Carolina Basketball Media Day: Roy Williams press conference quotes

On Kendall Marshall as the new director of recruiting

I’m honest, I didn’t know that was the title of the job. What we’re trying to do is get somebody to be aware of social media and things we can use in recruiting and be aware of putting out more things for prospects. The real director of recruiting is Steve Robinson – well yeah, I guess me – Steve Robinson, Hubert Davis and Brad Frederick, because they’re the guys that are out on the road. Nobody ever asked me what I wanted the title to be, so they put that and that’s OK. I’m serious, I could care what it is.

On Marshall reaching point guards like Coby White and Cole Anthony

Well, I would hope so. I mean, he was a great point guard. I hope I don’t recruit dumb guys. I hope they’ll talk to him about certain things. But he has not been involved in the recruiting. Last year, I guess he finished school at midyear, is that correct?, and tried to find some things to do just to hang around. He watched practice every day, so with Coby it was not at all.

But with Cole, if Cole wants to talk about anything, he doesn’t go talk to Clint Gwaltney, he’s going to go talk to Kendall if he wants to talk about point guard play. If he wants to talk about a hotel room, he’ll go talk to Clint. I think for us, having two of the five most intelligent players I’ve ever been lucky enough to coach is who’s on my staff right now. And that’s Sean and Kendall. Sean, without a doubt is the most intelligent big guy I’ve ever coached.

He could play every position on the floor. From the first day that Kendall stepped foot here on our team, I thought he was just extremely intelligent. I shouldn’t even say it like that. I remember when he came and played pickup with our guys maybe after his sophomore year in high school. We’re at the football game and I’ve never told this, but David Noel came up and said ‘Who was that little guard?’ I said, ‘Kendall Marshall.’ He said, ‘Coach he’s really good. We’re coming down the court and he’d be telling me to go do this, and I’m thinking who the crap are you? So I did what he said, he threw me the ball and I laid it up.’ So even before he got here, but I think Kendall was the best I’ve ever had at pitching the ball ahead, the best I’ve ever had at realizing time and score, the best I’ve ever had at realizing how many fouls were on the big guys on the other team. He was a true quarterback, he was the true coach on the floor. I think he’s eventually going to be a fantastic coach, and I think he eventually will be a great recruiter. But he’s not able to do that for us now.

On Marshall's role beyond doing social media

It’s just what I said, guys. It’s an evolving position. He’s going to be aware of what’s being used by us in social media to send our story out to recruits. He’s going to be involved in finding me a tape on Steve Kirschner, that’s a sophomore guard in Washington DC and print it down and make it so I can see it in five minutes. But it is an evolving position and it’s never been a position I’ve had.

What made Christian Keeling and Justin Pierce the right fit?

Need. We needed more guys. I think that we needed people on the perimeter. Didn’t have as big a need up front. Christian gives you a little bit of scoring and he’s got a tremendous flair, a very gregarious personality, he’s Theo Pinson Jr. But I think the job they did with him at Charleston Southern, he’s been coached very well, he understands how to play. He has never met a shot he didn’t like so far but we’ll see how that goes as we go down.

Justin played for Tony Shaver at William & Mary and they were making a coaching change, and he was looking for some other place. I think his quality he has that will be more beneficial to us than anything right now is his rebounding. I think he averaged over 8 rebounds a game for them last year. He’s a sneaky kind of rebounder that goes in and gets his hands on a lot of balls. But there was a tremendous need for a couple more players playing on the perimeter.

On Keeling's rebounding

He’s just such a, and I’m not trying to say negative things about anybody, but he’s a big-time athlete and playing at a smaller level he was just more athletic than a lot of the guys he was playing. It’ll be harder for him to have those kind of numbers for us, but I do want him to go rebound the basketball. And the same thing with Justin. Last year I thought at times our team was really good when Kenny and Cam Johnson and those guys got to the boards and helped us rebound.

On getting to know graduate transfers quickly in the recruiting process

I talked to their coaches. Barclay (Radebaugh) at Charleston Southern played for Eddie Fogler at South Carolina. So there’s that friendship there of me knowing him and Rick Duckett was one of our managers here and is a coach there, so that’s some other source of information I had on Christian.

Tony Shaver and Jonathan Holmes at William & Mary, so that was more than anything. It was not me just picking out a kid and saying, ‘OK now let’s find out about him.’ I talked to all those guys before we really made the offer.

