Lackluster North Carolina Beaten at Home by Marquette

Coach Roy Williams took issue with questioning during press conference

North Carolina had a lackluster performance against a visiting Marquette team who entered Wednesday game at the Smith Center with a losing record. The Tar Heels fell behind early and lost by an 83-70 score.

Afterward, Roy Williams was asked how he would respond to Tar Heel fans who took issue with him adding the Marquette game to the schedule, given the result.

“If I'd known we were gonna lose, God Almighty, I wouldn't schedule it then. Come on,” Williams said. “We can't operate in damn hindsight. God Almighty. If you told me we were gonna lose, hell no we wouldn't have played the game. If you'd told me we were gonna beat the Lakers, I would've scheduled them. Carolina fans, they're not that dumb. If they are, I've got no answer for them.”

Williams then left the press conference after a little more than four minutes, easily one of his shortest postgame press conferences of the season.

Prior to that, Williams didn’t have much positive to say about the result of the game.

“The most unselfish team won today,” he said to start his remarks. “The hardest working team won today. And again I'll say, the best coached team won today.”

The loss came after one of UNC’s best outings of the year, a 45-point rout of Louisville.

“We can't stand a little prosperity,” Williams said. “That's my take on it. I mean, the first two possessions of the game, we don't get any boxouts and they get three shots the very first possession of the game. Luckily, they missed those. But we had some shots close early. We were too soft with them. So many different things. Kills you at halftime when three perimeter players were 0 for 11 from the floor. We have 19 turnovers. Can't do that. So many different things.”

“It's just we've had a couple of good wins and then we turn around and we think we're a lot better than we really are,” he added. “We don't have the attention to detail. It's bad coaching, bad coaching. I called a set one time and they got out and they ran another set. They're not disciplined enough to do what I say, they went out on the court and changed their minds.”