Post Game Quotes
1/11/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 11, 2009
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 1 
| Photo Gallery 2
On the game...
"I just thought it was a great college basketball game. If we would have been on the other end of that I would have said the same thing. It was a great atmosphere. The people saw two pretty good teams. I thought our defense in the second half did a great job of getting back and keeping them from transitioning. We thought a lot this season getting our defense to where it needs to be. Good win against a great basketball team."
On what the key points of the game were...
"Statistically I thought our free throw percentage and field goal percentage were the big points of the game. Sixteen turnovers are not what I would like. If we were on twelve I would have been happier. I thought our field goal percentages defensively were the keys."
On holding Carolina's fast breaks...
"Our conversion defense last year was not a good part of our game and we can't be taking arrows in the back. It's hard to guard when you are retreating. The first day we practiced I said one of the most important things we need to work on is our conversion defense. It's just effort, running back, and communicating."
Wake Forest Players
Wake Forest Senior Harvey Hale
On last year's game vs. North Carolina...
"Last year we were just trying to play as hard as we could and this year we were just trying to get an upset. We felt like we were a good team and we could play hard together. North Carolina is a great team and they really pushed the ball. They almost got us at the end but we just kept pushing."
On Jeff Teague's performance...
"He is an amazing player. He holds the game in his hand and says I am going to take over. Whenever we need a deep bucket we go to Teague. Whenever we need him to come through he comes through."
Wake Forest Sophomore Jeff Teague
On the importance of this ACC game...
"This was a big win. We only play them once and we wanted to make it count. Harvey Hale came into the locker room saying it was his last time to play Carolina and he has never beaten them. We all put on our hearts that this game was for him."
On the Carolina game with Coach Prosser...
"Coach Dino brought that up before the game. I guess Coach Prosser told Ishmael after that game to never forget that feeling. Ish (Smith) came out and said he would never forget that feeling and it was pay back time. So we got rowdy, came out, and played well."
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening statement...
"Well, we congratulate Dino (Gaudio), his staff, his team and their fans. It was a great atmosphere and a great college game. It wasn't necessarily pretty all the time, but it was a great college game for the competitiveness. I told Jeff Teague that that was about as good a performance as I've seen in a long time against a team that I've coached. I thought he was sensational. Two years ago they had trouble stopping people and had trouble on the defensive end. Dino and his staff have done a great job. They guard you. There's a reason we shot 35 percent and it was because of their defensive play. I loved Skip Prosser. I loved him to death. He was one of the nicest guys I've ever been around. This is Dino's club right now and he needs to be congratulated for the way he handled one of the most tragic situations I've ever seen in my life. He also needs to be congratulated because he's coached his rear end off here the last couple of years. I never felt like we were going to make a shot. In the first half, I thought our turnovers really hurt us because of how silly they were. We were down nine or 10 in the first half and came back and had a chance to go two-for-1 and turn it over on the baseline so we go into the half tied. To be honest, I felt like we were pretty lucky because we had turned it over with so many bad decisions. In the second half, it went back and forth a little bit and they stretched it out. I really liked the way my club tried to come back. We just gave ourselves too big of a hill to climb. We didn't make enough shots, turned it over too much. The best team tonight won the basketball game. We congratulate those kids and Dino and his staff because they're really done a great job."
On starting ACC play 0-2...
"It's what it is. We're 0-2 and we have to try to play better and be more effective. I told the kids that during Tyler (Hansbrough), Bobby (Frasor) and Danny's (Green) freshman year, we were 3-3 at one time and ended up 12-4. It is a long season. I'm still looking at the big picture and know that we can get a lot better. There's no question that the conference race is always our number one goal, but it's not over with after two games."
On the foul trouble for his team during the second half...
"I believe you have to give their defense credit. I thought we had some looks that we were going to make that we didn't. It was a physical game. There were 55 fouls called I think and a lot of free throws. It was a physical game. I never thought it was a dirty game by any means. It was a big-time basketball game in a big-time basketball atmosphere."
On Wake Forest's size...
"They have great length inside. It's hard to score inside. It's hard to get an open look inside. That length keeps coming at you from the bench too. I was at Kansas one time and we had Greg Ostertag, Raef Lafrentz and Scott Pollard, three guys that were 6-11, 7-0 and played in the NBA for a while and it was tough for people around the basket. You look down and you have nine assists and 18 turnovers. That's not the way we're supposed to play basketball."
