Wake Forest Athletics
Post Game Quotes
11/23/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 23, 2007
Wake Forest Head Coach Dino Gaudio
On the game overall
"I thought the game was hard-fought. I was really, really pleased with our defense. I thought our kids did a terrific job of sitting down and guarding. That's what we're trying to do in making this the cornerstone of the program now. Wow. Holding them to 26 percent from the field, 18 percent from the 3-point line; pretty good job. I'm really pleased with that and I told the kids that. What we didn't do a good job of was on the backboard. We knew coming in, they were going to shoot a lot of threes. Long shots equal long rebounds and we've got to run down those 50/50 rebounds. We have to do a better job of that. One shy of half of their shots were threes. We knew that going in. Holding them 5-for-28 from the three point line; a pretty good job by our kids."
On Wake Forest's shooting performance
"We were getting good shots early, we just weren't making them. We said, 'hey, don't get frustrated, their going to fall, we've had some very good looks, just stay with it'. I don't know why the last two games we haven't been shooting the ball like we can. I think somewhere between the Fairfield game and the latter two games is where we lie. As you guys know, Harvey (Hale) is a very good shooter and he's 0-for-5 (3-pointers) and Gary Clark's not showing it. He's a very good shooter and he went 0-for-4 (from the floor) and 0-for-2 on threes. As long as they have good looks, I don't want them looking over their shoulders worried if coach is going to jerk them out of the game because of a missed shot. But we had good looks early."
On Chas McFarland starting tonight's game
"What we're trying to do is, and believe me, it's got everything to do with practice and that's the bottom line. He's had a couple of very, very good practices and we're just telling guys, 'We're going to reward guys that work hard in practice.' That's the bottom line. I think where we're trying to take this program with a young group, we're saying if you're not working hard today and your buddy is then he's in. It's that simple. It's the same thing with defensive mistakes. If you're not guarding then you're going to sit. I think with a young team, trying to reinforce work habits and reinforce defense is going to help us get where we want to go."
Wake Forest Sophomore Guard L.D. Williams
On his performance tonight
"I feel like my role on this team is to bring energy, strap-up on defense, try to lock guys down, get out in the passing lane, run my wing position and get to the basket and knock down free throws. I feel like I did all of that tonight."
On the shooting performance from both teams
"I feel like it was our good defense (that caused poor shooting). We don't hope guys miss, we try to make guys miss. Coach (Gaudio) really harped on getting out to the shooters. We know they shoot a lot of threes. We really wanted to get out on shooters and make them miss shots." Wake Forest Sophomore Guard Ishmael Smith
On the game overall
"It was ugly but you know what, you have to take them how you take them. Winston-Salem State played hard and they played well. I give 100 percent credit to Coach Collins and his team. It was a big game for both of us. Anytime you play a crosstown rival, you want to beat them. It was ugly but you get them how you get them. It's a win on the column. I'll take it."
On the hectic schedule thusfar
"I'm just glad we got it (two seven-day breaks) out of the way. It's tough. I know we looked a little sluggish but we've got that out of the way, we're starting to role and it's about to get fun."
Winston-Salem State Head Coach Bobby Collins
On the game as a whole
"I told my team that we needed to weather the storm of the Wake Forest defense. We needed to execute and value every possession, and, as you can see, we turned the ball over the first five out of seven possessions. I think we had 14 turnovers in the first 10, 15 minutes of the game, and we're averaging only 16 turnovers a game. I thought that played a major role. Their defensive pressure did a very good job of pressuring us and taking us out of some things. I really put a lot of emphasis this week on several things; one being inside presence. I really wanted to get the ball inside, deep, so we could score and maybe get them into some foul trouble. Secondly, we emphasized on boxing-out and obviously, you can see, it seemed like every rebound they got meant something even though it was 44 to 45. The offensive rebounds and opportunities they got, I think they scored theirs and we didn't. Defensively, for the first 10 minutes of the game, I thought we did a very good job. Both teams kind of struggled to score. I think the score was two to zero at the first time out. But we have to do a better job of getting the ball inside. We've got to do a better job of handling pressure on the wings. I think I have pretty good guards but at times they get a little rattled and we miss-out on our execution. We'll definitely emphasize that this week going into our game against Fresno State."
On freshman center Corey Morris
"We talked about redshirting our big man, 6'10'' Corey Morris. He hasn't gotten a lot of repetitions because our thoughts were to redshirt him. After we saw him practice this week, he really showed some burning desire of wanting to play. He proved that to me this week and that's why we played him. I think once he gets his game legs under him he will be a force and presence for us in the post because he presents to us a big, wide body and he can hold his ground in the post unlike our starting center, Paul Davis. He's 6'9'' and 175 (pounds) and he's getting pushed off the block quite a bit. He's got to get tougher and get the ball in scoring positions."
On Winston-Salem State's shooting performance
"Horrendous. I thought we took a lot of bad shots. Five-for-28 (on three pointers.) I told my team, 'We live and die with our three at times.' Obviously, as you saw tonight, our inside presence wasn't there. The shots we took, we took some good shots and we took a lot of bad shots. We can't continue to play that way. We've got to have an inside presence in order to play consistent."
