Roy Williams Quotations

We were a pretty confident bunch beforehand. I think I'm confident. I hope it's not over the edge of cockiness, but I told them I felt like we were the only team in this country that could come in here and win this game.

(The regular season) is 16 games over two or three months, as opposed to three games over one weekend. It's more difficult to win the regular season.

When the hurricane occurred, our Mayor called the NBA and said we have a facility ready to house a professional team and he let them know that any way we can help out - we would,

Let's be honest, we made shots. When you make shots, the whole game looks prettier.

Let's call it what it was. A blowout.

Somebody asked me if I thought our freshmen had hit the wall. At every tough practice, or tough loss, I think they think it's the wall. It's just that there's a lot of walls out there for you.

None of us really thought that we'd be at this level.

No one's ever done anything better than David Noel. Sometimes a senior will say it's my turn, and he'll say it's my turn to the detriment of the team. David Noel has never put anything above his team.

No one had ever gone through it. We lost 91 percent of our scoring, and I believe 89 percent of our rebounding. I didn't have any coach I could call and ask, 'What did you do?' We've sort of been going by the seat of our pants.

Maybe 12 noon Sunday morning is too early. They may not like playing at that time. I told 'em, whatever they did last night, change it before we play again.

Nobody's ever done anything better than David Noel. David Noel has never put anything in front of his team. He's pretty special.

One of the reasons I didn't want to play Virginia was because of what happened nine days ago. If somebody beats me by 45, I'm going to be so fired up it's going to be unbelievable.

I would be in favor of that, but whether it can be pushed through the NCAA remains to be seen. It's devastating what's happened to those people.

I didn't really think he was gonna throw the ball, ... My eyes lit up and the rest is history.

I am confident, and I hope it isn't cockiness, but I told them that I thought we were the only team in the country that could come in here and win this game. I believed that we could if we played. We couldn't come in here and win unless we played our best game.

I am deeply saddened to say there was evidently a mistake.

I hate it for Mike, because he was so diligent this past summer in doing what he had to do to join our basketball program,

I hate it for Damion because he was prepared to play this year and had an opportunity to help us, ... From a basketball perspective, it certainly has an impact on our frontcourt depth. We didn't have much to start with, and now we are losing our biggest low-post player.

I felt like the luckiest guy in the world.

I feel very fortunate. If I was on the road, I'd get out of town as fast as I could. I feel like I stole somebody's candy.

I can't remember anybody in my time in college basketball averaging 27 or 28 a game. It's been a long time since I was in school. Every year there's somebody that leads the country in scoring averaging 27 or 28 a game, but his team's usually not very good. J.J. being able to do that and shoot the ball as effectively as he has with the other team's defense aimed at him is about as impressive as it can be.

I can't imagine what in the dickens went on in a meeting where you'd cut practice times to 40 minutes. Now they're making you practice twice. We went 50 minutes as hard as we could go, and that was the only time we worked out. Now, we've got to go somewhere. Forty minutes? I can sneeze seven times in 40 minutes.

Fourteen years ago I thought it was neat to win this award, and now I'm so much more appreciative of it. From the first day of practice this team was fun to coach yet they were focused on what they had to do.

For us, he was by far he was the best prospect in the country because of what he could bring us, and that was the inside scoring. I've never been one to prejudge, but I've always had hopes. I had some pretty high hopes, or we were going to be in trouble. He's so mentally tough and physically tough, and I thought he would be able to help from the get-go.

He's had better work habits in practice. I've stayed on his tail probably harder than anybody on my team. I do expect a great deal out of him.

He works as hard as any youngster I've ever coached. He comes every day trying to do the best he can do. I've said that since Day One.

He's a young man who will go out there and compete against a big guy or a little guy. It makes no difference.

He has meant everything. As a senior, you feel responsibility even more.

The people here in town do a great job with the tournament, everybody around it, the workers, the ushers. They've done it well enough that people keep asking them to do it again.

We're open to serve the humanitarian needs for the community.

We're on paper right now. Those guys in Green Bay are tops on the field.

