Wake Forest Athletics
Quoting Skip Prosser And The Deacon Players
3/22/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 22, 2004
Quotes from Wake Forest Head Coach Skip Prosser and various players from today's press conference follow. The Demon Deacons begin play in their first Sweet Sixteen since 1996 Thursday night at 9:57 p.m. against No. 1 seed St. Joseph's.
HEAD COACH Skip Prosser "They (St. Joseph's) are scary good. Defensively, they hold their opponents to less than 40-percent field goal percentage, including less than 30-percent from three's. Offensively, they are a very, very difficult team to guard. Obviously, you want to have a great player and they do. Jameer Nelson is a senior, who can excavate them out of so many difficult situations. Delonte West is another terrific player -- also a perfect compliment to Jameer. I think the guy that is really under appreciated is Dwayne Jones. He is a tremendous defensive presence. He really makes up for mistakes defensively by their perimeter guys and blocks shots. They are 29-1 for a reason. Again, they are just very, very good."
What is key in your preparation for St. Joseph's? "I think worrying about Wake Forest is key. We have to concentrate on the things we have talked about many times. We have to guard. They present you with just a myriad of problems defensively cause they have the ability to score so many ways. We have to rebound. I was very disappointed with our effort last weekend. We had eight and nine offensive rebounds in the games in Raleigh. While we shot a good percentage so there were less rebounds to get, we would rather be in double digits. We need to be more efficient on offense simply because when you turn it over or take bad shots against St. Joe's they can hurt you."
On the Billy Packer/Phil Martelli situation? "Billy Packer is a friend of mine and Phil Martelli is a friend of mine. Both of them are not reluctant to give their opinions. Billy gets paid to do it. Phil is gracious enough to give his for free. I really think that will have such little bearing on the game."
On Phil Martelli? "We coached against each other in the Atlantic 10 and we spoke today on the phone. His son has been down to work our camps. Ironically, I just got a letter from a lawyer whose son was one of my managers at Xavier. He is about to graduate and Phil was the person who recommended him. He is a great guy. A former ninth grade coach like myself. He is a good friend and an excellent coach. He is a perfect fit for St. Joe's and St. Joe's is a perfect fit for him."
The correlation that as Chris Paul's field goal attempts go up, Justin Gray's have gone down? "I think taking away Justin Gray has become a big point of emphasis, especially with how well he played in the latter stages of the ACC season. I don't think our guys really care who gets the baskets as long as we get more than the other guys."
On Jameer Nelson. "It is something that we have seen all year. Jameer Nelson is an amalgam of all the outstanding point guards we have in our league. The strength of a Jarred Jack or John Gilchrist or the speed of a Raymond Felton. The savvy of Chris Duhon. He has all those qualities, along with being a senior. He has all the best qualities of all the best guards. If you put all those together, you would have Jameer Nelson."
On the Demon Deacons heading into the Sweet 16. "When you have a relatively young team, every day is like Christmas -- when they open your present you do not know how they are going to respond. I think our guys have shown the grit and sand and toughness in tough venues, and this will be another. I feel confident that we will play very hard. I feel confident that we will try to execute as well as we can. We have to understand that we are playing a road game against the number one team in the country."
"I have never had a team as enigmatic as this. It has been sort of a conundrum throughout the season. Almost every game and every practice is a curiosity. But, I think the one consistent thing is that they played pretty hard and they are really good kids."
JUNIOR GUARD Taron Downey On St. Joe's perimeter strength. "We just need to man up and play hard nosed defense. There is nothing else to do. Just play defense like we are supposed to. The rest will take care of itself."
On defending the perimeter better so Eric Williams does not pick up fouls helping out. "Hopefully, we can. I can't really say, but we are going to definitely need him. If our guys get past us, then he does have to help. We have to do a better job of keeping our man in front of us, so he does not have to cover up so much."
JUNIOR FORWARD Vytas Danelius On St. Joseph's. "We watched some tape this morning and they are pretty impressive. People say that they are small and that we can pound them inside, but Texas Tech is big and they were not able to. It is a great challenge for us. They are number one and we are underdogs."
"We are still going to score points. The main thing is how we are going to deal with them on the defensive end. We can't let them shoot a high percentage from three's. Our players defending one on one is going to be a huge thing."
On Eric Williams staying out of foul trouble. "We definitely need him inside. He played pretty well both games. We just need everybody to play well. He is one of those factors."
SOPHOMORE GUARD Justin Gray The correlation that as Chris Paul's field goal attempts go up, Justin Gray's have gone down. "Obviously, I was scoring more, but I was taking more shots. But, we were also losing. So, if we are winning when he takes more shots than that is what we have to do. Guys like Vytas and others have been stepping up and making plays. I told him (Vytas) to take more shots since he has been back from his injuries. I feel like he knows his role now. If he is open, he is going to knock those shots down."
"I fell like I have to take care of the ball more. I am trying to take on the role that Chris was doing. Trying to find guys when they are open and being active. Guys are keying on me more, so I tell Chris not to force it to me. Guys have been locked on me and not even helping. Then, Chris can just go hard to the basket."
On Eric Williams staying out of foul trouble. "It will be really big for us. Their inside presence is not as much for offensive scoring, so he should not be in as much foul trouble as the last couple games. He gets in foul trouble because of us. Just by trying to step up and help. We do not want to leave him doing things that he is not capable of doing -- like guarding people out on the perimeter. We can handle that. We just need him down low scoring buckets and getting rebound like he has been doing."
On guarding Jameer Nelson. "We have not put pressure on one guy to stop Jameer Nelson. Not one player can stop him anyway. We put pressure on all of us. It will be on the three-guard lineup to contain all their guards. We need to make sure and try to not let them go off for 25 or 30 points."
SOPHOMORE CENTER Eric Williams "Foul trouble is going to come and go. I had it last game, but I think we showed that even if I am on the bench that we can pull games out. I think our chances improve as far as setting screens for our 3-point shooters and rebounding when I am on the floor. I have tried to do a better job rebounding. I am trying to just help out the team the best that I can."
"Most of my foul trouble has come from overly helping too much. It is just things like that."
"I was frustrated throughout the (Manhattan) game being in foul trouble, but when the team executed with me on the bench just lifted a lot of stress off my shoulders. We proved that we can win without the "Big E" inside. I expect them to keep doing it. We have so many guys coming off the bench. Chris Ellis, Vytas Danelius and Kyle Visser can all help out."
