Wake Forest Athletics
Quotes From ACC Operation Basketball
11/3/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 3, 2002
Following are quotes from Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser and seniors Josh Howard and Steve Lepore at ACC Operation Basketball Sunday in Greensboro.
Josh Howard:
On his favorite places to play basketball: "I enjoy playing at Duke and Maryland the most, but I like playing everywhere in the league. I enjoy the different atmospheres as long as we can go in there and get a win."
On being a senior leader: "It's a job that I inherited. It's a job that I'm going to have to do. I'm going help out my teammates this year as much as I can. I think last year I had a little bit of a leadership role, but this year its definitely going to be a bigger role for me."
What he's like on and off the court: "Being on and off the court are two different worlds for me. I enjoy playing and I enjoy life, too. In basketball, I work at it hard because I want to win. Off the court I am pretty calm, most of the time."
On his expectations for the upcoming season: "I'm looking forward to this year. We're going to be young, just like the rest of the league. But we have some guys who are ready to step up and take pride in what they do out there on the court. We just have to take it one game at a time and we'll be a team that takes it all the way."
Steve Lepore:
On the difference of playing in the Big-10 and the ACC: "I think the ACC is different because of the tempo of the game. The Big-10 has a lot more set plays and is more physical. The ACC is up and down, more athletic. But there are great players in both leagues. Its basketball country down here though. The Big-10 is more about football. I mean, they have great places to play and great traditions, but the ACC is the place to play basketball."
On his expectations for the upcoming season: "Right now I'm just trying to get healthy. At Northwestern, we didn't make it into the tournament. I was a part of the team last year, but didn't get to play in the tournament. That's what I want to do before I graduate is to get to play in the tournament. But my main goal right now is to just get healthy."
On the team's youth: "I think that Taron, Jamaal and Vytas proved themselves last year. The way they have come along this year in conditioning and practice so far, I'm not really worried about those guys. As far as the freshmen, they've made their 'freshmen mistakes' in practice, but they definitely have the talent to compete in this league. Right now with Josh and I not being able to get as much action as we should be, they're getting the experience they should need in practice to be able to compete. We are certainly going to have our ups and downs with the freshmen, but they're hard workers and they're good guys, so we'll see what happens."
Skip Prosser:
On the team: "I think the kids are trying really hard. It's been difficult lately because we have so many kids banged up, but that's part of it. I think its tougher for our younger kids, because our older kids are the ones missing practice, Steve [Lepore] and Josh [Howard]. [The freshmen and sophomores] really don't have anyone to model, the seniors leaders are not out there doing the work. Their attitude has been really good. Taron Downey specifically has been very vocal and really tried to assume the mantel of leadership in a positive way. He has strung a series of good practices together. Vytas [Danelius] and Jamaal Levy are trying very hard to be leaders, but again they are baby faced sophomores, not grizzled veterans. They are trying very hard."
On the injuries: "We're hoping that Justin [Gray] will be full go tomorrow and Eric [Williams] should be pretty much full go as well tomorrow. Josh is pretty much minute-to-minute. I just think the realization is he's had a multitude of tests and a multitude of opinions, and I think the conclusion at this point is that he's going to have to play with a modicum pain, and hopefully he'll be able to play through it for the most part."
On the freshmen: "I think Trent Strickland has been the most consistent in terms of working very, very hard in conditioning. He's probably in the best condition of the freshmen, and he has played pretty well. Justin Gray is an excellent offensive player, he has a good command of the game, and at times has shot the ball very well. Eric has had his progress retarded by his absence in practice this week. I thought he was making good progress prior to the injury. I think he has a real learning curve, so I think he will get better and better. Chris Ellis' effort has been consistent, the results have been pretty inconsistent. He has a lot of potential. I think he could be an excellent player, and its not that he's not trying hard. I'm not sure he realizes how good he could actually be, and we're hoping to evoke more of that out of him in terms of playing with more emotion and with more force inside. Overall, I think he has excellent potential. Richard [Joyce] has shot the ball well in the one scrimmage we've had, didn't shoot the ball well yesterday. He has struggled with some things defensively, but he's trying his best. He stays after practice and shoots almost everyday, so I think he's trying to improve."
On Eric Williams: "He can be hard to guard. I don't think he's ever really had to move a lot to get open. He certainly rarely had the opportunity to play against anyone his size. That will be a challenge to him. He'll have to be more clever in getting his shot off because people will be around him his size. He's working on a plethora of things. He continues to get better. That was the discouraging thing about the injury because you saw the progress almost on a daily basis that again has been slowed a bit. He hasn't really done much since Monday, so hopefully the rest will have done him well."
On the ACC: "I think its going to be interesting. I think a lot of prime-time players, according to statistics, were lost. I think this league has a history of replenishing itself relatively quickly, and I think all the schools have recruited well. I think all the schools will be strong. I've said before that Virginia has a real blend of talent and experience. Maryland is experienced, even though they lost four starters. They still have a junior, senior team. I think Georgia Tech is going to be very strong, they have a lot of guys back that played significant minutes. In the second half of the season [last year], they were the most consistent team with the exception of Maryland and Duke. [Tony] Akins will be missed, but that experience will serve them well."
On the sophomores: "Taron is playing with much more confidence. He's shooting the ball really well. He's handling the basketball better, he's guarding it better. In all phases of his game, he's improved. Jamaal Levy is much more assertive, much more confident. He's really taken to being aggressive around the basket. He's still can be a more consistent jump shooter, but he has a real willingness to play hard on every possession. Vytas, at this time last year, we weren't sure just how much he would help us. In fact, in the Arkansas game, we went with a four-perimeter line-up with Josh Howard in the 'power forward' position, and not Vytas. As the season progressed, he got better and better and more comfortable. He became that first sub of the bench for Darius [Songaila] and Antwan [Scott], and in fact, actually started some games ahead of Antwan. I think his game has really continues to improve. He really shoots the ball pretty well, and I think he has the opportunity to have a great year for us."
On what the team needs to work on: "We have a ways to go to learn defensively, and that is a function of young players who are trying to learn how to guard. Their concentration level is good, but their anticipation level is not good. From an offensive standpoint, the thing we've done poorly in practice is that we have not handled the ball well. We averaged about a turnover a minute in our intrasquad scrimmage, but again, we have to guard better and handle the basketball better. The one thing we are doing pretty well is rebounding the ball. We try to make a concerted effort to become a better rebounding team. We went last year from being eighth in the league in the prior season to second in the league in rebounding differential, and we'd like to move up another notch. We have a lot of things we can't control, injuries, relative inexperience, things like that, but we can control the backboard."
On Josh Howard??s leadership: ??He??s trying hard. It??s not a role that comes easily to Josh. I don??t think it??s a role that he has warmly embraced down through the years, but its one that he is cognizant that really he had no choice when it comes to that. There??s no real depth in our senior class. We have two seniors and they both are injured. We have no depth in the junior class. We have one junior and he??s not yet played, so it really falls upon Josh. He is the one upperclassman that has played a lot to lead. He??s trying to do that. Its something he??s never really done. It??s something I??m sure he finds comfortable doing, but I think he understands the necessity of it.??