He's got good technique and he works like crazy. I wrote on the board sometime maybe before Christmas two questions: 'Who do you guys think is the best shooter on the team?' and Who do you think works hardest at it?' It's a pretty easy deal.

He's been magnificent; he's been sensational. He and Wes have been great at working together and pushing each other. There's not a bad bone in that boy's body. If there is, I haven't seen it yet.

He just told me the same thing, to knock the ball down, ... Well, how can I knock the ball down? ... He just had a difference of opinion.

Greensboro's a first-round site? I had no idea. I couldn't name you another first-round site, and I'm a lot brighter now than I was when I came in because now I know one.

(Hansbrough) is very focused. He works extremely hard. He battles as hard as any freshman I have ever been around. Ever. ... You usually don't find freshmen with that kind of attitude and work ethic. That's a great quality.

Kevin's our third guy right now, and he brings veteran leadership to this group. But we do make fun of him because he's so small. He looks like he's 5-7 out there next to us. But he does make plays.

Just thinking about those things is mind-boggling to me, so I'm hopeful that we as coaches and we as a country will step up and do so many good things for those people. But regardless of what you do, it's never going to be enough. They've lost things that can't be replaced.

I think it's embarrassing, ... especially when you're an NFL football team full of professional athletes getting blown out -- which it was. I mean, let's call it what it was: a blowout.

I think the greatest thing has been his attitude to continue working. He bounced back from some tough times early this year and has really played well, and he's played well down the stretch.

I thought defensively we've competed awfully, awfully hard. (The) first seventeen minutes of the first half, I think we had them at like twelve points and I think it was just hard work on the defensive end, I think we were limiting them to one shot.

I was disappointed in Aaron's involvement. I didn't see it. I'll need to look at the tape. If we need to do some extra running for Aaron, it's what we should do. Our guys don't need to do those kind of things. Just shut up, get hold of your own player and get out of there.

I was dumfounded. We didn't have the fire ... it was the most disappointing thing that we've had to happen all season. But other than that (stretch), I was happy with the effort. ... But if I ever have a team to quit, I'll walk out of here and quit coaching.

I thought Virginia was much more aggressive and much more intelligent early in the game. Very uncomfortable over there for me.

It goes without saying we're extremely happy. The first 12 minutes of the second half is about as good as we've played all year.

I think we are very fortunate to continue playing. I thought Virginia was much more aggressive and much more intelligent, particularly early in the game.

I think we are very fortunate to continue playing.

I was just, ... looking into his eyes.

Jesse's over there hiding from me, ... He knows I'm going to say something.

Last night was about as impressive an opening-round game that I have ever seen a team play. I mean, I felt like they were shooting about 85 percent. They were guarding. They were doing everything.

Last night was about as impressive an opening-round game as I've ever seen a team play. They were so impressive last night, I was dumbfounded.

I saw Moss blaze down the seam, ... I wasn't able to take the right position. I should have read it faster and taken the proper angle. I take all the blame.

Survive and advance. That's what we're trying to do.

(Terry) is coming each and every day and working his butt off. He's trying to get better. He's extremely gifted, and the things he's trying to get better at are the hardest things.

I was extremely frustrated, there's no question about that. I'm hoping we learned some things that will help us (today).

I think everybody's nervous now because we need healthy quarterbacks. Both of them are down, but I think Joe will be there on Sunday.

I think he's had a sensational year. Off the court, sensational; practice, sensational; he's just done a great job keeping everyone focused.

Man, this is supposed to be our home stadium. This felt like a road game.

I think this team has done something that every coach wants to do, and that is gotten better as the season has gone along. They've put the effort and the concentration in to make that happen.

That was the best defensive half we've had this year. Now we have to do away with some of the carelessness and silly turnovers.

That's the kind of news we like to hear.

I was really pleased that they changed it ? because it's really player-friendly and team-friendly.

Mike has accomplished so much at Duke, and his roots are so deep that I thought it would be difficult for him to leave. I'm sure he felt it was in the best interest for him and his family. I know it is great for college basketball.

You have to feel for Gary. He's one of the toughest people in the business, but they're going through some difficult times.

