Wake Forest Athletics
Post Game Quotes
11/11/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 11, 2005
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Winston-Salem Regional / November 11, 2005
Final / Wake Forest vs. George Mason
Wake Forest head coach Skip Prosser
Opening Statement:
"Our demise in the second half was a result of us not being able to handle the pressure that George Mason put on us. We threw it to them and then we couldn't stop them. I think we did a better job of getting stops in the overtime period. Our guys showed true grit tonight, but I give a lot of credit to George Mason. They are a postseason team for sure. The crowd, once again, wouldn't let us lose."
On Trent Strickland's performance:
"His tip out of the missed free throw may have been the play of the game. It's nice to see things we work on during practice come to fruition in a game. His performance on the glass last night and tonight was as good as I've seen from a small forward since I've been here. To have a double-double both nights is really impressive. I think a lot of our success this season will depend on Trent, Kyle Visser and Chris Ellis. If we're going to be the caliber team that we're used to, we'll need a lot from those three during every game."
Does this team drive you crazy?
"I like this team a lot. We've got four guys trying to move into whole new roles and that can be frustrating at times. We need to work on our pressure situations. We knew teams would come after Justin Gray and we need to address that issue. We as coaches had the choice to play in this tournament, to play good teams and test our abilities early on. I think we're learning early what we need to work on for later in the season."
On Harvey Hale:
"I'm happy for him. He's one of several young players, all of whom need a lot of practice time. The team in general needs a lot of time in the gym, less for preparing for the opponent and more for working on our own game."
Is there a chance that Harvey Hale will play at the point to give Justin Gray some relief?
"There is a chance."
George Mason head coach Jim Larranaga
Opening Statement:
"It is very difficult coming that close to victory, that close to getting to Madison Square Gardens, that close to beating an ACC team at their home court. It's very painful right now for me, the players and the staff. Wake Forest did a very good job through the first 25-30 minutes of the ball game, then we finally started to play with a commitment to defense and passion. We were able to fight our way back, claw our way into the game and actually into the lead. Chris Ellis' three-pointer made a huge difference by putting Wake up by two early in the overtime, if he misses it, it would have made a huge difference."
The use of his press:
"Our intention was to be sporadic with the press, but we picked up early fouls and that kept us out of it."
About attacking the basket:
"I thought we attacked the basket more aggressively in the second half and it was evidenced by the number of fouls that we drew."
Will you learn from this?
"We will learn from this. Last year, we played the score too many times and both last night and tonight we played our own game."
