COACH WILLIAMS: Really small locker room. I could
care less. It could be the size of a phone booth right
now because the last 26, 27 minutes of the game, I
thought we were pretty doggone good. The first 12 or
13 minutes, I didn't think we were very good at all.
Youngster Hamilton, I think, makes four threes in the
first seven or eight minutes of the game. We talk about
trying to do a better job of covering the three. We got
to do a better job of it during the game as well.
Brice and Joel, Marcus, Isaiah, Justin, all the guys that
got in there and did a nice job. We went small a little
while because of our foul trouble and played Theo at
the four, and I think that helped us a little bit as well.
Foul problems for both teams weren't very good, and I
think we both would like to stay out of foul trouble more
than we did today. Second half, again, I thought defense
-- the second half and the last six or seven minutes of
the first half, I thought we were really good.
Q. Roy, you were talking about Brice and his
energy level. How much of just finding a
consistent motor, not just for him but for the entire
team is the solution for this team going forward?
COACH WILLIAMS: I think I get on Brice and Kennedy
more than anything else, there's no question about
that, because of their energy level. I think the rest of
the guys do a pretty good job of getting it up pretty
high. Brice and Kennedy do it at moments. I'm
definitely not telling you guys anything that I haven't
told them. But they've got to get it up there.
When Brice shows some effort and gets across the
lane and draws outside the lane and gets a charge or
deflects a shot, the rest of the defense gets so much
better because he has the ability to block some shots.
Kennedy has the ability to do some things as well.
So those two are the main ones, and yet I do think that
Brice's energy level was so much better in the second
half. I almost hugged him and kissed him one time, but
then I realized who it was. You've got to do that on a
more consistent basis, and if we can get that out of
them, I feel pretty doggone good about Joel and Nate
and Justin and Marcus with that intensity level, getting
it up there. Those two guys are so important to us.
They need to get it up there as well.
I didn't think very long about that, though.
Q.What did you guys see in the
second half in terms of offense, in particular, when
things went really well for you all? Is there
anything in particular that stands out?
COACH WILLIAMS: Shooting 61 percent. We got
good shots. I can clap and sit down a lot quicker, but I
think we attacked them. Don't know how many points
we had on the break in the first half, but we had some
in the second half as well. Most of the points off
turnovers were in the first half. They had 11 in the first
half and only six in the second half.
Fast break points, we had 14. First half and second
half, it was more secondary break kind of level. It
wasn't pitch ahead and go down and dunk it. I thought
Joel did a nice job of forcing the tempo. Nate did a
nice job of forcing it sometimes turning a secondary
break into a primary break by getting all the way to the
basket.
Q: (Coach Williams on today's game)
ROY WILLIAMS: Well it’s important; we’ve had some
marquee games this year. Maryland at home, Texas at
Texas, we didn’t play very well last weekend. The
difference between winning and losing is so small. We
needed to bounce back and play well today. It was
good to have practice time this week because last
week we had almost no practice time, five guys sick, so
this was a good week for us to get practice time in. I
did tell them it’s time to play well outside our building
too, not just at home where the crowd is really helping
us.
Q: Do you know what it was that made Brice Johnson
so mad?
ROY WILLIAMS: Nope, Didn’t care.
Q: What did you learn about your team?
ROY WILLIAMS: I like that we got some turnovers out
of our scramble stuff, because we haven’t done that
very much this year. We had some time to work on it
this week. I liked the way we kept staying aggressive
offensively. Rex Walters, who’s the head coach at San
Francisco, the best player I’ve ever had about
secondary breaks and primary by attacking the basket.
I thought we saw that Joel and Nate both did a better
job of that in the second half. And then again in the
second half we didn’t do as many scrambles, because
early in the second half, three out of four of their
baskets were on offensive rebounds and so we tried
straight man-to-man, I thought we did a better job of
that too. I think we did get some positive things out of
that and all those things that are going to take us
forward, but we need practice time. The last couple of
weeks we haven’t had any.