You like the way you can compete and execute down the stretch, but we do feel very fortunate. We thought Tyler was very big again inside, to say the least, and Danny made some big baskets for us as well. Survive and advance, that's what we're trying to do.

You just have to admire how they played down the stretch. They ran their offense well and they bodied us up. I don't mean anything dirty.

We feel fantastic about the win. We got contributions from a lot of people, particularly off the bench. I actually thought that Tyler could have played a lot better, and, then you look at the stats, and see 21 points and seven rebounds. That tells you the type of marvelous year he's having so far.

We played more zone today than we've played all year long. I felt like we had to try something, because they were making every shot they took.

We played better defensively, to say the least, that we did in Charlottesville.

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We have a lot to prove and we're not going to come out here hanging our heads down because we had a 6-10 season. This is a new year.

Tyler was something in the second half. We talked about trying to drive the ball to the basket and try to get good spacing and I think we did a much better job of that in the second half. We tried to stay fresh on J.J. but he got some good looks and just missed them.

When you're playing a team of that caliber, you can't make the mistakes we made.

You look back at one play here and one play there and all that kind of stuff but they made the plays when they had to. If we could've gotten a couple of offensive rebounds or a couple of stops but we didn't. But I think Craig Smith was sensational.

You don't need to rub it in. I love our crowd but I don't like putting other people down.

The fact that the score was close is not something you worry about. You just have to play.

What I think now is that it allows them to get coached by listening to their teammates handle what perhaps could be difficult questions.

We were searching. We were looking for something.

We were searching, and I don't mind saying it. We were looking for something. I don't think you can keep doing the same thing over and over and over.

We keep competing all the time and I thought we did a much better job of that in the second half.

Top to bottom, this is the most difficult I've ever been in. I believe we've got some seven to nine teams in this league that are in the top 64 in this country.

Top to bottom, this is the most difficult I've ever been in,

With young kids, they don't know anything about what's getting ready to happen. So you have a much better chance of trying to point them in the direction that you want them to go, and this team has been very compatible with what we've wanted them to do.

To see Jackie, Jawad, and Melvin...they were hugging and saying a prayer...and they allowed me to join them - that was the greatest moment you can possibly have.

We flipped a coin in the end zone, I mean past the baseline, in a high school gym in Vegas.

You can hope and pray and hold your mouth different ways, but the bottom line is, you have to put the ball in the basket.

We feel very fortunate, to say the least. First-round games are always difficult. If your team hasn't been through it, they have no idea how big it is.

We feel very fortunate, to say the least.

We are very fortunate to continue playing. (Virginia) made 24-of-29 free throws and those two guys, Singletary and Reynolds, made 24-of-26. We came out a little flat and our guards got in foul trouble early, so we had to use our bench extensively.

Every coach likes to have his team's full attention during timeouts. We get out there and the chairs are chained together, so you can't pull five chairs out onto the court.

Craig Smith was sensational. But really it was their whole club. They're just a heck of a team. I know they got off to a little bit of a slow start at 0-3 in the league, but they've played as well as anyone since then.

Craig Smith was sensational, but it really was their whole club. They're just a heck of a team.

There's no possible way you're going to drop a brick and have it fall on your toe. You're going to look at that brick all the way in. I think it's helped.

I've never had that even though I've had two guards who've been the two leading scorers. I've always had other guys who can score. It's amazing what they've accomplished. They've had a heck of a good year.

The 'X' is usually the 'clear out' guy, ... Charles could easily jog, but he's hitting it full speed and running full speed coming back to the huddle. He doesn't ask for the ball. We've got a lot of crossing routes, but he doesn't say, 'Can I get an X cross?' I think he believes that good things come to those who wait.

I've seen a lot of teams, including Kansas last year, go far after they struggled in their first games. You have to get by and get lucky sometimes. We have to play better Saturday. We have no hope, no chance if we don't play better Saturday.

I've rarely watched film of T.O. or Jerry,

It was about as impressive of an opening-round victory as I've seen.

Q's been playing much better lately and I told him he's got to play. I thought Q did some nice things for us. I think he really has played much better.

Other agencies are going through this same situation,