take what used to be normal shots for him a few times.
Here is what Paige had to say after the game:
On you getting off to a pretty good start, you were two of your 1st three and then you labored some. What was your mind set during your shooting struggles.
It's not any different that it has been. I always feel like the next one's going in. It hasn't been the case. I stay aggressive. I was able to make some plays to Brice late. So I was happy with the way I played today. I was good defensively; got some steals and just played solid all around. Whenever I'm out there, I'm gonna be trying to help the team no matter what I'm doing offensively.
On making late free throws, does that help with your confidence
Yes. Missing the first one, I wanted to get chance to redeem myself, so I stepped up and made two big ones. That definitely helps a little bit confidence wise.
On this is the third straight game the team has shot less than 40%
We're getting decent looks. Coach said during one of the timeouts, that he wasn't disappointed with any of the shots we took, we just weren't making them. As long as we keep getting good shots, we're too good offensively to continue this. Just take good ones and having the right guys taking the right shots, we'll be fine.
On the fact that you guys have shot under 40%, but still won all three games, what does that say about this team
You know, we're pretty good. We've got a chance to be really good. We were up almost 20 in the first half and we just kinda got just little complacent defensively and they banked in some three's and got some and one's. But, this really could have been a completely different game if we would have kept the throttle on for a couple of minutes or if we would have made a couple more shots, it might have been a blow-out.
On how much of that was guys getting in foul trouble down low, which kinda worked in their favor.
Our small lineup has been effective at times this year. We struggled today with it. For whatever reason, we couldn't get stops and we really didn't good shots out of that lineup. We would like to have our big guys in there especially today. That did hurt and the game was kinda ugly for a little bit and I think that's how they wanted it to be. In the second half, we made enough plays to hold on, honestly.
On could you tell there was a momentum shift when they went on that big run
Yes, definitely. They made a couple shots and that got the crown into it. Honestly it was a two to three possession swing. That could have been us stepping on their throat and winning by 30 or them crawling their way right back into the game. That two or three minutes went towards them and that kinda defined the rest of the game. We showed some toughness and made some big plays.
Paige finished with 7 points on 2-10 shooting from the field, including 0-5 from 3-point range. That brings Paige's scoring total in a four-game slump to 15 points on 5-35 shooting from the field, including 1-22 from beyond the arc. He did hand out 7 assists, a few late in the game that were crucial in the victory, but he's struggling and showed sings of it affecting his confidence.
UNC coach Roy Williams said Paige has become frustrated and also acknowledged he was a bit hesitant to take what used to be normal shots for him a few times.
Here is what Paige had to say after the game:
On you getting off to a pretty good start, you were two of your 1st three and then you labored some. What was your mind set during your shooting struggles.
It's not any different that it has been. I always feel like the next one's going in. It hasn't been the case. I stay aggressive. I was able to make some plays to Brice late. So I was happy with the way I played today. I was good defensively; got some steals and just played solid all around. Whenever I'm out there, I'm gonna be trying to help the team no matter what I'm doing offensively.
On making late free throws, does that help with your confidence
Yes. Missing the first one, I wanted to get chance to redeem myself, so I stepped up and made two big ones. That definitely helps a little bit confidence wise.
On this is the third straight game the team has shot less than 40%
We're getting decent looks. Coach said during one of the timeouts, that he wasn't disappointed with any of the shots we took, we just weren't making them. As long as we keep getting good shots, we're too good offensively to continue this. Just take good ones and having the right guys taking the right shots, we'll be fine.
On the fact that you guys have shot under 40%, but still won all three games, what does that say about this team
You know, we're pretty good. We've got a chance to be really good. We were up almost 20 in the first half and we just kinda got just little complacent defensively and they banked in some three's and got some and one's. But, this really could have been a completely different game if we would have kept the throttle on for a couple of minutes or if we would have made a couple more shots, it might have been a blow-out.
On how much of that was guys getting in foul trouble down low, which kinda worked in their favor.
Our small lineup has been effective at times this year. We struggled today with it. For whatever reason, we couldn't get stops and we really didn't good shots out of that lineup. We would like to have our big guys in there especially today. That did hurt and the game was kinda ugly for a little bit and I think that's how they wanted it to be. In the second half, we made enough plays to hold on, honestly.
On could you tell there was a momentum shift when they went on that big run
Yes, definitely. They made a couple shots and that got the crown into it. Honestly it was a two to three possession swing. That could have been us stepping on their throat and winning by 30 or them crawling their way right back into the game. That two or three minutes went towards them and that kinda defined the rest of the game. We showed some toughness and made some big plays.