On California's new law allowing players to profit off their name and likeness

I have no idea. It’s so dadgum complicated, it’s going to become in 2023. Hell, I hope I’m alive in 2023, I hope I’m still teeing it up. I’ve always thought, I’ve never been one to say ‘Yes, I’m for paying players.’

But I’ve used this, some of you have even heard me say this same thing, when Peyton Manning was at Tennessee, the first football game they sold – and I’ll miss the numbers now, I did have it – they sold like 50,000 jerseys at $76 a jersey. And Peyton Manning didn’t get one cent, and that’s not right. So I’ve always had that feeling, that’s been the biggest feeling. But guys are so much better off now, today, than they were 10 years ago and hopefully we’ll keep moving and make it a lot better for the student-athletes.

Now, when Sean May was playing for me, we had a prospect in and we took him out to eat with the prospect and we had to take that money out of his meal money. And when Sean was going to go home, he had to pay for it. We didn’t have the cost-of-attendance thing that we have now that’s made it much more student-athlete friendly.

So I’m hopeful we’ll keep making moves, but I’ve been trying to worry about if we’re going to be able to stop somebody from scoring every time they wanted to, and I haven’t read that law except for the fact that – you know, we’re in the United States of America, and there’s a lot of things that are going on that I think are a little wacko, but it takes a while to change things.

On social media's impact in recruiting

I have no idea. Guys, I still don’t know whether it’s tweet or twit. Come on now. I’m not on social media, I don’t have YouTube or Instagram, or whatever all those things are. I don’t have any of that. I don’t see it. If there’s something that they think I need to see, they show it to me. I have no idea. And Armando’s another one. I mean, he doesn’t have much of a filter, so there’s no telling what he’s going to say. I think there is a place for certain things in social media because we’re trying to impress people. I mean, recruiting is like begging. Good god, that’s all it is. So what you’re doing is giving so much information and begging them to come play for you. So I think there is a spot for it. But you’re talking to a guy, I guarantee you, everybody in here now and even after you’re dead is going to know more than I know about social media.

What have you seen from Cole Anthony, do you think he’s further along than Coby?

He’s a different point guard. Coby was more of a scoring point guard, which I’m OK with. I like point guards who do something great and I thought Coby did that great. Cole can score, but Cole is more of a quarterback back there; he’s trying to get other people the ball in that situation.

Coby had a belief that he could make every shot and he made a bunch of them. I loved what he was doing and I wanted him to be so much more aggressive because I thought we had, with Luke and Kenny and Cam, we had some perimeter shooters, but I loved the way Coby always attacked.

With Cole, we don’t have those types of shooters with him and I think he’ll find some guys for some easier shots. I like both, love both of them. I would love to have had both of them together; I would have sat over there, leaned back in my lawn chair if I had both of them together. They’re different.

Cole is good defensively. I’ve said this to him and I’ve said it publicly, I think in high school, he was the best defensive rebounding guard I’d ever seen and we’re going to need him to go rebound the defensive board for us too. Still, different players. It was fun watching them on the USA under-19 team, I think it was, when they were backcourt mates. It was fun watching that team.

Is he a special athlete in terms of comparing to other players you’ve had?

He’s very athletic as a point guard. Raymond Felton was athletic, Kendall Marshall was not — be sure to tell him I said so — but he used his brain more than anybody I’ve ever
had to coach. Cole is right up there with the athletic guys.

Sometimes he looks like he’s 6-5, sometimes he doesn’t, but I like the way he plays.

How have the newcomers meshed?

I think it’s been driven partially or mostly by B-Rob and Garrison. They’ve accepted them so quickly and it’s never been, ‘These are the old guys and these are the new guys’; it’s never been that from the first day of practice. I think because of the other things we do with them, when some of the former players are here, it’s always our current team against our former players and I think going through that in the summer does help them get together. Cole and Armando are very good teammates and they’ve accepted them from the very first day, and it’s been something, I can never remember talking to any group about, ‘These guys are on our team too, let’s put our arms around them.’ I don’t know that I’ve ever had that conversation, but this one has been very, very easy with that.

Are Brandon and Garrison leaders because they’ve been around longest or is the process more organic?

