Postgame Quotes
2/26/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2009
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Wake Forest Head Coach Dino Gaudio
Opening statement...
"That was a hard fought, typical end of season ACC game. I'm really proud of our kids the way we gutted it out. I think the biggest statistic of the game was the backboard. James Johnson's work on the boards in the first half, as well as the second, was just outstanding. He grabbed every rebound. He wouldn't let us lose. Ish Smith did a terrific job as well. The two three's he hit were huge three's. I think I was telling Dan (Collins) this, but for a while, we were like we have to get Ish back to where he was. Knock on wood, he's back and taking those next steps. He was outstanding. The free throw line was good for us. We shot our 50 free throws today. I'm proud of the kids. This was a really, really good end of season ACC win for this basketball team."
On why the team has not been able to win on the road...
"We won at Boston College, at Clemson and at BYU. I think it's tough in this league to win on the road. I think it's hard to win on the road. There's really good teams in this league. There are really good players and I think there's a tremendous amount of positive energy for the home team. I don't care who you are. If you try to go on the road and win on this league, it's a difficult chore. Hopefully we have the wherewithal to do that on Saturday. I'm going to tell the kids tomorrow, if we're fortunate enough to be there, you're going to have to play an NCAA Tournament game on Thursday evening and an afternoon game on Saturday. We have to look at it like that. We had the same exact scenario last year. We had three games in six days during midterms. That's tough. We'll get the kids ready and we're going to have study hall on the road tomorrow. That's part of it."
On the performance of James Johnson...
"James has been a warrior for us the last couple of games. He's been outstanding. He's a barometer for our team. The last three games the assistants have come back and said that the team has warmed up hard and is ready to go. He's the first guy they talk about. When he's ready to go, he plays well. I was proud of him tonight."
On the team's free-throw shooting...
"I think it's really important. We've talked since three games ago that we have to guard without fouling. We're doing a much better job of that. We're doing a terrific job of guarding without fouling."
On Ishmael Smith's free-throw shooting...
"I think he deserves all the improvement he's made because he's a tireless worker. He worked on those free throws all summer. He would text me and coach Kelsey during the summer and say he was 175-for-200. He shot 200 free throws a day. I got an email saying I can't believe Ish is shooting free throws like he is and he doesn't practice. There's no one who works harder than that than he does. He deserves all the success he's had. He's a hard worker. He spends a lot of time at that aspect of his game."
Wake Forest Players
Wake Forest junior Chas McFarland
On scoring in double digits tonight...
"In practice coach has been working with me, trying to get me going because I haven't been scoring a lot. I have been playing real well and it's easier to play well when you stay out on the court longer."
On why you haven't been playing well...
"It's been hard to get into the rhythm until the first ten, fifteen minutes of the game and trying to stay out of foul trouble. I only had three fouls this game and that's a record for me."
Wake Forest sophomore James Johnson
On how you got your start tonight...
"It was just time for me to come out and show the stuff I've been working on. I've wanted to be more aggressive lately because I kind of feel like it's hard to contain me. If they put a guy on me I like to just blow by him."
On getting your head in the right place to focus...
"It's been a while since this team has been in the NCAA Tournament and that's all my focus is. Not just me but my team's too. We just want to go out and perform great to be an NCAA team. We have been working hard since summertime and there is no reason to lose that now."
North Carolina State Head Coach Sidney Lowe
On the game...
"I thought that was a tough ball game, they played well. I thought our guys hung in there, made a run, got back in there. They had a couple of guys that made some big plays for them. James Johnson played well. A couple of times we had the shot clock against them, Ish made some big threes and that let them keep their momentum going. I was proud of the way our guys hung in there and fought back. Wake was the better team tonight."
On the performance of James Johnson...
"He made big plays at crucial times, getting to the basket especially late in the game. He just played a great game, big on the boards. He wanted the basketball in his hands and he made the play. He is tough to guard out there, he can put it on the floor and he can handle. We just didn't keep him at front long enough."
On what your guys did to guard Jeff Teague...
"We were just trying to make it tough for him. Our guys worked hard, they knew they were playing against an explosive player, a guy that could put up big numbers. Our guys were really just trying to concentrate on making it as tough as possible. I give him credit that he didn't force anything, he certainly is a team player. He is a very good basketball player and we didn't want him to have a good game against us."
On using box-and-one tonight...
"Obviously they worked us, we did run it a lot. We had a couple of times when they used Teague as a screener and we didn't switch the way we were supposed to on those plays. That type of thing again is just make it tough for certain guys and force other guys to beat you if you can. They executed well and got the ball to the right people."
