Wake Forest Athletics
Conversation With Coach Prosser
4/8/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
April 8, 2002
So much has been written and said about the job Skip Prosser did for Wake Forest this season, but it all comes down to this: No coach in school history has finished above .500 in his first season, much less won a game in the NCAA tournament. Prosser talked with Gold Rush's Jay Reddick shortly after the season's end. The following is their conversation:
Gold Rush: You had six months before practice even started to learn where expectations would be and what kind of team you would have. How did the team live up to what you were expecting?
Prosser: Overall, I was really pleased. I was blessed to inherit some really good kids, and they tried hard to deal with the change in staff, the change in philosophy. They were a very unselfish group, and the most pleasing thing about the year was the quality of young men I was coaching.
All five of our seniors are going to graduate on time if everything plays out the way it's supposed to. Our other kids are in good academic standing. Miss Caldwell, our academic adviser, is a superstar in my opinion. Everyone else in academic support are pleased. That's the most important thing is that academically, these guys are sound.
From a basketball standpoint, to the kids' credit, they tackled one of the toughest schedules in the country this year, maybe one of the toughest that Wake Forest has ever played. Despite that, they still won 21 games, went back to the national tournament.
A lot of things, in terms of basketball here, hadn't happened since Duncan, and the fact that we had a winning record in the ACC - hadn't happened since Duncan. We hadn't won an NCAA tournament game since Duncan. The kids can be very proud of that.
One thing we tried to do is force the tempo more than in the past, and we were one of the top 10 scoring teams in the country. I think the people that came to see us play enjoyed that. We were 13-3 at home. Our only three losses were to Duke, Maryland and Cincinnati, three No. 1 seeds.
They scrapped throughout, didn't quit. All in all, I was disappointed in that we played a tough schedule, we beat some good teams, but we weren't able to break through against a Duke, a Maryland, a Cincinnati or Kansas. Very few teams do, that's why they are who they are, but that was disappointing.
From a technical standpoint, we decided early on after the Wilmington game that we didn't have it in us to be a pressing team, but our defense wasn't nearly as good as what we need it to be. I think you can play fast and still guard better than we did. That was the most disappointing thing from a technical standpoint.
Our rebounding was much better. Last year, I'm thinking we were last in the ACC in rebounding margin, and this year we were top half of the league. That's a toughness stat. We got a little tougher, but we have a ways to go.
I was disappointed that we lost to Oregon. We could have beaten them but we didn't make enough big plays. We had some opportunities to win the game, but the shots we made against Pepperdine down the stretch, we didn't make.
It was ironic: Broderick (Hicks) has a big 3 against Pepperdine, he missed a big 3 against Oregon. Darius (Songaila) hit a big baseline jumper from almost the same spot against Pepperdine, he missed it against Oregon.
That's just the way it is, but again, two kids got great shots, it just didn't work out.
Gold Rush: And the five seniors got to leave with a little better taste in their mouths than they would have a year ago.
Prosser: Yeah, for those kids, you could see it on their face at the N.C. State game. Three of those kids are North Carolina kids, and to sweep State and Carolina in the same year, I think their last home game, you could feel a genuine lovefest with those five kids for each other, the fans for those kids, and conversely, those kids for the fans. That was a feel-good day for Wake basketball. It gave us the third seed, a winning record, and I think for all intents and purposes it sewed up an NCAA tournament berth. That was a good day.
Gold Rush: You talked about getting rid of the press early on. The players, after your hire and before the season, said they were ready to run. Were they not ready physically for the rigors of the press?
Prosser: No, really, it's an attitude. Pressing the way we like to is a state of mind. Not giving up an inch. It's tough to change four years in four weeks in terms of a mindset. I'm not saying it's the only way to play or even the best way to play, but that's the way we like to play. It's demanding physically, but it's more demanding mentally, and we didn't have the wherewithal this year.
Gold Rush: Was it hard for you to adjust after you discovered that?
Prosser: I'm very stubborn, but I didn't want to be foolish. You can only jam square pegs in round holes for so long. I want to give them the best chance to win, too. If I asked them to do something they weren't capable of doing, that wouldn't be fair to the kids, not just to salve my ego.
Gold Rush: Talk about the five seniors a little bit. They've been through it all for four years.
Prosser:If you go down the line alphabetically, Craig Dawson is the leading 3-point shooter in the ACC this year, It was sad that he got hurt in that last game, because he was having a great NCAA tournament shooting the ball. Like most guys, he had his ups and downs, but I thought that when he lost his starting position, he came back with a vengeance and handled it like the class kid that he is. From that point, he was really a consistent scorer for us, and I would love to have coached him for four years.
Broderick, from the minute we got on campus, he bought into what we were trying to do. He became a believer from day one. He's a bright kid, like they all are. He tried to do all he could. He could have become a really good up-tempo point guard. He came back with a vengeance as well after he lost his starting job. He's not the most vocal guy, and he struggled with the leadership mantle at times, but he tried to do what we needed.
