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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE OPERATION BASKETBALLOctober 24, 2018Roy WilliamsCameron JohnsonKenny WilliamsCharlotte, North Carolina THE MODERATOR: We're joined by North Carolina. Q. Players, what did you guys learn about the state of the team's readiness for the season from the scrimmage with Villanova? CAMERON JOHNSON: I think there's definitely areas that we can improve. I think there's definitely some spots that we did well in. But we see the areas that we can improve, and we've addressed them. And I think going forward we know how to correct it and we know that we can correct it, which is a big thing. There's definitely some areas -- you know, rebounding defensively, even offensively -- that we can improve on. And it showed us a lot about ourselves. And I think Villanova is a team that plays with great energy and intensity, and it's the intensity that we're going to have to match and even do better than whenever we step on the court for games that matter. KENNY WILLIAMS: We went up there saw areas where we could improve, but also in those areas we showed ourselves that we could do it. It's just a matter of doing it consistently. And I think we definitely watched the film and we saw what it is that we needed to work on, and we addressed those things and we'll work on them the next two weeks going into the first game. COACH WILLIAMS: I don't have anything to add. They said that pretty well. Q. What's it like coming to this building knowing that you're back here again in March and there's already a bit of a history with this club here? KENNY WILLIAMS: That was actually the first thing I said to Cameron when we got out of the car. I talked about our last time being here, how we ended our season here. We know what happened here. And we know that we have some history now. And we've just used that as motivation in practice and in the preseason. Coach definitely hasn't let us forget it. But we use it as fuel and motivation to get back there and not let it happen again in that same situation. So it's definitely something that we won't forget. CAMERON JOHNSON: When Kenny and I stepped out of the car, we could kind of feel -- I still felt there were some emotions left over in the loading dock from exiting the game against Texas A&M in the tournament. So we weren't even thinking about ACC tournament or, you know, what's upcoming. I think that sting of the tournament was still kind of there. And Coach hadn't let us forget that much over the past couple of days, past couple of weeks. And it's definitely motivation going forward because that's not something you want to happen in the first place, let alone two times. And it's something we learn from, and it pushes us in a little bit of a different way. Q. Coach, you chuckled when you said you don't let them forget, but there's a fine line between keeping it as motivation and then just tucking it away and let it be gone. How do you strike that balance? COACH WILLIAMS: You'll have to ask them if I've done it successfully or not. But I don't think you should forget things that you have an opportunity to learn from. And I think we didn't play as well as we wanted to play against A&M. They did a better job than we did. But I don't think you should just let those things go. I think as Kenny said use it as fuel, use it as motivation to play better, as Cam said remember that and try to play better when you get out there. But we've been beaten a lot in the NCAA Tournament over the years. We've won some as well. But I think every year you should remember those things and try to make sure you don't make the same mistakes. And last year I didn't think we defended around the rim very well, and we didn't score around the rim very well. Both of those holes in our game really showed up against A&M. So we've got to try to correct that. Q. How are the big men progressing? What are your thoughts about the 5 position at this point? And obviously too early to tell how much you will play the 5 or how many times you may go smaller, but what do the big guys have to do to meet your satisfaction? COACH WILLIAMS: Part of the answer is in the really easy. I have no idea how many times we'll go big or small. We've got three weeks of practice. We've got two more weeks before the first game. And things change during the course of the season as to how successful you are, whether you want to stick with what you're doing. Sometimes it's driven by some guy's playing great, some guy's playing poorly, some guy's got a sprained ankle or whatever. So I don't know that part of the answer. The big guys, Brandon Huffman's had two practices, all of them that he's been fully healthy because he's had knee problems. Sterling Manley looks like he's playing bigger, which you like to have length around that basket. I still want him to work about 7,433 times harder. But I think that he has improved. Walker Miller's improved. Garrison Brooks does more of the little things that coaches appreciate and doing it on the defensive end of the floor and being more aware than the other guys have. But somebody needs to step up and say, hey, I can do this, and not only say it but do it, prove it to us out on the court. If one of those guys steps up and proves it to us on the court, I will be more comfortable. And sometimes that's good that the coach is more comfortable. Sometimes it doesn't make any difference. But I would like for one of those guys to step forward, or all of them collectively. It's hard to go in a game and say which guys will do it tonight? You give player A, B, C and D all a chance, and A, B and C stink it up, by the time D gets in there, it's too late sometimes. But I would like for them to step up and be more consistent with their effort and with their concentration in those two areas more than anything. Q. As someone who has been in this game for a bit and is viewed as a steward of the game, if you will, what is your responsibility as you look at kind of the tenor of things right now with the trial and everything in terms of addressing that and perhaps helping people understand what's going on with it all? COACH WILLIAMS: It's really hard. That's really a good question. I've stated what my thoughts were, that it's a world that I don't operate in. I've never had a parent ask me for anything. I've never used an agent. Never used a shoe company. Don't do those kind of things. And I think a very intelligent person one time told me there's a difference between being indifferent or having a lack of knowledge. And my problem is I have a lack of knowledge about those things. I'm not very indifferent