Quotes From Basketball Media Day
10/12/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Oct. 12, 2004
Chris Paul
On the summer:
"The summer was long, but it was definitely a lot of fun and a great learning experience. I went to Jersey, Pittsburgh, California, and Canada. My best experience was in California in Santa Barbara when I had the opportunity to play with Michael Jordan."
On Playing with MJ:
"He told me that I take one dribble too deep into the defense. He said that I need to stop and pop pretty much. Before we started playing I was messing around with him one on one and to tell the truth he really hasn't lost much. The most challenging part about his game was his ability to change his shot. He can fade away, he can shoot a regular shot, he does everything right. We were playing pick up one night. He passed me the ball, called me John Stockton, and told me to knock the shot down, so that was kind of funny. I made the shot so that made it even better."
What are your expectations for the year?
"To go to the national championship. Our first goal is to beat George Washington, but other than that game we definitely are going to try to make a run at the Final Four."
On returning players and defense:
"Everyone is back from the team last year so our chemistry should be just fine. We have one freshman, Cameron Stanley, and we all know each other. There is no secret to our weakness from last year which was defense. October 16 everyone should come in hungry ready to play. Its all about communication. We have to talk more and you just have to keep your man in front of you."
What are your personal goals and are there any teams that stick out on the schedule?
"Just to do whatever I need to do to help my teammates. Try to be an extension of the coach staff. November 4th is the day that we play my brother's school (USC-Upstate) so that will be one of the highlights of the season."
Justin Gray
On USA basketball:
"It's a great opportunity to get recognized as the top 24 guys that get to try out for the team. When you get the opportunity to work with those guys it is just a great opportunity to learn. You also get to see what the other guys around the country are like. It was good; not only because the games were important, but because of the practices leading up to those games that really get you ready. You play with better players everyday in practice so you are going to get better so when I was out there I just tried not to do to much. I tried to take something from this even if I didn't make the team."
Best Memories:
"Just the practices that we were having going into the games. Coach (Kelvin Sampson) was always telling us that we were the best players on our college teams. You are going to take something home from this USA basketball experience. When you go back home you have to make sure that the best players are working the hardest. That's what I'm going to try to bring back to this Wake Forest basketball team."
On the type of talent he faced:
"You can't work out with that type of talent over the summer. You can play pick-up or go to a rec gym and play pick up with those kinds of guys -- The Rashad McCant's or Sean May's. Even with the practices and tryouts I came out better. Playing with those guys I knew I would be in good shape."
On the Pre-season hype:
"Somebody has to get the attention. I guess we are the guinea pigs this year. We are going to have to come out and prepare well from the first day we start practicing together. I'm sure the coach is going to tell us the first day of practice don't pay attention to the media about who's number one because that doesn't matter. All we can focus on his George Washington and come out of that game 1-0."
Head Coach Skip Prosser
On preseason hype and expectations:
"I've always been skeptical if somebody gives you something that you haven't deserved or earned it gives rise to skepticism, and we haven't earned anything yet. I think it's imperative that we and the kids concentrate on the task that in front of us as opposed to some nebulous goal that is months away. It's imperative that we just concentrate on being the best Wake Forest basketball team that we can be. We have to be cognizant of a lot of different things. We have to be aware that a lot of these same prognosticators are the same guys who picked us to be seventh in the league two years ago. I understand their frame of reference. We need to be aware as well that we don't have a Tim Duncan type guy - a seven footer who can erase a lot of mistakes on both the offensive and defensive sides of the floor. Collectively we have to become better in all different phases and again I think most importantly we just need to take care of what's immediately in front of us."
On most important factors to be a better basketball team:
"Again, I don't think you have to be John Nash the mathematician to see that we were eighth in the league in blocked shots, ninth in the league in scoring defense, ninth in the league in field goal percentage defense, and ninth in the league in three point field goal percentage defense. Last year we were a good rebounding team. In terms of ACC games we had the best rebounding differential of the nine teams in those 16 league games but I don't think we were a feared rebounding team. From an offensive standpoint, even though we scored a lot of points in a league, third in the country in scoring, led the league in points with a lot of high powered teams, we need consistency, a balance in the post. Those are some things we'll need to address right away. We should be able to score, but on those occasions where we can't score we must do a much better job of guarding and again in becoming a feared team in terms of the backcourt."
On Vytas Danelius' preseason preparation:
"Vytas' preseason preparation this year as opposed to last year is literally night and day. I think he is anxious to atone. I think he feels that one way to vindicate himself is to have an outstanding senior season. I think he is determined that when people remember his Wake Forest basketball career that this will be the season they remember. He's also extremely aware that he won't be going through all this alone. I think he, Taron (Downey) and Jamaal (Levy)...a lot of what we do this year is going to be about those three guys. I think they're the axis upon which this team will revolve. I think that they have done some wonderful things in terms of basketball in their three years here. They're going to be determined to go out on a very high, positive note."
On Chris Paul's and Justin Gray's summer playing for Team USA:
"Well I think anytime you're in the gym for a few weeks with Kelvin Sampson, Danny Monson, and Tom Crean, it's like a summer seminar overseas, only in terms of basketball. My only regret is that Eric Williams wasn't able to make the team because of health reasons. From the standpoint of Chris and Justin, it can only be an extreme positive. My only worry was about their fatigue, but that seems to have run its course. I think they're both chompin' at the bit to get back in the gym. You only get so many chances to represent your country. They really had a wonderful time, really enjoyed it. I'm grateful to Kelvin and his staff for that."
