North Carolina fell to Michigan, 73-64, in the Battle 4 Atlantis semifinals Thursday in Nassau, Bahamas.
UNC went just 2-for-13 from beyond the arc and 10-for-20 from the free throw line. Only two Tar Heels finished in double-figures, with freshman point guard Cole Anthony posting 22 points and seven rebounds while junior forward Garrison Brooks finished with 13 and eight.
The Tar Heels dropped to 5-1 on the season and will face the loser of the Oregon-Gonzaga game on Friday at 11:30 am. The Wolverines improved to 6-0.
Here’s a transcript of what Roy Williams, Anthony and Brandon Robinson had to say after the loss:
Roy Williams’ opening statement...
“It was an ugly second half. The first part of the second half, somebody said we made like one of our first 14 shots. Michigan, first of all, give them credit, (Michigan head coach) Juwan (Howard) has done a really nice job with that team. The most impressive thing to me is he’s taken some of the guys that played for John Beilein that were important to John and they guarded like crazy, they shared the ball, they shot three-point shots and Juwan has embraced that and hasn’t shied away from trying to be the man that I can make every decision.
“John Beilein’s a really good coach and I just commend Juwan for doing that and putting his own little part into it with more screens on the ball than they’ve ever set in the past, the toughness defensively. Last year, they were one of the best defensive teams in the country and they’ve continued to do it with (Jon) Teske and those guys bothering every shot around the rim. The guards get after you and make it difficult for you to go where you want to go. But, it was an ugly first part of the second half for us missing so many shots. I haven’t had many teams go eight minutes with only scoring I think one field goal.
“We’ve got to get better. I’ve got to do a much better job coaching this team. I haven’t done a very good job coaching them. We were 5-0 coming in but it hasn’t been a very good 5-0 compared to the way I think we should play and could play and I’ve got to do a better job coaching my team. It’s frustrating as all get out but I’ve been in the game a long time and it still pisses me off when I don’t do a good job with my team.”
On the challenge of defending Michigan’s ball screens…
Anthony: “When they’re just constantly setting ball screens, it puts us, not just me, in a tough position having to come help out and then everyone just has to rotate back in order to put a stop to that big. He was 7-foot-1, you’ve got to locate him at all times. Just that constant using and reusing ball screens is tough just to get around.”
Robinson: “We just didn’t play team defense great. They were rolling the big and we weren’t attacking high enough. And, if we didn’t tag, they were getting layups or, if we tagged too late, they were getting threes and lifting a guy up on the weak side. We’ve got to be better with team defense, it’s not just the people on the ball guarding the screens, it’s everybody on the court. So, we didn’t do a good job of that.”
Williams: “(Zavier) Simpson’s really good, too. It’s not like guarding one of you guys out there.”
On what was going through the players minds during Michigan’s 19-0 run…
Anthony: “I knew we weren’t going to be able to score 19 points in one possession but it’s just in my head thinking, alright, let’s take it one play at a time. Just keeping everyone’s head in the right place and making sure everyone knows we can bring this back.”
On what Williams liked about UNC’s late comeback…
Williams: “I questioned our toughness early in the second half because you’ve got shots, you’ve got to make some shots. Shooters aren’t very good, it’s makers that are really good for you. It was frustrating. I’ve never stood there in 32 years and eight billion games thinking about calling a timeout with 12 minutes left in the game. That’s so silly to me, we’ve won a few games doing it my way.
"I waited three extra possessions and we missed and they scored three-straight times. But, at that time, I challenged them to win the next four minutes, let’s do what we do and let’s do it better. Let’s win the four minutes and there’s so much time left and really we got it down to single digits and had a shot and missed it and had a little miscommunication and gave away a three on the other end.
