POSTGAME QUOTES:
11/25/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 25, 2005
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -
POSTGAME QUOTES:
Wake Forest 91, Appalachian State 78
Wake Forest Head Coach Skip Prosser
Opening Statement:
"I saw some good and I saw some less than good, but I'll take it. I'm happy with the win. Appalachian State played hard. We still have a lot of improvements to make, our saga continues. As usual we had some good stretches but we need to learn to elongate those."
On Trent Strickland:
"He's been our most consistent player, I couldn't ask for much more from Trent Strickland right now. Coach Jeff Battle has been working with Trent after practice on his shot. Trent sees his final year as an opportunity. He's certainly a player, not a perfect one, but I can't argue much about where and how he's playing right now."
Is your game plan to stay inside?
"Our game plan is always to go inside-out, it doesn't always work, but we try to do that every game."
On the full court press:
"We continue to work on it. We still struggle with breaking it down. Once we had the lead tonight we were able to attack the basket and score. We had several stretches where our pluses were more than our minuses."
On where you are so far this season:
"We're far from where we'd like to be and far from where we need to be."
On the concern of the big man missing his free throws:
It is already a concern. As a team we're shooting in the sixties. I don't know what it is, but it's not from lack of practice. We need to keep working on it and keep improving, that's an obvious thing. Making free throws allows teams to stay in the game, when things start going awry and can't hold the lead. No one feels worse about it than Eric, feels heart and soul like he's letting his teammates down. He's aware he's got to make them.
In the first half when they cut lead, what was their key?
"They beat us down the floor a few times and made some good plays. Good players make good plays. We forget sometimes that the other teams practice and other teams have scholarship players. Teams don't roll over. I could be critical of what we did, but I'd rather say they did well. Sometimes it happens like that."
Appalachian State Head Coach Houston Fancher
Opening Comment:
"Tonight was a good opportunity for us to learn and to grow. We are a very young team and tonight we had our back against the wall, but it was a great learning experience. We don't often in the Southern Conference get to go against two guys like Kyle Visser and Eric Williams, but tonight we were encouraged by the way we competed. Our guys didn't just lay down and quit."
On Trent Strickland:
"He is easily their most improved player, while they do have three or four guys that could go pro on their team and play for money, Trent is their most consistent. He has developed a confidence in his offense and playing ability. He wants the ball more now and wants to score. He is shooting with a high percentage and is very potent."
On Doug McLaughlin-Williams:
"He is normally a good three-point shooter, but he started second guessing himself tonight. He rarely turns down the ball, but tonight he was hesitating. He was disappointed in himself that he did not make the shots he normally makes, but in situations like this, we have to have other people step up. We work on emphasizing team work."