Post Game Quotes
2/17/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 17, 2002
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Wake Forest Postgame Quotes February 17, 2002 - vs. Virginia
Wake Forest Coach Skip Prosser
"Considering the quality of our opponent and the way we played, this was the best game of the year. We had 26 assists out of 33 baskets. We really shared it well tonight. The only way to follow up tough loss is to get a great win. It was about time we played good defense. We played some zone, man-to-man-we threw some junk at them. It was good to hold a team to under 30% shooting."
On Josh Howard's absence... "People won't feel sorry for us-he's having a great year, an All ACC year. And we miss him, but there are no excuses. We have to play well and have players step up."
On Darius Songaila... "He really has been a joy to coach. He's a bright kid, he's tough and he listens. The way Mason was playing, we needed every point out of him tonight."
Wake Forest Senior Craig Dawson "It (defense) was a must tonight. We had to step up - that's the only way to win ACC games home or on the road. It's one of those NCAA tournament wins. We came out with enthusiasm and we carried it over to the second half."
On Darius Songaila... "We've got to try to find ways to get the ball to him. The team knows that when the ball gets in his hands, great things will happen."
On his performance at Clemson... "After that, I am a lot more confident. Without Josh (Howard), everyone has to step up. I had to be more assertive on offense."
Wake Forest Senior Darius Songaila "We've heard a lot of talking about giving up 110 points. We had to step on defense and the coaches emphasized that at practice."
On Virginia's press... "It's something we worked on in practice. We'd rather be disappointed that they didn't press than surprised that they did.
On Josh Howard's absence... "When one guy goes out, everybody has to step up a notch and pick their game up."
Virginia Coach Pete Gillen
"Wake Forest played a terrific game and they executed very well. I thought we did a poor job on defense - it was horrible. We had some practices this week where we played bad defense and I told the guys, 'The way you practice is the way you play,' and that was true tonight."
"We're beat up physically, we've got lot of injuries, but in practice Friday and Saturday, we weren't as sharp as we needed to be then, and that's the way I felt that we weren't very sharp tonight. You can't dig a hole like that against a very good team on the road, and they're a very good team. (Roger) Mason played really well, but it wasn't enough. We're not going to beat anyone when we can't get our All-league candidate (Chris Williams) more than two points. We definitely lost as a team, but we need more from him."