Roy Williams Press Conference: Improving Rebounding, Filling in for B-Rob and Previewing the Irish
North Carolina coach Roy Williams met with the media on Tuesday afternoon for his first press conference of the season. Here are the highlights as the Tar Heels prepare to play host to Notre Dame on Wednesday night (7 p.m., ACC Network).
On his team's rebounding
Yeah, my feel is not real good right now. I think Armando is long enough, he’s going to get some without jumping. Against Villanova, Christian had two and B-Rob had one. Last year, out of those two spots, we had about nine, 9 ½ rebounds a game. So, we’re worried about that part, but we’re still emphasizing it a heck of a lot; just haven’t gotten there yet.
Is the potential there to be a good rebounding team?
I really don’t know, not enough. I know, because I’d like every one of them, but they're continuing to work at it and we’ll see.
Has the approach changed in practice leading up to an ACC opponent?
I think there’s more of a sense of urgency than you would be if it was somebody else, and that’s not comfortable. I don’t like it, but it’s the schedule, so every year I say we’ve got to play whatever they put in front of us. Particularly with such a new team, I think … (TJ) Gibbs has started also twice as many games as everybody on our team together…
There is a greater sense of urgency about it because of that.
On expectations for Garrison Brooks...
To do everything he did last year, just do it a little bit better and we’re asking him to be a little more offensive-minded, take his shot more. I don’t want him to lose sight of what’s the best basketball. Yesterday, he took a shot from 16 feet ... Andrew was 15 ½ feet. I’d rather him pass it to Andrew, then you have Andrew shooting and Garrison rebounding, as opposed to the other way around but also, don’t want to be so hesitant that it bothers his percentage that he’s going to make because he’s worried if it’s the right shot or not.
Given the amount of attention Cole Anthony is getting, have you had to manage that with him and teammates?
If I have to, I haven’t done it yet because I haven’t seen the need to.
Several things are going on to be a leader and one is you have to be vocal, and the other way you can get it is respect from everybody else. He won the 12 minute run, he was one of two guys that passed the tough time in the conditioning test. We had a very difficult running day over at the indoor facility and he was off-the-charts good, so I think that he’s got respect from the guys because of that and he will listen.
Especially B-Rob and Garrison; they can say things to him and he takes it very well. He’s got a tremendous number of people saying tremendous things about him, but I think he’s still trying to do the best he can on the court. So far, I haven’t said a word to him about it; just go play.
Were coaches told in advance about starting with a conference game, and did you get to give feedback?
You know we’re like the mushrooms; throw the crap to us in the corner and hope it grows. I don’t think I ever heard anything about it.
Again, everybody’s got a schedule they’ve got to play. I think everybody knows I don’t like the 20-game schedule and all those kind of things, but if it were reversed right now, if I had, like Michael (Brey), all five starters back, it wouldn’t be bothering me as much as it is with Garrison being the only starter. That part of it is personal.
I don’t like the idea of the 20-game schedule … I think if I had five starters and Michael only had one, he’d probably be more bothered by it than he is.
What do you like about your team right now?
I think they’re trying hard, it’s just that it’s been such an unsettled preseason … we called one guy the day before practice, Robbie O’Han, and asked if he wanted to try out and he might play tomorrow night. That’s scary; a guy that was in our student-body, thinking about his next date and all of a sudden, we call him.
We have B-Rob, Jeremiah (Francis), Anthony Harris and Sterling over there in street clothes. K.J. won’t be in street clothes; yesterday is the first day he’s gone full-court for us. Four of those five … are one- or two-men. We’ve really been stressed quite a bit there.
Losing B-Rob, our most experienced, highest field goal percentage from three last year and all those things, and he was also our third point guard. We lose him at the two, three and now Andrew Platek, Christian Keeling, or Justin Pierce or Leaky Black are going to start at the two or three and not one of those guys has ever started an ACC game. So, just losing B-Rob is more than just one guy going down.
It’s been really unsettled, it’s hard to, we’re piecemeal things together, ‘Oh, we’ve got a game?’ We’re not just focused on playing a game; we’re trying to prepare for the long haul, but it’s been more difficult … it’s been the most difficult preseason for trying to get your team ready that I’ve ever had.
So Brandon Robinson is out tomorrow?
Yes. He really looks really good on that rolling scooter; he and K.J. are experts at that.
On replacing Robinson's production
He was the best 3-point shooter returning … we’d like for them to make some shots. They’ve got to rebound the ball. he wasn’t rebounding it great in practice, but that’s what we say from our two-, three-men; we’ve got to get help.
And be able to defend a guy on the perimeter. We’re playing against Notre Dame and 46 percent of their shots or something like that are from three, so again, he’s the only guy … he’s the only guy on our team that’s ever played on a consistent basis in an ACC game, so defense, offense, rebounding, ballhandling — we’ve got to get it from everybody, everything.
Does Robinson's absence affect leadership?
There’s no question that it affects it because he is the senior and he’s saying, ‘Coach, what do you think about this?’ Now, he’s got one knee up on the little scooter riding around the court. He was the leader of the team.
Cole … because of the nature of the position of point guard, is a leader, but B-Rob, if anything was going to be done with the team or by the team, he was the guy that I talked to.
What’s the benefit of opening with a conference game?