On Chris Paul's preseason attention:
"It's a situation where you have to rely on the character and fiber of the other guy's on the team, and that's the one thing I feel very confident about. Those guys understand the situation and are good kids and they'll deal with that. You also have to rely on the character and fiber of Chris Paul. As I've said many times, if he never scored a basket or played a minute of basketball at Wake Forest, our university would be better place from him having gone to school here. Is this something that could be divisive? Yeah it could be, and it has happened to teams. It's something we've already talked about with the kids. They have to trust me and I have to trust them and we'll all have to trust one another. That's the basis of any relationship. But, that is something that is a concern, but I rely on the fact that we have good people that want to win games and want to see Jamaal, Taron, and Vytas go out on a very high note. If we're going to be defeated it's going to be from without and not from within."
Women's Head Coach Mike Petersen
On getting practice started:
"It's gone very quickly and yet, we've been looking forward to having our first practice for a long time. I think our players are ready to have their first practice. You can only do so much individual skill instruction, and conditioning, weight lifting, and all the things we are allowed to do in the fall before you want to get in there and you want to see what you've got. You want to get in the gym and practice with the team, and again, this group I've got all freshmen. Our seniors have never been in a practice with me. Erin Ferrell has had the same amount of practices with me as she's had with Kristen Brown. So, we've got all freshmen and a very steep learning curve. We have to work very hard to make sure we're ready to play when we get to the season."
On coming into a new program with new players:
"I think it's harder on the players than the coach. I signed up for this and they're stuck with me. This group has been very good, a great group to coach and very willing to become acclimated with the staff as quickly as any group I've been around. They are very hard workers and very willing to learn. I think they want that fresh start, I think they want that new approach and they've been very good with that. I've got absolutely no problems with the way they've worked, the way we've adjusted, the way that we've come together as a group. Now we've got to get in the gym, we've got to practice together as a team and that will be a whole new set of challenges and we'll move forward from there."
What style of game are you planning to bring to this program?
"We want to play up tempo; we want to go up and down. My teams have always been good offensive teams, they've always scored a lot of points, and we've always been a transition offensive team. We're also very structured and disciplined, the way we run has a lot of structure to it. Our half court offense is very structured. We want to play multiple possessions; we want the game to go up and down. And with this team, we don't have a ton of size and it would probably be our benefit to speed the game up and keep the court open so we don't have too many games where we're grinding in and out of the post."
On the loss of talent and tough conference play:
"I wasn't here last year so I don't know anything about that. All I know is that I have this year's team to coach and I like this year's team. One of the things we've asked this team to do is turn the page. This is a new staff, this is a new team. We're in a new league as far as I can tell. Last year this league only had nine teams in it, this league has eleven teams in it, and the year after that there are going to be twelve teams. This field has to be all about fresh starts and all about raised expectations. And again, for me, the most important thing we can do as a staff is to change those expectations about how hard we're going to work, expectations about the quality of our work, expectations about what is acceptable and what's not in terms of performance, wins and losses and all of those things."
Differences between coaching a men's team and a women's team:
"It's not that big a deal. I've gone back and forth. I've been a women's head coach for eleven years. Basketball is basketball. We ran the exact same offense package at Minnesota that we ran when I was at TCU with the women that we're going to run here. We were at the top of the Big Ten in scoring for five straight years at Minnesota. Ball is ball...it's the same thing. The adjustment is just to a new group of people. I like this group of people, they're good kids, I think they're hard workers, they've adjusted well to the new staff. Now it's a matter of going to the gym together and getting us all on the same page, putting our system in place to go with the individual skills that we've been working on."
What's a fair expectation of this upcoming season?
"I'm going to say it now and I'm going to say it later, our goal is to win our league. Everything behind that? I don't know if it's fair expectation or not, but I don't know how to have a team meeting and rally the troops for `let's come in fourth'. I really don't. Fourth might be all we have in us, but I know this, this team's been working. The quality of our effort has been- we're competing to try and win our league. The quality of our effort is that we've got 27 games in the league tournament schedule. We're going to go to every game to try to win it. I'm going to guess that we're not going to win every game this year, I don't know. What I can tell you is that we're going to go to every game trying to win it. And the expectation of these players needs to be when they go in that gym, they're competing to win the game. What the jersey says on it is of no value to me. What's inside the jersey is all I care about. So when we go to play, it doesn't matter to me who we're playing against. All that matters to me is that we go and we compete and we're well prepared and we've done our work so that we have confidence in what we're doing because we've put our work in."
Did you look at tapes from last year?
"Every one. I liked what I saw. I mean, this team was in a lot of close games last year. They were in a position to win a lot of games last year. They also won a lot of those games last year. They beat Georgia Tech three times with three buzzer beaters by Cotillia. She's a yellow jacket killer. And so they were in a lot of close games, this team was. And we need to get over the hump more. I think that the skill set that some of these players have will fit into what we're trying to do. But what happened last year is of no value, negative or positive, to what's going to happen this year. This year's team will determine this year's fate. They will determine it by how hard they work. More than anything, it was me trying to prepare to coach them so that I could tell based on what I saw on tape the things we needed to work on as individuals. The skill set that we had and how we needed to improve that skill set or change it to fit into what we wanted to do this year."
Do you have the type of talent here to run the game you want to run?
"I think so. It's not a perfect world but I think that this group is a good match in the short run because we want to be up tempo, we want to spread the floor and spread the court. This group doesn't have a lot of size to it, so it's to our benefit to extend the court and to spread the floor. And so that part fits in well. If we had a group this year that had a bunch of bigger, slower post players, it wouldn't fit in as well as what we're trying to do. This group fits in well. And again, there's that school of thought that says when you're going to rebuild a program you're going to slow it down, wanting to hold the ball and all that. I just don't know how long you can hold the ball with a 30 second shot clock. I'd rather get a good shot at the start of the clock than a bad one at the end of the clock."