about it at all. I think that there's some major problems, some problems that need to be worked out, some things that need to be changed. I don't think you can legislate morality. I don't think you can legislate honesty. But what we have here is a very big problem that's a national problem that's in the news that we've got to be aware of it. But it's hard for me to understand. I mean, like somebody -- if I were to ask you guys how do you do a drug deal or how do you take care of our nuclear armament process that we have, how do you do something in nuclear sub, all of you guys are very intelligent, doesn't mean you're not intelligent, but you have no idea how to do all three of those things. I would think that you would know how to do all those things. But being indifferent is something I'm not. I think the problem that we have is something that has to be addressed. If I'm able to mentor a college coach, if I'm able to mentor a player that wants to know about the college game, I would say that our glass is really half full. I think there's great things going on in college basketball. I'm a coach that thinks there's great things going on in summer basketball. I had a person that was on one of those committees. I said it to Pete Shem (phonetic). I said, "Sit right here with me and watch the game." And at the end of the game -- and it was a great game -- one team scored five points in one second and won the game. And people were excited and everything. I said, "Now tell me what was wrong with what you just saw." And he said, "Absolutely nothing." Now, I didn't plan the game was going to be that good, but I just wanted to see what he really thought was negative there. But there are some things, and we've got to be aware of that and try to address those situations. If we do have penalties and somebody's found guilty of things, then I think those penalties should be really harsh. But, again, I'll go back to this thing. 1906, I think I'm close, is when the NCAA was formed. There were some bad things going on in college basketball recruiting. President Roosevelt says we need somebody to oversee this, and that was when the NCAA came out. We've had times in our game, whether it's in football, basketball, in the sports world, we've had some times where some negative things have been going on and times that there haven't been. And I think this is one of those, but I don't think that I'm trying to put my head in the sand and ignore it. Q. Coach, can you talk about how Sean May has grown from being an All-American player to now a prominent member of your coaching staff? COACH WILLIAMS: How he's grown? Yes, he has. Kenny and Cam will remind him when he gets back. He's not exactly my man's playing weight, okay (laughter). No, he's turned the page. I've said this many times. Sean May was one of the five most intelligent guys I've ever coached. Sean played the 5 spot for us. And he could have run any position in practice, in any drill. He knew exactly what to do. In fact, I'll say it and challenge these two guys. He could have played the point guard or the wing in any dummy offense and knew what to do. Again, one of the five most intelligent guys I've ever coached. In his senior year, I thought he was the best player in basketball -- junior year, excuse me, his last year. But he's turned the page on playing and wants to coach and wants to work with guys that he thinks that he might be able to help, and he's a positive role model for them. He's helped put a banner on one end and his jersey is on the other end. He's been very successful. And I'm very, very fortunate to have him back with us and love having him with us every day. Q. Coach, curious what your thoughts are on the increase in the conference schedule to 20 games in the future and pros and cons, if you will? COACH WILLIAMS: That has been an issue that I've been very outspoken about. I didn't like the way it was done. I asked one time I said some TV folks, I said would you rather have us against a team that's last place really struggling, have no players, or would you rather see us play Kentucky or Kansas or Arizona? They said of course those games. And I said, well, we go to 20 games, I'm not going to play as many of those games. Last four years, our schedule, by the tournament committee, has been No. 1, No. 6, No. 6 and No. 1 in the last four years. So we've played a very difficult schedule. And, heck, this year may be the most difficult schedule we've ever played. But in reality, to move to 20 games, it's really a 21-game schedule. Because we have the ACC-Big Ten and we're not going to do away with that and shouldn't. It does make it harder. You can't play the Golden State Warriors one night and Boston Celtics the next night and Portland the next night in college because you have to have some time where your guys gain some confidence. I used this as an example earlier today. I had two first-year players one time at Kansas. Both gifted, very highly rated, very important to our program. First game of the year we played Georgia. Hugh Durham was a coach who was a great defensive coach. He backed off those youngsters about 12 feet. They didn't make a shot. The next game we went to Indianapolis and played Bob Knight's Indiana team, and they backed off those same guys two guys 12 feet. Now, much different than the two guys sitting up here with me. I could not get those guys to shoot for three months. These guys are shooting three seconds up here. But those kids completely lost their confidence. And so I think there's some times for building confidence. There's times for building team chemistry, and it's hard to do that if you're playing those kind of teams all the time. So I'm not in favor of it. Coaches had no voice in it whatsoever. And we go to the spring meetings, there's no talk about it. And then all of a sudden in July we're doing it. So that's what happened. Q. Cam, this is your second year in the program. And from what I understand, you're healthier now. How will the experience and the improved health enhance what you're able to do on the court this year? CAMERON JOHNSON: I think it will go a long way for me. Going into a new program last year, adjusting to everything that comes along with that and having to sit out a couple of weeks before getting back and having to jump in really close to conference play was a little bit different. So this year I feel like I'm just on a better foot. I feel like I have more knowledge of the system, more knowledge of what Coach wants and what the teammates want to do. With my body feeling better, I can step out on the court each day focused on basketball more than kind of the ache or pain of