North Carolina
Ingram: It hurts, we didn't make it as far as we wanted to together
Harrison Ingram speaks to the media after an 89-87 loss to Alabama.
You know, it's hard, go through a season, like I said earlier, I mean, one game season is over and now we're done now. They played a better game than us, played tough, played together. You know, I thought we played hard by the end of the day they came out on top, did it, did it? I don't know, was it surprising just how they seem to have a response for all the runs that you guys made that seem like they maybe would have been a knockout blow. And it, it just wasn't, we're not surprised. I mean, they're a great team. I mean, they made it this far every team here. Sweet 16. I mean, everybody's not trying to lose. No one's trying to go home and, you know, they put it together a pretty good game. They're making threes and they played better than us in the end. I just feel, you know, heartbroken. I mean, to go through all this work, I mean, waking up at 6 a.m. the lifts miles in the summer, all the running and now it's all over. You don't get the, you know, we're in one seat and we get to finish the job and you know, this hurts you guys have been really close all season long. What was the message amongst each other after this one, you know, from the coaches is to not let this one loss, you know, derail good things we did this season, you know, one seed ac C regular season title. But at the end of the day, you know, I wish it hurts right now and this is, this is part of life and not everybody's gonna win. You know, only one team is gonna end up winning and, you know, we didn't make it as far as we wanted. But at the end of the day, you know, we, we love each other and we'll be together forever. Harrison does, it hurt a little more knowing how close this group had gotten. 100%. I mean, to, to know that it's over, especially for our seniors, you know, they're done. Their fifth year seniors are done, you know, their careers are over here and I'll never get to play on the court again with them and, you know, it hurts. But, I mean, that's part of life and, you know, that's not to deal with it. What legacy do they leave on this program? I mean, I think it's bigger than just wins and losses. Yeah, we had a good season, 30 wins or whatever it was. And, but then the day, you know, I feel like we brought back, you know what Carolina basketball is of the excitement, the, the togetherness, the fast break, you know, that the team chemistry, all that they weren't known for their defense, but they seemed like they gave you guys some tough times tonight. What specifically did they do? That kind of got you guys out of your, out of your game. But they're good at, you know, they're in the gaps, they're plugging the gaps and forcing us to shoot threes with people. We don't want to shoot threes with and, you know, they did a good job of playing their game plan and even we may shot, they stuck to the game plan. They end up getting up with, what was the strategy in the second half with Seth and Elliott on the bench for most of the second half? What was the, what was the approach? I think we were more shooting, you know, they were off and they were hitting threes and, you know, we were getting a lot of open looks. So you think said, put in the best shooter was a character for RJ. Did you sense? They were giving him extra attention and maybe disrupting his rhythm. I mean, he's ac player of the year and, you know, at the end of the day, you know, teams are geared towards him and one has a bad game. It just happens at the wrong time and, you know, I've had my bad games. He has his bad games everyone have the bad games and, and I feel like he did a good job about passing the ball. Um, they're double teaming him, they're gapping him. They, every time he drove, they're sticking in, he did a good job of fighting open people. But at the end of the day, we weren't there to pick him up and, you know, the day we lost. How does this influence your decision maybe to come back? I haven't really thought about that yet honestly. And you know, they came, they came down, they scored, they got us to the foul line and then we got an open three by J witt. They missed, we missed it. They came down, they get to the, they get a lay up again and then we come down, we run a play, we get a good look and we miss it, try it off three brown um chocolate violation. They get the ball and yeah, I mean, from there and all those they made, they made two Frutos. Mr Fos tried to shoot, shoot a full court shot and they won. Were you guys expecting with their pace? Did you want to play with that pace or did you guys want to slow it down? Can talk me through the game plan of how to go with their offense? No, a little bit of both. I mean, we have pace too, so we pushed the pace and, and I feel like it was a game with pace first pace. And at the end the day, they made more shots than we did. Um, they executed well, they found the mismatches a lot, especially at the end with Grant Nelson, we kept running the same play a little step up screen trying to get the switch on to the guard. And, um, you know, they did a good job of running their plays. And at the end of the day, you know, we ran our pace, you know, we played the game and won the play and, you know, we just didn't make enough shots to win and they did a good job of giving them credit on the defensive end and they weren't the best team. And today they shot out on the defensive end, Harrison, you guys were, we're defending differently and the shots were a little bit more challenging. I I'm saying we got the same shots in the first half, you know, good, pretty good open looks, you know, midrange shots. I like we shot some shots that we kind of rushed them and they, they played, they did a good job but, you know, forcing us to shoot the shots, they wanted us to shoot, run the house and wanted to shoot and, you know, coach Davis halfway through the half told us again, we get back to what we do. We're down eight, I think. And then we made a seven and we went on a quick run, you know, Archie get the line three times in a row and tied it up and, you know, the day, you know, we just, we're up three and, you know, we gave the lead away. I had two.