Post Game Quotes
12/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 30, 2008
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Opening statement...
"I told our guys that I think we didn't come out initially with the right mindset and I think a lot of credit goes to Radford for that. I thought they played with a lot of energy and a lot of emotion in the first half. To be honest with you, we knew their big guys were good. I think our post guys were surprised at how good Lynch-Flohr and Parakhouski were. I thought those guys did a very good job of the interior. I think we came out in the second half and played more of our style of basketball. I think that really helped us. This was a good win for us. I think we'll look back on that game like we did Wright State. I don't know if Wright State has been beat since we played them. I know they beat Oral Roberts, they beat South Florida by 17. I think as we go through this season, you'll see this team win a lot of basketball games in their league. I think it'll end up being a very good RPI win for us. I thought we did a very good job of turning them over. For the second game in a row, we did a good job of taking care of the ball. We had nine turnovers tonight and had eight at ECU. They did a good job of keeping us out of transition and we didn't get the fast break baskets that we had in Greenville. This was a good win for our kids."
On taking the starters out at the start of the second half...
"I just sat them on the bench. I think the message was clear. If they're not going to go out there and play with the emotion that they need to, there was nothing else I could say to them. I had already barked at them a couple of times in the first half. There were no other words to say. We have a lot of good players. I have all the confidence in the world in the guys that we put in there that they will do a good job. It wasn't like we threw them in there and the game was over in any way, shape or form. There was nothing else to say to those first five guys so I just let them sit and watch."
On how the long layoff affected the team's performance in the first half...
"I'm glad we got a game under our belt before we play BYU. When we came back from Christmas after four days off, we were winded a little bit. We didn't have the greatest of practices. I don't care who you are, if you don't do anything for four days, you're wind is going to be lacking. I thought we really practiced well two days ago. Yesterday we went about an hour and 15 so they would be fresh. We talked to them at the shootaround today about worrying about right now. Jeff Battle did the scout and talked to them before the game about worrying about right now. They can look to BYU now."
On the zone defense played by Radford...
"Brad (Greenberg) did a great job. He tried to slow us down a little bit with it. We have a three-prong attack against a zone. First, let's beat it down the floor and try to attack it before they get set up. Second thing, let's run good zone offense. Third thing, let's climb all over the offensive glass because there are questionable box outs in it. We didn't get the first part. We had to grind it out a little bit and we did. We made some real nice interior passes in our zone offense. I told them at halftime that we weren't focused when you come out of the gate and we run a special play and we throw the ball right to the rim and we missed it. Then we run another play and we throw it right to the rim against the 1-3-1 and we miss another layup. I just think that's a lack of concentration."
Radford Head Coach Brad Greenberg
Thoughts on the game...
"Wake Forest is a great team - deep, long, well coached and in great shape. They are a handful for anybody. They wore us down. I think we played well for a pretty good stretch of the game. It was really tough for us to be able to do it for 40 minutes. At about the 30 minute mark the wheels came off a little bit. But I'm very proud of our team. They were very competitive. I've got two inside players that I think are very tough kids. Neither had their best night today but they were very representative and very competitive against one of the best front courts any college team is going to have this year."
On Amir Johnson's 37 minute performance...
"Chris McEachin played a few minutes behind him and kind of struggled. He's only played a couple of games, he's a sophomore. Chris is better than he played in that little segment. He struggled handling the ball against the pressure. Amir Johnson is good, but if you just look at his line on the box score it doesn't look like he had a strong game. But I think he had a very strong game. He handled the ball against some aggressive defenders and did a pretty good job of keeping up our offensive for the majority of the game."
On Wake Forest's style of play...
"They run great off of makes or misses. They get it down the court. They've got a couple of guys that can really penetrate and just run it right down your throat. [Wake Forest] got too many baskets like that. Tactically, what they do against zone is very sound and they execute very well. They are patient, smart in attacking zone and did pretty well at trying to get shots. Our zone isn't bad, we were trying to match up and do some things that were pretty sound defensively."