You’ll have to ask somebody else that question because I don’t see any benefits from it, I really don’t. I’m just being honest. Those of you that have been around here a long time, I told the story, one year we opened up with Georgia, Hugh Durham was their coach, great defensive coach and that was at home when I was at Kansas.
Second game, we played at Indiana and Bob Knight was a great defensive coach. We had a freshman point guard and a JUCO wing guy and they backed off those guys so far, and dared them to shoot, and they did shoot a couple in both games and both of them were airballs or bricks … they didn’t shoot again until February. It think that’s the hard part. You want to have some games that your kids can make some mistakes and not harm them for the rest of the year, not be a game-deciding factor and that was a team that went to the Final Four, but it took me two months to get those young guys … to get them to shoot the ball ever again because they backed off them so far it was embarrassing and we won both games.
I see no benefit. Now, if I had five guys starting, 12 guys back that all played, I might say it was OK, but I don’t see any benefit from starting that way.
Does this make you appreciate the experience you've had in recent years even more?
I think it’s harder to appreciate it more than I did because you always heard me say I like having those veteran guys around who have been through it and talent always wins, but experienced talent really wins. Experience can make up in a lot of areas for talent early in the season and then we see it again late in the season.
But North Carolina is still going to walk out there; you’ve got to have five guys that can play. I don’t like having more guys on the sideline in suits than wearing uniforms.
How serious is Robinson’s injury?
I think it’s really serious … he’s riding around on a scooter; he’s not walking. He’s got a boot on and he’s still riding around on the scooter. He looks like PlaySkool, and he fits right in, too.
Did you gain anything from playing without him on Friday?
Not really. We didn’t play very well and we showed them a lot on tape, so we’ll see how they bounce back. We didn’t necessarily do things that we really wanted to do, but that’s the reason we play an exhibition.
I always fight in my own mind whether it’s better to play two exhibitions and have two times out there where you’re in front of fans, because you're going to have some of that game slippage. I do like the mix of playing the scrimmage, closed scrimmage, where you can do a lot of teaching and have the exhibition, both. Maybe if you’re a young team, as young as we are, maybe it’s good to have two exhibitions. I don’t know; I always try to decide in my own mind.
There’s a lot of things we learned and now we’ve got to find out tomorrow night if we improved on any of them.
Will the 20-game schedule change how you approach the preseason?
I don’t know. If you have two more league games, it depends. I think it depends on your team. I fight that battle every year and I never come up with the right answer, so we’ve stuck with, the past several years anyway.
On Mike Brey’s offense and the challenge of defending Notre Dame
He’s really stubborn and they play the way he wants them to play. I happen to think saying stubborn is really a big-time positive because he knows how he wants to play and he gets those kids to play that way. Not only do I think he’s really a good guy and I enjoy him, I watch his team and I watch his team play a lot during the course of the season, so he gets his better shooters to get most of his shots and it’s something that I enjoy.
Again, (TJ) Gibbs, 104 games, 69 starts and I think that youngster has done what he wanted him to do from Day One. (John) Mooney is one of the, I think, one of the better players, probably the best returning player in the entire league … Michael’s style, they have great spacing, they want those guys that make shots to get more shots than those guys that don’t make as many. He’s always had a defensive guy that can protect around the rim … Durham right now, they have a guy around the rim that makes it difficult for you to score there. Have more than one ballhandler so you can’t take one guy away. He’s really a good coach; I’ve known Michael since he was a high school coach at DeMatha, one of Morgan Wootten’s assistants.
When I say stubborn, I say it in a very positive way because his guys play the way he wants him to play.
He does a lot of things. I’m not going to show up in the locker room without a shirt on like he did in Maui a couple years ago. I’ll do some wacko things, but I told him, ‘I’m drawing the line right there, big fella.’ Didn’t bother him at all; he was very comfortable with it.
You were upset about defense on Friday and didn't want to say more before you watched the tape. Did that make it any better?
Made it worse … we’ve been working so hard defensively. I went back and checked the practice plans from the last three years and there are certain things defensively we worked on this year than all three of those years put together.
What it’s done, too, is made us be a little farther behind offensively, with our efficiency and turnovers, probably, too.
How do you manage the younger guys and the pressure and expectation of being a Carolina basketball player?
I haven’t done a very good job of it. Yesterday, I just screamed at them and I don’t know that helped, either.
One of the greatest feelings in the world is running out of that tunnel on game night; it’s a pretty special thing. The only thing better than that is running back through that tunnel after you’ve played well and won and there’s a big difference in what happens in those 40 minutes as to how you feel.
They’re going to feel a little tightness and I don’t mind a little nervous energy; I want them to be excited about playing but I don’t want that to dominate. They’ve got to lose themselves in the game and focus on what we’re trying to do, play each position and, ‘Next play, next play.’ You can’t get worried about missing a shot and then going down and can’t find your man on the defensive end of the floor.
How does Cole Anthony's preseason hype compare to other star freshmen you've had?
Nothing like those guys. It’s 100 times more for any those guys because social media is so much more.
It used to be the telephone. My God, now we’ve got 100 things and I don’t even know what the hell they are so it’s, I think, 100 times more than anybody else. Harrison (Barnes) was 1,2,3 in the country, but social media now, it’s nowhere near close.
Cole has been very successful, very high-level for a long time, but it’s also because we’re in a different world now.