Q: (No microphone)
ROY WILLIAMS: It’s not a love-hate relationship, it’s
coaching. I think that you need to push some guys
harder than others. I treat my players like their own
children. I don’t ever hate any of my players. I may not
like what they did at that moment, but there still my
players. It’s like Scott and Kimberly are still my kids.
You do have to set an example sometimes; it’s not a
big thing taking him out. I just didn’t appreciate that and
we’re not going to be like that. With Brice it’s a 24-hour
job, trying to push him every day to get his intensity
level up to where it needs to be, and that’s okay, I have
no problem with that. Kenny a little bit of the same kind
of thing. I haven’t had that kind of relationship with
many guys, not that I can remember, but that’s okay
too. I need something unusual to keep me even more
fired up. It’s my 43rd year coaching. You need to have
some Brice Johnsons.
Q: (Question regarding Luke Maye).
ROY WILLIAMS: Well, three offensive rebounds were
big. I think we needed that because we don’t have
Kenny and Isaiah in foul trouble, I’m mad at Brice and
the ranks are getting a little thin up there. So that part
and the other thing is when (Tony) Parker went out they
didn’t have a true post player, because Welsh likes the
mid-range game so it wasn’t the type of game for Joel
(James). Joel was huge for us this week in the middle
of the week and played great for 18 or 19 minutes
against Tulane. Today I wanted to give Luke a chance.
Luke is a good shooter, he hasn’t really shown that yet
in games, but he’s really a good shooter and he did
help us win today, no question.
Q: (On why he used Theo Pinson when playing small)
ROY WILLIAMS: Theo has quicker feet and a little
more ability to get around in front of the post if there’s
someone posting up, and it really doesn’t make a heck
of a whole lot of difference. Justin (Jackson) I still
believe is a really good outside shooter, his numbers
just don’t show it. I thought Theo would be able to take
the ball and drive it to the basket a little bit better
maybe with the matchup he might get.
care less. It could be the size of a phone booth right
now because the last 26, 27 minutes of the game, I
thought we were pretty doggone good. The first 12 or
13 minutes, I didn't think we were very good at all.
Youngster Hamilton, I think, makes four threes in the
first seven or eight minutes of the game. We talk about
trying to do a better job of covering the three. We got
to do a better job of it during the game as well.
Brice and Joel, Marcus, Isaiah, Justin, all the guys that
got in there and did a nice job. We went small a little
while because of our foul trouble and played Theo at
the four, and I think that helped us a little bit as well.
Foul problems for both teams weren't very good, and I
think we both would like to stay out of foul trouble more
than we did today. Second half, again, I thought defense
-- the second half and the last six or seven minutes of
the first half, I thought we were really good.
Q. Roy, you were talking about Brice and his
energy level. How much of just finding a
consistent motor, not just for him but for the entire
team is the solution for this team going forward?
COACH WILLIAMS: I think I get on Brice and Kennedy
more than anything else, there's no question about
that, because of their energy level. I think the rest of
the guys do a pretty good job of getting it up pretty
high. Brice and Kennedy do it at moments. I'm
definitely not telling you guys anything that I haven't
told them. But they've got to get it up there.
When Brice shows some effort and gets across the
lane and draws outside the lane and gets a charge or
deflects a shot, the rest of the defense gets so much
better because he has the ability to block some shots.
Kennedy has the ability to do some things as well.
So those two are the main ones, and yet I do think that
Brice's energy level was so much better in the second
half. I almost hugged him and kissed him one time, but
then I realized who it was. You've got to do that on a
more consistent basis, and if we can get that out of
them, I feel pretty doggone good about Joel and Nate
and Justin and Marcus with that intensity level, getting
it up there. Those two guys are so important to us.
They need to get it up there as well.
I didn't think very long about that, though.
Q.What did you guys see in the
second half in terms of offense, in particular, when
things went really well for you all? Is there
anything in particular that stands out?
