Postgame Quotes
12/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 20, 2009
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2009-10 Wake Forest Men's Basketball
Postgame Quotes - The NC State Game
December 20, 2009
Lawrence Joel Veterans Memorial Coliseum - Winston-Salem, N.C.
Wake Forest 67, NC State 59
Wake Forest Head Coach Dino Gaudio
Opening statement...
"I thought we did enough things to win the basketball game, especially on the defensive end of the floor. We didn't shoot free throws well. We didn't shoot from behind the three point line well. Any win in this league is a good win. I told the kids that the win was like our team. We won ugly, we have an ugly team. My guy that never says a peep, Al-Farouq Aminu, says our team is a reflection of the coach. Like I said, a win in this league is a good win. The kids are proud. We're 1-0. We beat a very good defensive basketball team. Sidney (Lowe) does a great job with those guys. He's trying to exploit mismatches and he does. I thought we hung in there. We're 1-0 and sitting on top of the ACC on December 20. We'll take that."
On this game being a measuring stick in the ACC...
"I think all of us have played some difficult games. Sidney (Lowe) goes down with his team and wins a tournament. They played at Marquette. We've played at Purdue, at Gonzaga, at UNCW. I think all these games give you a little bit of an indicator. I think this first game is just so early. I can't speak for Sid or his kids. I think the kids want to win so badly they're just a little bit tight. I tried to do everything I could to loosen them up a bit. L.D. Williams before the UNCW game couldn't find his jersey. It was stuffed in a bag. I'm giving my talk. I say 'L.D., you got your jersey on?' I lift his shirt up. They laugh. I'm just trying to loosen them up a bit. They want to win so badly. Let's just go out and have fun. We can't play like this. We kept guarding and I think that's a staple of our team. I think that's why we won the game."
On Al-Farouq Aminu getting two fouls in the first half...
"When he got his second foul and he was sitting on the bench, I asked him 'Can I put you back in? Can you play with two?' He said 'Yeah coach.' There was another game where he picked up his third foul 90 feet from the basket. At halftime, instead of going in the coaches' room, I went in the locker room. I told Farouq to come out here. I said 'Listen, the first half is over. Play the second half. Like we worked on in practice, you have to take the ball and sweep it. You're standing up too high and that's why they're calling walks.' They are walks. I just try to be a calm influence on him and those guys. Sometimes they're trying so hard that they're a little bit tight. I think that's what it's like when you have a league game on December 20."
On the play of Ish Smith...
"He was outstanding. He's a terrific player. Someone said just about all but one of his baskets were in the lane and his seven assists were when he got in the lane. We run a lot of sets. NC State runs a lot of sets. They're trying to exploit Ish. Sid sees that we're switching ball screens with (Dennis) Horner. He's trying to exploit that a little bit. I thought we were good when we switched Al-Farouq on him. He's so long. Javier (Gonzalez) hits three threes over top of him. When we went back in, we put L.D. on Horner. The other adjustment we made was when he was coming off of 14, we trapped him. He rolled into the post one time, (Jordan) Vandenberg did, and I think he misplayed that ball. That's the other thing we tried to do with Javier (Gonzalez) because he's a good player."
NC State Head Coach Sidney Lowe
Opening statement...
"I thought we came up against a team that was a little quicker than we were. They were a little more aggressive than we were. They just really played well and executed their stuff. I thought our guys hung in there and cut the lead down in the second half. We missed a couple of opportunities where we had some lay-ups and we didn't convert. I thought their size really affected us inside. I thought we were looking for shot blockers and we pump faked a couple of times when nobody was there. I thought that was definitely a factor. I thought our kids really hung in there and continued to play. I thought our defense was a little better in the second half, as far as field goal percentage is concerned. They hurt us on the offensive boards."
On using this game as a measuring stick in the ACC...
"First off, we have a long way to go. The first thing we're going to have to do is increase our intensity and increase our knowledge. I don't think we played smart tonight. I thought they did some things against us. They switched a ball screen and we didn't take advantage of that inside with (Ish) Smith guarding the four and the five. We didn't really post him up strong. We kept looking for the ball over the top and were telling our bigs that you have to post him up. We really allowed him to play in front of us. The first thing we have to do is to understand that this is every night in the ACC. You have to be tough; you have to be physically tough. They were active. They were physical. If that's the way the game is going to be played, then that's the way you have to play it. That's the way you should come out and play it. I think that's the biggest thing we have to adjust to is understanding how it's going to be played physically."
On Tracy Smith's fifth foul...
"I think he followed the guy out too far. I think if he stayed where he was supposed to, he wouldn't have gotten the foul. In that defense, if a guy goes away from the basket, the big doesn't chase him out. You just release and the guard gets out in front."
On not being able to exploit mismatches on the offensive end...
"That is frustrating. They actually executed a couple of times pretty good in terms of getting it in there, but we didn't finish the play. We weren't able to score over him (Ish Smith). I don't think we did it well enough consistently. I don't think we took advantage of it enough times. You just can't allow it. You can't allow one man to switch off onto your four or five in the post. You have to bury them. You have to take advantage of that. You have to hit him and be physical with him. Their bigs were hitting us. They were hitting us whether we were big or small. They were hitting our guards. They were hitting our big men. We didn't hit them. We didn't hit Smith down there. He was working around it. We didn't take advantage of it. It was very frustrating."