the day, anything like that. It's a burden off my shoulders, a little bit of a burden off my back, and I'm looking forward to getting a heavier portion of non-conference and getting my feet under me towards conference play this year. Q. Coach, what are your initial thoughts over North Carolina Senator Rick Gunn and John Alexander Jr., just talking about their open letter to the NCAA expressing their displeasures over the Hurricane Florence charity game? COACH WILLIAMS: Steve Kirschner is going to appreciate you guys because you're throwing me some lobs. I saw the letter from Mr. Emmert, the president of the NCAA, which is the hardest job in the world as far as I'm concerned. It's frustrating, the response was frustrating, it's still frustrating. Fairly close -- I can't give you the exact date, I may be able to go back figure it out on my calendar. But after the hurricane hit, I'm trying to think of some ways that we might be able to do some things. And last year we did something very simple, very small, and we raised a little bit of money. I was trying to think of a way to make a lot of money that we could give to the hurricane victims. I'm in eastern North Carolina quite a bit, and I see what's gone on. I have a house in Wilmington. And so I know what went on down there. You watch TV, I watched The Weather Channel for three days, and more of those three days I ever have in my life. I was seeing what was going on, tried to figure out a way to make a lot of money. The two areas hurt more than anyone, and not the only ones, but hurt more than anyone was North Carolina and South Carolina. I called Frank Martin to see if he would be willing, and he jumped on immediately and said he would be willing to do it. And so we applied for the waiver. And the fact of the matter is when our compliance girl is on the phone, they said: We don't want you to apply because we're not going to say yes. We're not going to permit it. We've made the decision we're not doing any waivers. And so then I made the statements at my press day that I was really sad that it happened. And someone immediately called back and said, well, you didn't ask for a waiver. Come on now, let's not play games. The reason we didn't ask for a waiver, we were told not to because it wouldn't do any good. Then I hear about the senator sending the letter and the response was back that every school had two opportunities: You can play two scrimmages, you can play two exhibitions or one of each. We already had an exhibition scheduled with Mount Olive. We do it with teams in our state to give them some money to help their programs. Every year I've been there, I've played an exhibition game against somebody in our state. We already had that scheduled. We didn't want to take money away from them. And I didn't necessarily think that would raise a lot of money. Like I thought North Carolina and South Carolina would particularly if we did in this building. We also had a private scrimmage scheduled. We had a signed contract for a private scrimmage. And it was bringing in some other state that was not as heavily damaged as our state was. So, again, a waiver means that somebody can get a waiver. You don't have a waiver program if you're not ever going to give anybody a waiver, but there was a waiver program. And so I was disappointed that the answer was North Carolina, South Carolina could have made some changes and they had all the opportunities in the world. Well, the fact of the matter is we wanted to do it quickly. Quickly. And when it was really in front of everybody it was some situations that people were still living through. And so I was disappointed by the answer because -- like I say, I think he's got the toughest job there is. But you're talking about some people who had tremendous tragedies going on in their life. We were not going to gain any advantage on State or Duke or Wake or Virginia or Florida State by playing that game. We were trying to make some money to help some people. That's the bottom line. Yes, you could say we could have canceled Mount Olive, we could have canceled our scrimmage and tried to get it, but I thought we could have done that so quickly, getting North Carolina and South Carolina involved that it was a home run. And again, if there is a waiver process, I don't believe you have to treat everybody the same. Just treat everybody fairly. And I think somebody, pick a state, somebody in Arizona or Idaho or something, that sees The Weather Channel, sees what's going on, I don't think it would hurt them. Q. John Swofford said today they'll kick off the season with an ACC conference game, play a couple games before Christmas. Thoughts on that kind of change to the ACC conference slate? COACH WILLIAMS: That doesn't bother me if we're chosen in a year to be one of those. It's going to be the same for everybody. You still play 18 this year. So it doesn't bother me. I think it's wise. I don't think we'd be doing it if people didn't think it was a good idea. Q. Coach, when was the first time that you saw Luke Maye play in high school, and how has he changed and grown since then? COACH WILLIAMS: The first time I saw Luke play in high school was I'm guessing sophomore year, but he'd been in my basketball camp before that. So maybe in the seventh and eighth grade is the first time I had seen Luke. I went to that game just to see Luke. His body's gotten 100% better or at least 99% better than he was then. He's much stronger, leaner, quicker, bouncier, all those kind of things. The other part I would say that's changed, whenever that was, sophomore, junior year, the kid spent an unbelievable amount of time and sweat to be the player that he is right now. He's one of the better players in our game, and it's all because of sweat. Q. Coach, so obviously 3-point defense was somewhat of a struggle last year. How have the newcomers come in? Have any of them impressed you as perimeter defenders so far? COACH WILLIAMS: Well, the new guys, I think Coby is good defensively, has a chance to be really good. I think Leaky is very good defensively and has a chance to be really good. And Nassir is so athletic he can be really good as well and he works really hard. So I'm hopeful that all three of those guys can be very good defenders for them. And you're right, I said something about scoring around the rim and defending around the rim. The other thing that was a negative for us last year was guarding 3-point shot, and so far the chances that we've had this year we haven't done a much better job of it. In our secret scrimmage. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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