Players speak about altercation

Staff photo by Ethan Hyman

Here are quotes from the players involved in an altercation Saturday with 1.9 seconds remaining in North Carolina’s 93-76 win at N.C. State.

With 1.9 seconds remaining, North Carolina reserve forward Michael Copeland was driving for a layup after a long pass from Bobby Frasor when N.C. State center Ben McCauley knocked Copeland to the floor with an intentional foul.

Copeland got back up and shoved McCauley before referee Les Jones separated them.

The referees called double technical fouls on the play, and North Carolina coach Roy Williams sent Copeland to the locker room early.

There was no flagrant foul and no ejection, so neither player should face disciplinary action for the next game.

Here’s what the players had to say about it:

MICHAEL COPELAND

"He hit me in my head. It was a hard foul, Bobby gave me a pass and I wanted to score – just like anybody, I hadn’t played and I wanted to score. And I went up; I guess he was frustrated, too, and he fouled me hard.”

"I was just trying to score, and he took me out.”

Q: Do you regret doing it?

A: Definitely, I regret doing it. It was a bad mistake on my part, and I should have just let it go and shot my free throws.

Q: What did Roy say as he came across the court?

A: I can’t tell you that (laughing).

Q: Did McCauley say anything to you?

A: I heard McCauley, and he was saying “Come on!’ He wanted to fight, but nobody was going to fight; the referees weren’t going to let us fight. . . .It was frustration on my part, I wanted to score. … Bobby, he probably shouldn’t have made the pass; he probably should have just taken the ball out and let time run out. But he wanted me to score. I shouldn’t have did that; it wasn’t a big foul. But I was frustrated.

BEN MCCAULEY

Q: Can you take us through what happened at the end?

A: I was a little disappointed that he was even going up for it. I thought that was a little disrespectful at that point. The game was over. I wish it didn’t happen the way it did, but I didn’t want him to get an easy dunk. To me, I thought it just was a little unnecessary. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone about it as physical as I did, but like I said, I didn’t want him to do that in front of our crowd and go off the floor with a dunk like that?

Q: Did he make any kind of threat to you?

A: He came up in my face, and went chest to chest with me. I didn’t really hear what he said, but as soon as he got off the ground, he came right at me. Somebody came in between us, and nothing was going to happen at that point. You’d be an idiot to take a swing.

Q: Did you make a peace offering when the dust settled?

A: I did. And I told Coach Williams afterward, I’m sorry. He said he was sorry, too, he didn’t mean for that to happen. No one really wants stuff like that to happen. It’s unfortunate, but it happened and we have to move on from there.

Q: You did look like you were saying, “Not in my house.” Were you defending your turf?

A: Absolutely. He can do that on his own floor or whatever, but don’t come into our home building with the game over pretty much and try to dunk like that. It’s kind of disrespectful.

Q: (Copeland) said that you said, “Come on,” and he felt like you wanted to fight.

A: No. What I did say, to be completely honest with you, when he came up to my face is, “What are you going to do? What are you going to do?” Don’t take a shot at me, because that’s going to get you ejected. You’re not going to be able to play in the next game, and that’s not smart on your part. I had no intention to entice him to do anything.

BOBBY FRASOR

Q: In retrospect, would you have thrown the pass to Copeland there at the end?

A: Probably not. I probably should have taken the high road and just dribbled the ball out, but I came in with him, I wanted him to score, I wanted him to get some memories. But if I had known that was going to happen, I probably would have thought twice about it.

Q: How much was it a symptom of rivalry?

A: It’s unfortunate that that happened, but we don’t really like State, and State doesn’t really like us. It’s known. Fans, they know it to. My guess is that if we had been playing some small school, he wouldn’t have done that, but since it’s State …