NIT SEASON TIP-OFF

November 29, 2002

Mike Montgomery

MIKE MONTGOMERY: Congratulations, North Carolina. Very, very good basketball team. Really ready to play, took us out of our stuff. They are very quick. Their speed, their quickness, athleticism really hurt us. I thought it got us back on our heels early on. We haven't faced a team that's that athletic, that's capable of doing what they are doing physically, and I thought it got into our heads a little bit and we got pretty tentative. As result we made a lot of unforced errors. Any time you have seven assists, 21 turnovers you are not going to win many games and that was sure the case tonight. But they are to be congratulated. They are really playing well. Probably should have got out of the zone quicker. They obviously solved that. Raymond Felton surprised us with his ability to shoot it from out. He hadn't looked -- hadn't shown much from 3. He hit some big 3s early. The problem with the man would have been Sean May because he's so big in there and we would have really had a hard time with him inside. But you know we didn't perform very well. We battled back when we got down, could have been looked like it was going to get bad and then we battled back and getting single digits, so forth. We didn't really do anything very well. Never made many shots, never strung together a stretch. Turned it over when we had some pretty good opportunities. 18 offensive rebounds. I bet you we converted very, very few of those. Usually when you get 18 offensive rebounds the conversion rate is pretty high. We didn't. So you know, that's a good learning experience for us. We're going to have to bounce back and take the positives out of the Florida win and the Xavier win and see if we can't build on it.

MIKE MONTGOMERY: I think -- I don't really think that they still got the confidence that maybe the early wins would have indicated. I think when North Carolina came out and got into us and stole the ball and took us out of our stuff, I think our confidence level dropped off pretty quickly. So I think what we need is more success. We have got a lot of work to do, no question. We knew that coming in. But I don't know that -- I'd like to see us compete a little bit a little better and seen us make some open shots and compete better for some loose balls. I thought they got to every loose ball before we did. Some of them had to do with their quickness but some had to do with their anticipation and we didn't anticipate very well.

MIKE MONTGOMERY: The reason we have 15 days off is because it's deadweek and finals so we don't have these kids 100% mentally during that time. It's a tough time for them. They have got a lot of work to do, and we have to shorten practices, we take days off, just allow them to get their work done. We don't have 100% of their attention these next 15 days. The other thing is that it's not as simple as just correct -- some of the stuff is just there because it's there. It's not -- the guys that are 195 pounds are going to be 195 pounds in 15 days. So that some of that stuff is not going to change. We just need to execute better and continue to get better at the things we're trying to do.

MIKE MONTGOMERY: Well, when you are in a place like North Carolina I think you expect it. On the other hand, you know, they have an awful lot of advantage too. It's kind of North Carolina show. This was about North Carolina - wasn't really about Stanford. They have a lot of positive things going for them. When you are in a place like that and you know, with the expectations and all of things that he has, you just have to live with that. That's just the way it is. There are other places that don't have advantage, you know, then I am sure the pressure is not quite as great. When you are in a high profile program like North Carolina there's going to be expectations. Those people always show up all the time. Not many people from Florida. Why? Florida is playing Florida State in football tomorrow. North Carolina could have played the Packers tomorrow and those people would have been here tonight. It is a big difference. That's just the way it is down there.

MIKE MONTGOMERY: We're 5 games into the season. I don't know that, you know, he hasn't gotten to the ACC yet. What he has got is really good freshmen players that -- I mean, I don't know you are going to find a much better pointguard than Raymond Felton, your off guard that can score like McCants and I really like Sean May inside, he's a very good center. He's passes, he's smart, he understands. He's a big guy. So those three guys in and of themselves would turn most people around.

MIKE MONTGOMERY: Well, I like our poise against Florida. I didn't like it much tonight. I thought we lost our poise a little bit. I thought we kind of scattered a little bit. When we play we have to play well together, we all have to be on the same page. We got guys who make some plays. We had -- we showed some poise in a pretty tough situation - coast to coast, we're at Madison Square Garden; we have got a lot of young kids that have never been in a situation like they were tonight. Only guy that's ever really started is Julius and Justin some. But these guys, I think they will get better with the experience. Matt Haryasz went in and made some plays. I just think we'll get better if they continue to pay attention, concentrate and focus.