NCAA Tournament: Roy Williams talks win over Texas Southern

UNC head coach Roy Williams discusses the team’s win over Texas Southern in the first round of the NCAA Tournament

The North Carolina Tar Heels took care of business in their 103-64 win over Texas Southern on Friday and you better believe it pleased head coach Roy Williams.

UNC looked good right from the start and didn’t struggle as a No. 1 seed against the No. 16 Tigers in Greenville.

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They especially dominated on the boards, out-rebounding the Tigers 54-27. That included 20 offensive rebounds leading to second-chance opportunities for the Tar Heels.

For the head coach Williams, the number of points the Tar Heels put up didn’t matter but instead it was how they executed the game plan as they look ahead to Sunday.

“The number of points we scored really doesn’t have anything to do with it,” Williams said. “It gave us confidence that we tried to follow the things that the coaches emphasized. We wanted to play defense without fouling, the first half they shot six free throws so we did a better job of that. We wanted to do a great job on the boards.”

If the Tar Heels can stay consistent and dominate the boards, they will be a tough out in the NCAA Tournament.

One of the negatives from the big win came in the form of Joel Berry who landed awkwardly on his ankle following a three-point attempt.

“My biggest fear was Joel Berry,” Williams said. “You know how sometimes as a coach when there’s timeouts, you have negative thoughts.”

Williams explained that he went back to 2002 when his No. 1 seed Kansas Jayhawks beat Holy Cross 70-59 but the game was close in the second half. Jayhawks guard Kirk Hinrich suffered an ankle injury in the game.

As for Berry, Williams explained the situation a little more and why the point guard returned to the game.

“I put him in for 2-3 minutes cause he wanted to and we wanted him to get confidence that it was okay and it wasn’t that bad,” Williams said. “Also, I think the more you move those things around (ankle) sometimes they don’t balloon up. So that was the thought of me and Doug, and I guess he talked to some of the doctors back there.”

As for the next game, Williams knows it wont be an easy task and what the Tar Heels have to do to win.

“We’ve got to attack them back,” Williams said. “They do want to speed you up and we want to play at that pace ourselves. We want them to go fast, we want to go fast but we’ve got to take care of the basketball.”

For more on Williams postgame press conference, check out the YouTube page of UNC Athletics.

Tip time for UNC-Arkansas is yet to be determined. Check back with Keeping It Heel for more pregame coverage as the two teams meet on Sunday.

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