Wake Forest vs. Florida State -- Postgame Quotes
1/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2008
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | AP Action Photos 
Wake Forest Head Coach Dino Gaudio
Opening statement
"That was a really quality win for us. We keep telling the kids we have to keep service at home and try to steal a game or two on the road. Like Mike Krzyzewski said after their win [against Florida State], he said that was one of the most difficult defensive teams that he's faced at Duke in a long, long time. I echo those sentiments. I thought the way we came out and started the second half was really key to our mindset and really key to us winning the basketball game. Our offense in the second half was really efficient. We scored at a 1.2 points per possession pace, which is just outstanding against a very, very good defensive team. I think we had two turnovers in the second half and one of them was when we didn't shoot the ball with three seconds to go in the game. In essence, we had one turnover in the second half. I'm really pleased. Jamie Skeen came off the bench and gave us a nice lift. Harvey Hale came off the bench and gave us a nice lift. I thought we really guarded them in the second half also. Good win for us."
On the mindset of the team in the second half
"Everybody kept saying, even the kids amongst themselves were saying, 'This is a must win.' When I went in at halftime I told them, 'Don't worry about winning the game or losing the game. Don't worry about that. Just worry about playing hard and doing your job on both ends of the floor.' If we do that, then it will happen for us. I think they were so eager to win the game and we were forgetting how to go about doing that. You have to guard and play defense and taking care of the ball and that's what we did. That was sort of our theme at halftime."
On the shooting improvements for Wake Forest from the 3-point line
"I wish I had the answer to that. We've done a lot of shooting since the Maryland game. We spent a lot of time on going three to two also (faking on the three and dribbling in for the two). Harvey in the corner, in front of our bench, made a shotfake and went three to two. The one where we threw it to him in the corner, that was a wide open look, he has to take that. James [Johnson] drove the ball a little bit more, although he did shoot the ball pretty well from behind the arch, obviously, 4-5. We have been emphasizing going three to two."
Wake Forest Guard L.D. Williams
On the play of Wake Forest Forward James Johnson...
"In a nutshell, he's great. I'm a fan as well as his teammate. He had 26 points and 9 rebounds so you can't really ask for anything else out of him. One time he came down, did a hesitation move, and then dunked it. He's a great kid and he deserves all the credit he's getting. He's the first one to practice and the last one to leave. It showed on the court."
On going back on the road to Clemson on Tuesday...
"We'll go in to the gym tomorrow and scout Clemson. We're going to do everything we can to get better tomorrow because you can't take a step back in this [conference]."
On Wake Forest Head Coach Dino Gaudio at half-time...
"[He said] if we come out, play hard, rebound, and make shots, then the game will take care of itself."
Wake Forest Forward James Johnson
On road games versus home games...
"I like road trips but there's nothing like home. On the road if you can shut up the other team's crowd that's great but there's nothing like playing at home. Winning at home is great, especially when you get the crowd behind you. Everything that goes well makes the crowd cheer and that gets us excited."
On playing well in the second half...
"I try to play the best I can and help the team out. Everyone on this team has a chance to shine and I just got the hot hand. We believe in one team, one fight. Nobody on this team cares who scores the most points or who got the most rebounds. At the end of the game, we just care about getting the win and we got it today."
Florida State Head Coach Leonard Hamilton
Opening Statement
"We had several opportunities to steal the lead. We probably did a poor job of when we would fall (behind), taking advantage of the fact that they had a couple guys in foul trouble in the first half. We came back out in the second half and I thought they [Wake Forest] did a real good job of executing the first six possessions. We came up empty. They scored. For the first time this year I saw major minutes where we were forced to play with a smaller lineup and it kind of caught up with us a little bit. I didn't think we had the energy to match-up with Wake Forest's energy."
On Wake Forest's run in the second half
"I think there were some broken plays when they got out in transition. We turned the ball over a couple of times. We tried a 2-2-1 press and they would go over the top and knock down a shot. In two or three of those scramble situations where they [Wake Forest] penetrated down and the defense dropped down they rotated the ball back out and found him [Johnson] and he knocked down a couple of shots."
