CBS SPORTS CLASSIC
December 17, 2016
Roy Williams
Justin Jackson
Joel Berry
Las Vegas, Nevada
Kentucky - 103, North Carolina - 100
COACH WILLIAMS: Okay, you've heard me say this a few times. I don't like it, but it was a heck of a college basketball game, if you don't care who won, but I do care who wins. I'm really proud of these two guys up here beside me, because I thought they really did some big-time things for us. It looked like we were out of it, and we kept playing and kept playing and got a chance and got back in it, but you don't get points for that. You don't get wins for that.
I'm proud of the way they competed down the stretch. We made a bunch of mistakes that hurt us, and yet at the same time, you have to congratulate Kentucky. I mean, Malik was off the charts. He made three of his last four shots, two of them from three. Didn't have to make those, but he did. It was big-time shots for them.
Again, Joel and Justin, they both played their tails off. Joel coming back after being out for two weeks and made some big-time shots. Both these guys did, Luke did. I've got to do a better job of not making mistakes that hurt us, but it was a heck of a college game.
Q. Monk's been shooting well from the perimeter all along. How does he keep doing that when teams know to try to make him drive?
COACH WILLIAMS: Well, he's really good. I saw him put on a show at Augusta when he was a high school player. I thought he was a heck of a player. Loved him, tried to recruit him, and didn't feel like we were going to get him, but he put on a show. We had a chance. I thought Joel got hit a little bit when he drove through there, and all of a sudden, Joel's on the ground and they're running up at us, and Malik's got the ball. Kenny picked up -- and just trying to play it again in my mind. Kenny picked up Joel's man, that left Isaiah on Malik, and Isaiah as a post player is not real comfortable out there, got to the three-point line. But Malik, it didn't bother him. He just jumped up and made the three. But he's really good. Thought we made him work for it, but it's hard to say. You feel good about your defense when the guy gets 47. You have to congratulate him. That's pretty dog gone good.
Q. Joel, at what point this week did you feel healthy enough to play full speed? How did practice go the last two days for you?
JOEL BERRY: Yeah, I think my first full practice was Thursday before we left. And I still felt a little uncomfortable, but when we got here just sitting down and resting my ankle once we got here felt pretty good. As you could tell, I was pretty good, but I was just glad I was able to get back out there with the guys and be able to compete.
Q. Justin, there was a stretch in the first half when you were playing some four. There was obviously foul trouble on some of their bigs and you were able to get some stuff to the paint and get to the foul line a lot. Just kind of go through that stretch and what advantage did you have there in that period?
JUSTIN JACKSON: I think they started with Briscoe on me, and Briscoe is a heck of a player. I mean, there is a five-inch difference there. So I think I was able to get some things going in the paint. So they switched off and put, I think it was Willis on me. I mean, he wasn't as mobile as Isaiah. So for me I just tried to get him some space and tried to make a play. Like you said, I got to the line, 10 for 15. That's five points. We could have won the game. So that told me -- I mean, yeah, I tried to make some plays.
Q. I know you didn't guard Malik a whole lot. But you were on him a bit. What do you think made him so effective besides making shots? And if you could put into perspective what he did out there today?
JOEL BERRY: Yeah, he got it going early, and once he was hot, it was hard to stop him. I don't think we did a good job of making him uncomfortable, and I think that's why he was able to get as hot as he did. That's on us. We just can't let a player like that beat us. I mean, at one point he had almost half of their points. So we've just got to -- with someone like that, we've got to make sure they're uncomfortable and don't get so hot so early.
Q. You were down by 10 with seven minutes to play. Rally, come back to take the lead, and just weren't able to execute enough to get the win. What do you take away from this game from a learning perspective?
JUSTIN JACKSON: I mean, we were right there against one of the best teams in the country, and I guess that's all you can take from it. I mean, we kept fighting, which is what I'm extremely proud of everybody on that team. And we were right there. There's just a couple things we've got to fix. I think they're very fixable for us, and this will end up being a great learning experience for us.
JOEL BERRY: Yeah, I would say the same thing. Coach stresses in practice every single day that every play in the game is very important, and I think that game showed us that it is important and that's what we have to take from it. Every single time we get out on the court, no matter what or who it is, we have to make sure that play that we're on, that it's important to us. I just like how we competed. So we just have to learn from that.
COACH WILLIAMS: One thing about it, too, is that we did -- at the end we got some good shots because guys stepped up and made some big-time shots. The last play, I always said I'd rather go against the defense that's not set. I thought the stars and moons were aligned for Isaiah, I saw Wenyn Gabriel guarding him, and I thought we could get Isaiah on the block, and it didn't work out. The kid did a great job defensively.
But Justin saying something about missing free throws, that's part of the game. I can look back, shoot, I got a technical foul, and that gave them two points also. So it's every play is important, but, again, Justin and Joel, and Luke, some of those guys that made those big-time plays down the stretch for us, they'll benefit from it, but we do have some mistakes.
Like I said, we can't give them that many offensive chances by giving them offensive rebounds. They got five chances at it one time. So it's a game of basketball. You learn and live and hope you live while you're still learning and at the end be able to do something about it.