It’s still in progress but I think those guys are the veterans. They understand things, they’re the ones I’m asking questions, ‘OK, what do you think about this?’ and everybody else understands that. I think the younger guys respect the fact that they’ve been here. I’ll go back again, last year, Coby was one of our leaders because it’s the natural part of being a point guard, so Cole will be that. Cole won the 12-minute run, he did the best job in the 33 conditioning program, he did a great job another day. He’s sort of gathered their respect by working and that’s been something that’s pretty neat.

On whether he’s looking for a specific player to step up as a leader

Not really. I think it does happen naturally most of the time. Again, the point guard spot is a leadership position so that person ends up having it and Cole understands. I say something to Cole, I correct him and he just nods his head and then change. That part is going to help the team as well. Garrison and Brandon Robinson have not only been here the longest — because Sterling and Huff and Andrew and those guys have been here as long as Garrison — but Garrison has had more time on the court, so there’s a respect. When you’re the defensive player of the year, your teammates respect that a great deal, too.

On his level of excitement when coaching a point guard like Coby White or Cole Anthony

Coby was easier in one way, because his natural inclination to play was to push the pace, and yes, that’s the way we like, so that part was easy. Then, I had to get him to understand that, ‘Sometimes, it might not be your shot that’s the best shot.’ In high school, if he shot it, I thought it was the best shot, so we had to convince that and that was a very natural thing with him too.

They are different, but I enjoy it. It’s a level of excitement having that kind of guy that can make everybody else different. I do think Coby’s ability to attack the basket made Cam, Kenny and Luke get more open outside shots because he would attack the basket so hard and push the pace so hard and I think that’s what I’m hoping Cole will be able to do as well.

What’s the latest on Sterling Manley’s knee?

He’s not practicing and I don’t know … I don’t know, I really don’t. Sterling’s not doing anything; I mean, nothing. The easiest way to figure that out is that when he gets to the point he can start practicing, then we’ll tell you. Well, I shouldn’t say that; at the start of big-man drills, I pass the ball to the first six and then he handles out there passes inside. He doesn’t shoot, he doesn’t run, he doesn’t get down in a stance. He’s not playing. If you’re asking, ‘What’s the progress report down the road?’ I have no idea, I have no idea. There’ s no other way you can ask me anything. I have no idea, I do not know when he will play, period. Do you have anything better?

Steve Kirschner: What Doug told me is they are still evaluating what caused the recurrence of soreness in his knee; they’re still looking at that. When they’ve determined when that’s recurred, then they’ll take a course of action.

Williams: I mean, he had surgery. Have we not told people he had surgery? Well, he had surgery. Jesus Christ, I thought we’d told everybody. He’s not playing. He looks really damn good in a suit standing on the side, but that’s all I can tell you guys. He is not playing and it’s the same kind of thing; he didn’t play last year at the end of the year.

On going back to a more traditional two big-man lineup this season

I'd like to play two big guys up, I'm more comfortable doing that. Again, and it's no big deal, the line... How far did the line move back? That far? … My own personal opinion is the shooting scenes will go down a little bit. I think that's pretty common and easy to figure out. But that doesn't bother me because I want to throw the sucker inside anyway. So yeah, I think I'd like to play two big guys and Garrison gives you the freedom of knowing that he played the 4 and the 5 last year. We've tried to get him better at shooting a facing jump shot. He's worked at, he's worked at it with Coach Davis. Then you got Huff and Armando, Sterling is not playing. Walker's playing… Yeah, I'd like to play two big guys.

With all the new faces, how big of a learning curve is it to get them?

It's not that much different from other years. I mean, last year you know we had Leaky and Coby in the seer that we thought were going to be in our top six or seven. So this year, we've got Cole and Christian and Justin and Armando, so we have four of those guys that we think are in our top six or seven. So it's pretty similar there. The good thing you have is, and I think evidently it's the reason I do it, I think it's good we have four practices for an hour and a half once a week in the summer to try to get them used to... But that's just more or less to get them used to the pace.

Now we start teaching and doing a lot more than just... I mean a lot of in the summer is evaluating too. Trying to decide who is Christian Keeling? Who is Justin Pierce? How is Cole Anthony going to make the adjustment? But now it's something that we go through every year and some teams really pick it up quickly. Coby was really quick, Coby understood what we wanted him to do. I think Cole has so far shown that he's the same way.

Roy, you lost a lot of perimeter shooting production. What are your thoughts on what your team can provide to make up for that differential?