“We were 10-for-20 on the foul line, 2-for-13 from the 3-point line. Shooting the basketball in the hole will take care of a lot of things but I was proud with the way they competed and the guys that came off the bench. Garrison (Brooks) was hurt, Leaky (Black) was hurt, we had some other guys in there that did some good things. I hope that none of my teams would ever quit and I didn’t think we’d quit. We still had a couple of chances but didn’t get it done. But, it was good for their soul to know they can dig a little deeper, but that’s about all it is.”
On if this team can be a good 3-point shooting team…
Williams: “I do. I think we’ll make a lot of threes but we haven’t done it in games yet so it doesn’t make any difference what I think. We shoot a lot and get a lot of shots up. As I said, we had Coby (White) and Nassir (Little) last year as freshmen and replaced them with Cole and Armando (Bacot). So, we’ve got some good freshman and it’s hard to play because we don’t have Luke Maye, Kenny Williams and Cam Johnson, they’re playing for a living. Cam’s 5-for-7 or whatever it was last night, that would have helped us tonight.
“This team’s got a chance to be a really good team and I’m serious, I really believe that. I’ve got to do a better job of getting the attention to detail taken care of a lot better and the toughness a lot better and figure out a way to get the ball to go in the basket for us.”
On his team’s shot selection…
Williams: “In that 19-0 (run), it felt like 119-0 to me, I thought we had some pretty good shots but we were soft, soft around the rim and then taking quick shots with guys in our face a little bit. I didn’t like the quality of our shots. Some of them can still go in, but they ran the shot clock down and made a three with like four or five seconds left on the shot clock. That kind of shots a lot of pressure but I wasn’t ecstatic about every shot we got but I thought we got some good shots.”
On why Armando Bacot played just seven minutes in the second half…
Williams: “I’m the coach, I get to decide whether the hell you’re in or out.”
On how you create toughness in a team…
Williams: “You can’t go up and be soft inside, you’ve got to go up strong with the basketball. Every time the ball is shot, you’ve got to go box somebody out and put your body on somebody else's body. One of the plays in the game, we’ve already shown it to our team, there’s a loose ball in the middle of the court and we’ve got a couple guys trying to go off and the big kid Teske dove in there from me to the light back there and got the ball. If you want to win, you’ve got to play.”
On the emotions in the locker room after the game…
Anthony: “I mean, I’m sure everyone’s down a little bit right now but we’ve got another game tomorrow at 11:30 so, we’ve got to lock in. We’re not going to lose tomorrow.”
On Leaky Black’s injury…
Williams: “He was limping. I just know Leaky was limping.”
On how he can help his team improve...
Williams: “Well the first thing, today’s generation, they like to blame it on someone else, so you’ve got to show them. So, we’re going to show them some tape when we get back tonight and have our late night snack and then, as Cole said, try to move forward. But, I think if you don’t show mistakes, they can’t learn from them because every kid in today’s generation, they think, ‘no coach, that didn’t happen.’
“Well, here it is. So we’ll try to teach them a little bit during the tape session tonight and then we will move on and get a scouting report of at least three of these teams that were in the semifinals here are really good. We were the only one that wasn’t really good. But, I think we’ve got a chance to be really good so we have to teach, we have to get more focus on their part. We have to emphasize to them plays like their seven-foot guy who dove when two of our guys were leaking out.
“You’ve got to show them those moments, so they’ll learn from that. And then the other thing, their ability, their talent’s got to take over some because 10-for-20 from the free throw line, 2-for-13 from the 3-point line and some of those looks were pretty good. But, again, give Michigan credit. They didn’t guard us from the foul line, but they guarded some of those others ones a lot better.”
On if it takes a game like this for the freshmen to know what it takes to play at the collegiate level…
Williams: “Yea, 3-for-10 doesn’t get it. But, we’ll wait and see. They may be told the same thing tomorrow so we’ll have to wait. I do think both those kids are going to be really, really good players but the physical play, the length, I mean Teske’s good... he’s been around the block and he’s big. There’s a reason he (Bacot) was 3-for-10, the guy guarding him was taking pride in he wasn’t going to let Armando score.”