December 17, 2016
Roy Williams
Justin Jackson
Joel Berry
Las Vegas, Nevada
Kentucky - 103, North Carolina - 100
COACH WILLIAMS: Okay, you've heard me say this a few times. I don't like it, but it was a heck of a college basketball game, if you don't care who won, but I do care who wins. I'm really proud of these two guys up here beside me, because I thought they really did some big-time things for us. It looked like we were out of it, and we kept playing and kept playing and got a chance and got back in it, but you don't get points for that. You don't get wins for that.
I'm proud of the way they competed down the stretch. We made a bunch of mistakes that hurt us, and yet at the same time, you have to congratulate Kentucky. I mean, Malik was off the charts. He made three of his last four shots, two of them from three. Didn't have to make those, but he did. It was big-time shots for them.
Again, Joel and Justin, they both played their tails off. Joel coming back after being out for two weeks and made some big-time shots. Both these guys did, Luke did. I've got to do a better job of not making mistakes that hurt us, but it was a heck of a college game.
Q. Monk's been shooting well from the perimeter all along. How does he keep doing that when teams know to try to make him drive?
COACH WILLIAMS: Well, he's really good. I saw him put on a show at Augusta when he was a high school player. I thought he was a heck of a player. Loved him, tried to recruit him, and didn't feel like we were going to get him, but he put on a show. We had a chance. I thought Joel got hit a little bit when he drove through there, and all of a sudden, Joel's on the ground and they're running up at us, and Malik's got the ball. Kenny picked up -- and just trying to play it again in my mind. Kenny picked up Joel's man, that left Isaiah on Malik, and Isaiah as a post player is not real comfortable out there, got to the three-point line. But Malik, it didn't bother him. He just jumped up and made the three. But he's really good. Thought we made him work for it, but it's hard to say. You feel good about your defense when the guy gets 47. You have to congratulate him. That's pretty dog gone good.
Q. Joel, at what point this week did you feel healthy enough to play full speed? How did practice go the last two days for you?
JOEL BERRY: Yeah, I think my first full practice was Thursday before we left. And I still felt a little uncomfortable, but when we got here just sitting down and resting my ankle once we got here felt pretty good. As you could tell, I was pretty good, but I was just glad I was able to get back out there with the guys and be able to compete.
Q. Justin, there was a stretch in the first half when you were playing some four. There was obviously foul trouble on some of their bigs and you were able to get some stuff to the paint and get to the foul line a lot. Just kind of go through that stretch and what advantage did you have there in that period?
JUSTIN JACKSON: I think they started with Briscoe on me, and Briscoe is a heck of a player. I mean, there is a five-inch difference there. So I think I was able to get some things going in the paint. So they switched off and put, I think it was Willis on me. I mean, he wasn't as mobile as Isaiah. So for me I just tried to get him some space and tried to make a play. Like you said, I got to the line, 10 for 15. That's five points. We could have won the game. So that told me -- I mean, yeah, I tried to make some plays.
Q. I know you didn't guard Malik a whole lot. But you were on him a bit. What do you think made him so effective besides making shots? And if you could put into perspective what he did out there today?
JOEL BERRY: Yeah, he got it going early, and once he was hot, it was hard to stop him. I don't think we did a good job of making him uncomfortable, and I think that's why he was able to get as hot as he did. That's on us. We just can't let a player like that beat us. I mean, at one point he had almost half of their points. So we've just got to -- with someone like that, we've got to make sure they're uncomfortable and don't get so hot so early.
Q. You were down by 10 with seven minutes to play. Rally, come back to take the lead, and just weren't able to execute enough to get the win. What do you take away from this game from a learning perspective?
JUSTIN JACKSON: I mean, we were right there against one of the best teams in the country, and I guess that's all you can take from it. I mean, we kept fighting, which is what I'm extremely proud of everybody on that team. And we were right there. There's just a couple things we've got to fix. I think they're very fixable for us, and this will end up being a great learning experience for us.
JOEL BERRY: Yeah, I would say the same thing. Coach stresses in practice every single day that every play in the game is very important, and I think that game showed us that it is important and that's what we have to take from it. Every single time we get out on the court, no matter what or who it is, we have to make sure that play that we're on, that it's important to us. I just like how we competed. So we just have to learn from that.
COACH WILLIAMS: One thing about it, too, is that we did -- at the end we got some good shots because guys stepped up and made some big-time shots. The last play, I always said I'd rather go against the defense that's not set. I thought the stars and moons were aligned for Isaiah, I saw Wenyn Gabriel guarding him, and I thought we could get Isaiah on the block, and it didn't work out. The kid did a great job defensively.
But Justin saying something about missing free throws, that's part of the game. I can look back, shoot, I got a technical foul, and that gave them two points also. So it's every play is important, but, again, Justin and Joel, and Luke, some of those guys that made those big-time plays down the stretch for us, they'll benefit from it, but we do have some mistakes.
Like I said, we can't give them that many offensive chances by giving them offensive rebounds. They got five chances at it one time. So it's a game of basketball. You learn and live and hope you live while you're still learning and at the end be able to do something about it.
