Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest Men's Basketball Postgame Quotes
11/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 20, 2007
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Wake Forest Head Coach Dino Gaudio
On the game...
"I think it was really two different games. I thought in the first half despite not playing great, we're up 46-23, we're doing a very good job on the defensive end of the floor. We hold them to 32 percetn and 3 for 8, 37 percent from threes, and the second half for whatever reason I don't think we did a very good job on the defensive end of the floor. I don't think we did a very good job on the offensive end of the floor. Like I said in the second half a big thing for us is points per possession. In the second half we scored 0.66 points per possession; they go 0.85. And that can't happen. For the game we're at 0.77 for the game; they're at 0.66. The second half, I'm not happy with the second half performance but we'll get better."
On Wake Forest's offensive strategy...
"We told them to attack gaps. We were very good at attacking gaps against Fairfield. We played a basketball team, we give North Carolina Central a lot of credit having gone from, and I'll get it wrong, from Duke, to Rutgers, to Florida, to North Dakota State. Then they come in here and I said God Bless them fellows, they're standing there, they're just standing there in the 2-3 (zone defense) and we're going around it and we're shooting threes. Drive the gaps. We really tried to emphasize that at half time. We'll get better, our point guards are 10 assists, two turnovers, pretty good. But when you have a couple guys with four and three and two and guys that shouldn't have those turnovers that hurts our offensive efficiency a little bit as well."
On the Deacons' shot selection after half time...
"I think Harvey (Hale) took an early three in the second half, and I pulled him out and I think it shook him a little bit. And Harvey is one of those guys that has to have a green light to shoot, but that was the end of the first half I think it was. That's exactly what it was, it was the end of the first half because Jamie [Skeen] hit a three in the corner. We just wanted to do a little more attacking in the gaps, but we were shooting too many threes. That's why we tried to reel them in a little bit. We have to get some inside scoring somehow. We're throwing the ball in there. Jeff had five assists. That one he threw right to Chas [McFarland] that one time, he could've put it right in the basket. We have to score those balls. One other one he whipped one right around to Gary [Clark]. I think Gary got fouled on the other end down there. He could've very easily had seven or eight assists, but we'll get better, they've been working hard. In hindsight, and my wisdom, I thought after the Fairfield win, nine days to get better. Maybe it would've been better off if we would've played after two or three days, because we played really well that game. We'll get better."
On player groupings and L.D. Williams...
"I would love to go somewhat conventional, with James Johnson at the four and one of those bigs emerging at the five whether it's Skeen, whether its McFarland, whether it's David Weaver. They were hurting us a little bit with penetration. We weren't guarding the ball screens well. We thought we'd go quicker. We have that luxury of putting L.D. [Williams] at the four. He's an amazing kid, if I showed you our play card, we have a ton of plays on there. He won't ever run the four, if we call a play he knows what it is. And we have other guys, we're running plays since October, whenever we started practice, October 14th, and they've been running the floor for six weeks and they won't remember the plays. He's amazing, he's really a quick thinker, a quick learner, he gives us a lot of diversity."
Junior guard Harvey Hale
On his assessment of the team's performance...
"We could've played a lot better, for our expectations. We really didn't play like we could have. North Carolina Central is a great team, they played really hard, but we're taking this as a loss because we know we could do better. We have to improve our defense drastically, our rebounding, stuff like that. North Carolina Central you have to credit them, they hit some tough shots, and they played hard. They beat us in the second half, they were playing their offense, and it was good for them and I know we can play a lot better."
On his defensive performance...
"I was just trying to set the tone, I had to guard the point guard, gave Ishmael [Smith] a little breather time for him and to give him a chance to push the ball. I was just trying to set the tone. We got some steals and some run-out lay-ups, trying to set the tone early and that's all I was trying to do."
Sophomore guard L.D. Williams
On the next couple days of practice...
"It's definitely going to be tough. We just have to work on when we have somebody down, we just have to kill them. We're just so nice, as far as when we get up 20 points we just chill I guess, we get comfortable. One of the coaches used 'too easy, too early'. We just have to keep doing like Harvey [Hale] said, do what we did to get us the 20-point lead, but do it harder the second half. I feel like once we start doing that we'll get in the top 25."
On their post players...
"It's definitely really important, I feel like for our bigs it's just a confidence thing. Right now they're struggling a little bit, but I feel like once [David] Weaver and Chas [McFarland] get their confidence up they're really going to score for us. I wouldn't trade either one of those guys for the world. Chas is a European-type player, and he can score in a lot of different ways. Weaver is rugged and tough. I really like our bigs right now. It's just about getting their confidence where it needs to be so they can start producing."
Sophomore guard Ishmael Smith
On NCCU point guard Ashton Sauls' 11 turnovers...
"Thank God I never had 11 turnovers last year. You know what, it's just a learning process you go through. Too bad my learning process resulted in a 15-16 record, but it's just one year behind them. It's their (North Carolina Central) first year in Division I basketball, and they're taking the same lumps that Winston-Salem State took last year. They're a good team, they played hard and they're well-coached. They'll bounce back. Once he goes through this one year he'll be alright next year."
On the defensive breakdown...
"I felt like their coach did a great job stopping the transition offense. That's Wake Forest basketball. We push the ball up and really just try to beat you down the floor before you can get down there. They did a great job of running back defensively. We kind of just stood around, so that's a tribute to their defense and something we have to work on, ripping gaps. We're going to get better at it believe me. Coach Gaudio is going to emphasize getting better at that."
N.C. Central Head Coach Henry Dickerson
On coming off a long road trip...
"ACC school, big strong, we're in transition, we've been on the road. We played Duke first, and we had a lot of jitters. We went up to New Jersey and played Rutgers. Went to Florida and played OK. Then went to North Dakota. We didn't have our legs under us when we played North Dakota. We got home last night around 2 a.m., then got up went to class today, then came here. I thought our kids played hard. We have seven kids on scholarship, the rest are walk-ons. We just picked them out of intramurals, we're struggling and it's a tough, long process. We'll never be an ACC school, but I think we are headed in the right direction."
On tonight's game...
"You know for us, moral victories are what we're going to need in spots. We're never going to dominate a game. There are going to be stretches where hopefully our young men will execute. Sometimes things fail to go your way when you're not where you're supposed to be or you don't block out. It's ridiculous, though, we had 17 turnovers in the first half and all of them probably led to baskets. Against an ACC school I expect 15 to 16 turnovers during the game just because of their athletic ability and size and quickness. But we made some basic mistakes, just general basketball. Again you look out there and sometimes you have four freshmen and a walk-on and a senior who played football. So we're struggling, but I must say I am proud of our guys for playing as hard as they played."
On using zone defense against Wake Forest...
"Well when we ran it right, we did a good job. Ishmael (Smith), we did want to run at him but he is such a good player, if you never played under these conditions you just know he is a good player and you just have to get out there. We just under ran him a couple of times. He is just so quick, and he gets in the gaps and hits the right people. But as long as we kept people in front of us and didn't over-commit, I thought we did a good job and we didn't get out of position second half too much and we limited them to second shots. The first half we were really out of position and didn't rebound the ball well. The guys were just excited and they just lose their minds sometimes, but that is part of it. Again as long as they are playing hard, we'll continue to coach them just like they're All-Americans."
"I am a man-to-man guy, but the assistant coaches have talked me into zone and I am kind of biting my tongue. With the number of games in a row that we play and the skilled players that we play, we're going to have to change up our zones a little bit to try to stay out of foul trouble and to try and keep the score down some."
