Post-Game Quotes
2/27/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 27, 2010
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Wake Forest Head Coach Dino Gaudio
Opening statement...
"I just want to congratulate Roy [Williams] and his kids - a much deserved win for those guys. For us, it's the same story this latter two games. We're just not scoring the ball well enough to win. I think we're guarding well enough. We held them to 40 percent but we've got to score the basketball at a better rate. And we're just not doing that right now. We've just got to come to practice on Monday - we're off tomorrow - and do a better job. I think one of the things that will help us is we've got to screen better; we've got to run our offenses a little bit better. I think we're trying to put a little too much pressure on guys individually going one-on-one and I think therein lies the problem on offense. Again, we only had 11 turnovers and we had a lot of looks at the basket but we missed 52 shots."
On having six days to prepare for today's game...
"The first two days we just worried about us - just trying to get ourselves better. They have very good players and they're obviously very well coached. I think what we have right now is we're just lacking confidence a little bit. We're lacking confidence in our offensive game and we just have to get that back."
On if missing shots breeds more misses...
"No question. If you recall, we came out two Saturdays ago against Georgia Tech and when the score was 13-2, 13-4, we scored the ball early. We had a little bit of bounce in our step and played well offensively throughout. But we started this game and I think the first possession we shot an airball - I think the shot clock was winding down. We tried to go to [Al-Farouq Aminu] early with the first possession of the game, posting him up, and we weren't able to get him the ball. One thing that's disappointing, we couldn't get the crowd and they were trying to get in the game. It was a great crowd. The students were terrific and we just let them down."
On the offense...
"Well, we've got to make perimeter jump shots; we've got to kick out and make perimeter jump shots. That's no secret. That's what NC State did and that's what Carolina did as well. We've just got find guys who can make jump shots. Now earlier in the year, C.J. [Harris] and Ari [Stewart] were really shooting the ball well for us. And they're young, they'll bounce make for us. Even with Ish [Smith], if that one layup had went down, we'd have cut it to two. It almost looked like it rimmed the cup there and it just came back out. If we'd have cut that thing to two there, it might have helped us a little bit more. They kept fighting; they scrapped to the very end. There were a couple of times it was a two-possession game but we couldn't make a shot. [We were] just putting too much pressure on our defense with a lack of offense. That's been that way for two games."
North Carolina Head Coach Roy Williams
Opening Statement...
We're extremely lucky and feel very fortunate. I was really proud of my team. We made some mistakes early yet we hung in there. We got great lift from guys off our bench, everybody that got in the game scored for us. [...] I thought Leslie [McDonald] was good for us, I thought Marcus [Ginyard]'s work on the backboards and on the defensive end of the floor looked like the Marcus of old. I thought that was extremely important for us. We were also fortunate that Wake [Forest] missed a lot of shots. We did try to get up on the shooters, that was one goal. The other goal was trying to make sure that we build to stop Ish [Smith] from getting inside the lane so easily. He still got in there, but those were the goals, and we were fortunate that they missed some and we just feel good and feel happy and hope the building doesn't burn down.
On the difference in how they handled Wake Forest...
I didn't notice that before the game they were any different than they had been. I think we did handle some things differently, some of their spurts in the first half. They would make a three, but then Marcus [Ginyard] would make a good cut for a layup. Leslie [McDonald] shoots one right in front of their bench and it sputters out, and he goes all the way down and plays good defense and makes a three the next position. So I think they handled things much better to say the least.
On Leslie McDonald...
I have told him in practice that I think he's working harder, he's being more aggressive and more attentive. I told him to just keep doing what he's doing and it would pay off for him.
On the effect of the win...
It should give us confidence but we've had a lot of games in the other direction that's beat us down quite a bit. It should give us confidence, no question, especially when it comes down to making shots when we had to.