COACH WILLIAMS: Shooting 61 percent. We got
good shots. I can clap and sit down a lot quicker, but I
think we attacked them. Don't know how many points
we had on the break in the first half, but we had some
in the second half as well. Most of the points off
turnovers were in the first half. They had 11 in the first
half and only six in the second half.
Fast break points, we had 14. First half and second
half, it was more secondary break kind of level. It
wasn't pitch ahead and go down and dunk it. I thought
Joel did a nice job of forcing the tempo. Nate did a
nice job of forcing it sometimes turning a secondary
break into a primary break by getting all the way to the
basket.
Q: (Coach Williams on today's game)
ROY WILLIAMS: Well it’s important; we’ve had some
marquee games this year. Maryland at home, Texas at
Texas, we didn’t play very well last weekend. The
difference between winning and losing is so small. We
needed to bounce back and play well today. It was
good to have practice time this week because last
week we had almost no practice time, five guys sick, so
this was a good week for us to get practice time in. I
did tell them it’s time to play well outside our building
too, not just at home where the crowd is really helping
us.
Q: Do you know what it was that made Brice Johnson
so mad?
ROY WILLIAMS: Nope, Didn’t care.
Q: What did you learn about your team?
ROY WILLIAMS: I like that we got some turnovers out
of our scramble stuff, because we haven’t done that
very much this year. We had some time to work on it
this week. I liked the way we kept staying aggressive
offensively. Rex Walters, who’s the head coach at San
Francisco, the best player I’ve ever had about
secondary breaks and primary by attacking the basket.
I thought we saw that Joel and Nate both did a better
job of that in the second half. And then again in the
second half we didn’t do as many scrambles, because
early in the second half, three out of four of their
baskets were on offensive rebounds and so we tried
straight man-to-man, I thought we did a better job of
that too. I think we did get some positive things out of
that and all those things that are going to take us
forward, but we need practice time. The last couple of
weeks we haven’t had any.
Q: (No microphone)
ROY WILLIAMS: It’s not a love-hate relationship, it’s
coaching. I think that you need to push some guys
harder than others. I treat my players like their own
children. I don’t ever hate any of my players. I may not
like what they did at that moment, but there still my
players. It’s like Scott and Kimberly are still my kids.
You do have to set an example sometimes; it’s not a
big thing taking him out. I just didn’t appreciate that and
we’re not going to be like that. With Brice it’s a 24-hour
job, trying to push him every day to get his intensity
level up to where it needs to be, and that’s okay, I have
no problem with that. Kenny a little bit of the same kind
of thing. I haven’t had that kind of relationship with
many guys, not that I can remember, but that’s okay
too. I need something unusual to keep me even more
fired up. It’s my 43rd year coaching. You need to have
some Brice Johnsons.
Q: (Question regarding Luke Maye).
ROY WILLIAMS: Well, three offensive rebounds were
big. I think we needed that because we don’t have
Kenny and Isaiah in foul trouble, I’m mad at Brice and
the ranks are getting a little thin up there. So that part
and the other thing is when (Tony) Parker went out they
didn’t have a true post player, because Welsh likes the
mid-range game so it wasn’t the type of game for Joel
(James). Joel was huge for us this week in the middle
of the week and played great for 18 or 19 minutes
against Tulane. Today I wanted to give Luke a chance.
Luke is a good shooter, he hasn’t really shown that yet
in games, but he’s really a good shooter and he did
help us win today, no question.
Q: (On why he used Theo Pinson when playing small)
ROY WILLIAMS: Theo has quicker feet and a little
more ability to get around in front of the post if there’s
someone posting up, and it really doesn’t make a heck
of a whole lot of difference. Justin (Jackson) I still
believe is a really good outside shooter, his numbers
just don’t show it. I thought Theo would be able to take
the ball and drive it to the basket a little bit better
maybe with the matchup he might get.