We've lost only perimeter production, we lost our five top scorers, you know? So we've got to figure out how to score. I've talked to them, we don't have Kenny, we don't have Luke, we don't have Cam. It's like Rick's old story about "they're not going to come walking in the door". So we've got to have guys that make shots, you've got to work at it better. The first five minutes of practice is shooting form and if you're intelligent, you will really concentrate during that five minutes because you can help yourself.

If you're intelligent, you'll understand everyday we talk about good shot and bad shot, and that can help us. At the same time, if our perimeter shooting is not going to be as good as it was last year, then we've got to balance out in something. We've got to rebound it better, we've got to defend a little better, we've got to play a little smarter. We've got to protect the rim more, we've got a score at the rim more. So you've got to just balance out how to play. But no, those are big time losses.

Raymond Felton said he felt like it took him the whole first year before you handed him the keys to the car so to speak, to trust him to run the offense and everything like you'd like. What's the process like for a point guard to earn your trust?

To do what I tell them to do, it's pretty easy. Raymond was so tough mentally, but Raymond's shot wasn't going in his sophomore year. You go look at the stats, it's like 29% and he wasn't establishing the defensive presence I wanted him to at the center line. In his junior year, he worked harder on his shot between those two years than anybody I've ever seen, and made more significant improvement than anybody I've ever coached. Not only just his shot, I mean if I'm not mistaken, his junior year, his second year with me, he led the ACC in three point shooting and the year before it looked awful. That was nothing but his sweat.

He also established our defensive presence by drawing a line at the center line and making it difficult on the other team's guard. But you know, I don't think that he didn't agree with what I was asking him to do. It just took a while for him to understand it and get better at it. I think it's a tremendous credit to him. Seriously guys, this is 32 years, I've never seen anybody change their shot like Raymond Felton did. I've never seen anybody change their body and his play like Sean May did. So those are two special guys there. Some guys change immediately, and some guys don't have to change very much.

With the return of the two big men lineup and then bigger point guards like Cole, what's the level of physicality?

Well now, Cole's not as big as Coby. Okay, so he's not bigger than Coby. I mean, even without the hair, he's not bigger than Coby.

With someone as strong as Cole is I guess, what's the level of physicality with this team compared to last team?

Oh geez. I think Coby was just as physical as Cole...Let's see, Kenny was very physical drawing charges. Luke was very physical, Cam was not as physical. Needless to say, B. Rob's not as physical. You know, we've just got to be able to rebound the basketball, that's all it is. The toughness issue between right ear and left ear is what I like better than necessarily physical play. I think beating a guy to spots rather than trying to hit him when he comes across you. So for me, I don't talk about the physical part of it, I just talk about going and getting the ball off the board.

What do you want the identity of this team to become? Whatever that identity is, how long do you think it'll take to develop that with his current roster?

Yeah, I don't know the answer to that because I think we've had four practices this summer and had four right now, and I don't think you really get to know the identity of your team until you start playing games and having some adversity. Especially maybe a little earlier or late in your preseason practices, you play an exhibition or play a scrimmage. We scrimmage Villanova again this year, so we'll know some more at that time.

But I think it'll be a running team and I think it'll be a good defensive team, even though we lost Kenny. Kenny was fantastic defensively, but I think that some of the other guys will pick it up a little bit and be pretty good defensively too. I think right now, I can't tell you.

Roy, we're in the last days of the so called one-and-dones. Are you conscious of that, that we're coming to the end of an era in a sense? Has it changed your recruiting?

Not so far, no. I think that when it changes, everybody's going to have that decision to make. ‘Okay, do I recruit Ed or is he going to go straight to the NBA? Well, if he's going to go straight to the NBA, I better make sure I recruit Luke.’ You know, something like that. My first year back here was the last year that you could go straight to the NBA. I remember just trying to find out what J. R. Smith and Marvin were going to do.

I went to J.R.'s home and left there and I said he's going to go to the NBA. I went to see Marvin and Marvin said he was coming. So we'll make adjustments like everybody will have to. I think you'll still try to recruit the best players, but you don't want to recruit to five best because if they all leave, then you don't have anybody.

I think one last thing too, and I may have said it, I thought we had said this. Sterling, when did he have surgery? … Yeah, it was after the season. So I didn't come and talk to him. I'm not on Tweeter or Twitter or whatever the hell it is, so I didn't send you a tweet that Sterling was having surgery.

Is there an official diagnosis on Sterling?

Kirschner: He has sore left knee.

Williams: There's a reason, now think of this, there's a reason they call it medical practice.