Postgame Quotes
1/25/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2004
Recap?|? Final Stats
Wake Forest Head Coach Skip Prosser
"It's a great win for Florida State. Obviously we're disappointed. The goal was not to let (Tim) Pickett beat us, but despite putting several different guys on him and several different defenses, he made some big shots. He did a good job down the stretch against Chris Paul, that was a good adjustment by Leonard (Hamilton)."
"We had some good looks down, but they contested pretty well too. I would rather give the credit to Florida State's defense. Eighteen turnovers as well hurt us. We tried to make plays. We had a couple of good looks."
"I thought we played really hard. I thought we fought. We just didn't finish. Florida State did. We've had a good two months and a bad two weeks. The way this league is, you have to rest and get ready for another difficult game against Maryland."
Florida State Head Leonard Hamilton
"I was especially proud of our team today because we were facing a team that was really hungry for a victory, always well coached, they play extremely hard and they execute well. There were parts of the game in the first half for two-three minute periods where they dominated us in certain areas. We fought back each time and put ourselves in close position to win the game. They had a run in the second half that really put us back on our heels and we fought back again."
"Defensively at the end of the game I thought we were able to get the stops necessary to give us a chance. I thought that really made a big difference in the game - the stops we got late in the game, they gave us an opportunity to keep them at bay while we tried to find a way to score."
"This is a team that is still learning how to come with the emotional and mental energy every night out to compete at this level. Obviously we have a lot of young guys we're depending on, we have some guys that this is the first time they have had a chance to be in this position. What you have is coaches trying to paint that mental picture with our words and hopefully they will see the picture and come out and perform at that level. In the first half, there were times we played with the focus that we needed and sometimes in the first half we were not as focused. In the second half I thought we came back with a little bit more intensity and hopefully that will allow us to keep growing in that spirit and understanding of how you have to play to compete at this level. "
"In all my years of coaching I've been a part of a scenario where your team is on the rise and you play the seventh ranked team, the tenth ranked team and then have a chance to go play the number one ranked team in succession. That's going to force you to really elevate your focus and intensity, because when you're facing that type of challenge, it's unprecedented in anything I've ever been involved with and that's what will help us in what we have to do and something that will carry over for the rest of the year."
On Nate Johnson
"Nate is the kind of guy who gives you what ever he thinks is necessary for us to win. It's obviously that Tim was out with the fouls, and even though he's an outstanding shooter, Nate always just does what he thinks the team needs. We've been caught in situations before where he steps up and hits threes. Those threes he made in the first half were huge. When we needed a couple buckets in the second half he stepped up and hit them."
On Pickett and Adam Waleskowski
"In the second half, Tim came back and I thought he was poised. He was anxious in the first half, but he came back in the second half with poise. Those are our two seniors and then Waleskowski has been playing very, very confident all year long. He seems to not be concerned about anything besides winning and you see him express that in his body language and how he expresses himself in practice. Those types of spirits are contagious and those are things were trying to build on."
