A round up of quotes and notes from UNC's upset loss at Charleston.
Yeah, we talked. We always talk. There’s something with this team – we’ve got to stop talking at a point, and start playing. We’ve got to start walking the talk. ... I feel like I’ve heard everything -- from the players, from the coaches. It’s getting to a point where we’ve just got to start doing what we say we’re going to do.
-Larry Drew
We’re trying to foul at the end there and I think it was Goudelock that made the 3 to tie the game up. We had switched the screens because they were hurting us, so we started switching the screens. Deon was on him and we were screaming to foul, but it’s my job to get us to know what we’re supposed to do in practice every day and we haven’t worked on it enough.
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Not from the head coach, because I’ve got to coach them better. They’ve got to understand that you’re three points down and [you’ve] got five fouls. We’re screaming and yelling and doing everything, but we didn’t get it done, so we’re not getting the correct coaching.
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And then we’re down three and we take it to the basket and try to shoot a lay-up, and that’s not smart either. Again, that’s the coaches’ fault. I’ve got to do a better job to make sure the kids understand time and score. It’s not always just the opponent you’re playing, it’s the time of the game, it’s the score of the game. We’ve got to understand what’s going on a heck of a lot better out there.
-Roy Williams
Basketball’s a game of runs. We made our run; they made their run. They made the last run and we really couldn’t withstand it, so it hurt us.
This was a great test for us, coming in and playing Charleston at their place. It was sold out. It was the biggest game in their history. We just didn’t get the outcome that we wanted. But that’s life.
-Ed Davis
- Deon Thompson refused to take questions last night.
- John Henson sat most of the 2nd half with a headache which is just dumb luck that something like that happens in a game liken this.
- Roy accepted blame instead of pointing at team leadership issues among the players. While I think it is admirable he wants to fall on his sword to protect his players, it is clear that is the issue or the primary issue among many.
Is it just me or is Ed Davis a wee bit too easy going about this whole thing. Saying "that's life" is akin to saying "oh well." I like Davis a lot and maybe I am reading this the wrong way but I prefer Deon Thompson's response much more. Then again, Davis might be trying to keep his head up but I do not get any sense the level of play upsets him or the loss does.
The more I think about this team, the more they look the 1999 squad to me. Marcus Ginyard is basically Ademola Okulaja. Ed Davis is Brendan Haywood. Will Graves is Jason Capel. Dexter Strickland is Ronald Curry. Deon Thompson is Kris Lang. The differences are Ed Cota was better than Larry Drew. Tyler Zeller is better than Brian Bersticker. The other reserves on this season's team are better than the bench for the 1999 team.
1999 was probably a better three point shooting team and having an experienced PG like Cota makes a huge difference. Still, the comparison is pretty close. In 1999 UNC beat #2 Stanford and #11 Purdue in the NIT but lost to College of Charleston and Cal. They had close games with Old Dominion and UNC Charlotte. The 1999 team went 10-6 in the ACC but never won more than three games in a row during the conference season, got swept by Duke, lost in the ACC Tournament Final to Duke then got bounced by Weber St. in the 1st round of the NCAA Tournament. In all honesty the 2010 version could very well end up going down the same path. The difference is I do think the coaching is much better and there is some potential that could blossom down the road. Right now it is hard to predict. All you can do is watch and hope.