Ervin Murray is a guy who went from a starter to a guy who sometimes didn't even play, and his attitude stayed positive. He started about half a dozen games at the end of the year, and he stuck with it. I'm sure there were times he didn't love Skip Prosser, but he loved Wake Forest and loved his teammates, so he kept giving and giving and giving. He was a big factor in us beating N.C. State and getting into the NCAA tournament.
Antwan was a guy who for three years, he wasn't really counted on. And all of a sudden, he went from "if Antwan plays well, great, if he doesn't, we've got other guys" to a guy who really had to do well for us to be good. It's a hard change to make, and he handled it well. He made his mistakes like we all did, but he had a good year.
Darius was a warrior throughout. From day one, he listened and he believed. He's steady, he's tough, he's smart. He took the Oregon loss probably harder than anybody. He had a wonderful year, in my opinion a first-team All-ACC type of year.
All five of those kids, the prevailing emotion was one of gratitude. I really enjoyed the year, and they were a major reason why.
Gold Rush: You talked about Antwan stepping to the fore. Did he fit into your system better, or was it his maturity and the fact that he was counted on?
Prosser: Probably a whole lot of factors. He had the advantage of no choice: he had to do it. If he didn't, it wouldn't get done. He loves his teammates, and didn't want to let those guys down.
Gold Rush: How did you feel about your first year here, in terms of a new school and a new league?
Prosser: People here have been very supportive. The administration, and Mr. Wellman, are trying hard to give us what we need to compete.
This is a league where teams are committed to winning the national championship. Duke, Carolina, Maryland - those schools and others are committed to winning the national championship. That's heady company. For us to be successful, we have to be committed to winning the national championship. It's easier said than done, because I don't think there are really that many schools that are. People talk about it and pay lip service to it, but are they really? One of the reasons I came to Wake is that I believe they feel we can do that. That commitment has to be there for us to compete at the highest level of this league.
The ACC was everything I could have imagined. It was tougher than I thought it would be. There's a tremendous depth of talent in the league. The venues were hard to play in, but it was as advertised. I can't imagine a league where basketball is more important than in the ACC. Maybe the Big 12 is better this year, with Kansas and Oklahoma in the Final Four - who knows? But it's not more important than right here.
I think our students did a really good job of support. I would love to see that whole upper concourse at the Joel become Wake's concourse. Pictures of our NCAA tournament teams and things like that. When you go into the Dean Dome, or some other places, you know where you are. I want people to know this is Wake's home floor. Those are the kinds of things we need to give juice and energize the community.
We had really good crowds. I would hope we get to the point where we sell out Minnesota, we sell out games like Marquette and Virginia, along with Carolina and State. I've been told that's the way it is, but I reject that. We shouldn't assume that's the way it's going to be, we should look for ways to change all of that. And we are. We want to get people excited to see Wake Forest play, not to see Wake Forest play Duke, or whoever. At Xavier, we sold out Eastern Kentucky, we sold out LIU. And they weren't coming to see Eastern Kentucky or LIU. That didn't happen overnight. We'd like to get to that point.
Gold Rush: In terms of the next couple of years, have we seen most of the style changes, or are there more coming as new players come in?
Prosser: We'd still like to become a pressing team. And I think we can run faster than what we did this year. It takes a couple of years, and you have to recruit to that style. For us to be successful in the league, we have to be the most aggressive team, defensively, offensively and on the backboard.
Gold Rush: You talk about recruiting to that style, tell me about the freshmen coming in.
Prosser: The four guys that we signed, Justin Gray, Richard Joyce, Eric Williams and Chris Ellis, are like most high school kids: there will be a period of adjustment. But their period of adjustment, necessarily, won't be long.
Our team next year will consist of two seniors, Josh Howard and Steve Lepore. Steve, who knows when he'll be ready, November, December, we don't know. Our junior class consists of Dshamal Schoetz, who has yet to play a minute for Wake Forest, and he's coming off catastrophic knee surgery. So that leaves three sophomores and four freshmen, so their learning curve will be short. They'll be force-fed into the fray way too early. This league is unforgiving when it comes to playing freshmen and sophomores, but that's the hand we're dealt. We just have to make the best of it. It's a tough jump from high school to the ACC, but that's why the contributions of Josh, especially, will really be crucial to keeping those guys on an even keel. It's not unlike Tony Akins on the Georgia Tech team this year. Josh needs that kind of year.
And we'd like to sign one more in the spring.
Gold Rush: How's the schedule stacking up?
Prosser: We're still in discussions about that. St. John's is coming here, we're going to Marquette, we'll be in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, we're going to Richmond. We're still trying to get a couple more marquee games on the schedule.
