WRAL Sports Fan

WRALSportsFan

Roy Williams on the Record

By Greg Barnes, InsideCarolina

Jan 4, 2008

Roy Williams held his weekly news conference Friday heading into the Tar Heels' game at Clemson Sunday night. Here is a transcript of his comments and those of Wayne Ellington.

ROY WILLIAMS

Update on Quentin Thomas and Alex Stepheson:

“I do expect Quentin to practice today. So if he makes it through practice all right, I would expect him to play [on Sunday]. And I’m supposed to be hearing from Alex hopefully as soon as I go back upstairs as to how things are going, but I – needless to say – do not expect him to be back and ready to play.”

On the difficulties of playing with less players:

“You have to do some of your substitutions around timeouts. As I alluded to the other night in the national championship game in 2005, we went to a zone to try to keep somebody in the game. You’re not as aggressive – which is sometimes bad – but you’re not as aggressive in a zone as you are in a man-to-man. In 2005, we felt like we had a better chance of Raymond [Felton] not getting his third foul, for example, by going zone instead of staying in man-to-man.”

On Clemson’s Cliff Hammonds being a better shooter from the three-point line than the free throw line:

“Richard Scott at Kansas is third in field goal percentage in Kansas basketball history at over 60 percent, and he shot 48 percent for his career from the free throw line. It’s the reason there’s long putters on the PGA Tour. They don’t have long putters from the free throw line. If they did, there would be a [heck] of a lot of them being used.”

On Ellington:

“I think the biggest part of it is maturity and experience – going through it a second time. I think he is stronger, I think he’s quicker, and I think he’s able to handle the contact more and still make shots. I think he’s becoming the real true all-around offensive player that I think he is, not just the standstill jump shooter which I think at times last year he sort of relied on that. The other night he didn’t make a single jump shot, but he was still pretty effective… I think he’s a better all-around player.”

On Greg Little:

“I expect him to stay on as long as he’s having fun – which I think he is – and as long as he makes sure that I’m having fun. He’s a wonderful youngster. After the games, we have to get the extra ice bucket out to soak his elbow, but other than that, we haven’t had to make any extra [concessions] for him. If he runs through those lines as fast as he gets shots up, he’s going to be a Heisman Trophy winner. The boy’s not bashful. There’s only two times you should shoot the ball – when you got it and you’re open, and when you’ve got it and you’re not open. That’s what you see beside Greg Little’s name on his picture.”

WAYNE ELLINGTON

On the team dealing with the personnel losses:

“It’s tough, but we have guys that can step up. That’s the great thing about it – we have guys willing to step up and play for us. I don’t think we’re all too worried about it, because we have guys that are capable of stepping up and playing for us.”

On how the team is currently playing:

“I think we’re doing some great things. We’re doing some things well that we weren’t doing earlier in the season. But I also know that we haven’t reached our potential yet. We’re still getting better every day. That’s a great thing for us. We still have a lot of room for improvement.”

Are there any concerns that UNC has not played in many tight ball games?

“I don’t think so. I think we’re mature enough and experienced enough to know how to close out a game even when it is close.”