Wake Forest Athletics
2010 NCAA Tournament First Round Post-Game Press Conference Quotes
3/19/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 19, 2010
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MODERATOR: Coach, opening comments.
COACH GAUDIO: I thought it was a great college basketball game. I thought Texas played very, very hard. Rick should be really proud of his kids.
I'm proud of our kids. You know, we're down 8 in overtime. It was our fifth overtime game this season. I think when you have four seniors that have been through the wars a little bit, I think that bodes well for you as a coach.
Even when we were down 8 after one of the timeouts, they had their heads high, they believed they could win. It was a really good, obviously, win for us. I thought a little bit of difference in the game was the backboard. We came into the game knowing that we had to box out. It was a big key to the game. Before the game they said, What are the three keys to the game? I said, Rebounding, rebounding, and rebounding.
I think the other big key to the game for us was we did a much better job in the second half guarding the three point line.
We're not the prettiest team in the world. We don't shoot the ball straight a lot of times, but our defense was the difference in the basketball game as was the backboard. So we live to fight another day.
Q. Questions for the student athletes?
MODERATOR: Questions for the student athletes.
Q. Can you just walk us through the last shot?
Ishmael Smith: Well, first of all, Coach came over and talked to me. He said, If he makes both free throws, we need a three. He said, If he misses one, makes one, then we need a two. Take it all the way.
I felt like the second part of the second half Texas did a great job of keeping me out of the lane. As far as not getting all the way to the line, I'm sorry. So I knew I wasn't going to get all the way to the lane. I knew I had to pull up. And thank God I made a big shot. Like Coach said, we live to play another day.
Q. You've had plenty of games in your time here, and you've hit a bunch of shots like this one. Where is this game and where does that shot rank?
Ishmael Smith: This has to be number one, obviously. Because I think in the regular season you live to play another game. Now you're in a position you lose, you go home. So this is probably number one. And we'll celebrate tonight, but then we've got to get ready for a really, really good team, really good Kentucky team, I'm sorry.
Q. This was one of your best games in a while. What did you do differently to kind of break out of the slump?
AL FAROUQ AMINU: I just tried to play real hard. I don't worry about myself offensively or anything like that. I just wanted to win so bad for the seniors and everything like that. So I think any time I play hard and play smart, I'm going to end up on the good side of the ball.
Q. Coach said nobody's heads were down when you were down 8 in the overtime, but there was a timeout called. What did you guys talk about right there in that one?
Ishmael Smith: We just talked about just getting stops. That's the biggest thing. When you get down 8, usually when you watch overtime games, when a team usually gets down by 4 or more points, they kind of cave in. They start looking at the clock, and the clock starts ticking down. They start feeling sorry for themselves. But what we did was, like Coach said, we've just got to keep getting stops. Keep getting stops. And we did. We came up with the big win.
Q. With a win like this, can this kind of jump start you guys for the tournament and kind of break you out of where you were struggling at the end?
AL FAROUQ AMINU: Yeah, definitely it can. You know, we lost like 5 out of 6 at the end. But everybody knows that we can play, and this is going to give us confidence, and hopefully we can carry it on to the next game.
MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Gaudio.
Q. You guys were up 11 in the first half, 12 in the second half. You turned the ball over on an inbounds play and you're down 8 0 in overtime. As a coach can you listen to that stuff and reconcile that with the fact that your team was able to come back in all those situations and win that game?
COACH GAUDIO: You know, what I kept referring to in the overtime was the prior four overtime games that we had had. And we just found a way to gut them out. When we were down 8, there was plenty of time, you know. There's three plus on the clock. We just kept telling them there's plenty of time. Let's just get stops. Let our defense create a little bit of offense for ourselves, and it did.
And Ari Stewart hit a big three, which was huge for us. Got us a little bit of a momentum swing back in the game. We were fortunate that one of their young guys missed a free throw or a couple of them, and it gave us a little bit of life.
But when we had had the lead, we squandered it a little bit with our turnovers. We turned the ball over a little bit too much. I think when we grabbed the one rebound, I think it was L.D., with a minute and 7 or something, and we tried to throw the long pass to C.J. down the floor, that was ill advised. I think if we had just possessed the ball, they would have had to foul us.
But, like I said, you play five overtime games against some really good teams, Xavier, Richmond, Maryland, Virginia, and Texas, and somehow win all of those, I think it reveals the character of the kids on the team.
Q. It looked like that was designed to get Brown to give the ball up in that last sequence after the three pointer. Did the kids do that on their own? Did you tell them to do that? Did it just work out that way?
COACH GAUDIO: I'm not sure what Rick was doing. We were just face guard floating and trying to deny the inbounds. Is that the possession you're referring to?
Q. The last possession
COACH GAUDIO: When we fouled?
Q. Yeah, you were intending to foul, but what happened was Brown got the ball, you double teamed him and did not foul him
COACH GAUDIO: No, we were supposed to, as soon as it came in, foul. That's exactly what we were supposed to foul. And Farouq came over and trapped. Why we didn't foul initially J'Covan, I'm not sure. But when they threw it out, we then made that foul on the sideline away from our bench. But, no, we were supposed to foul him initially. As soon as it came in, we were going to.
Q. I know you've been preparing for Texas and looking at them a lot, and now you have to face a Kentucky team. What do you know about Kentucky and what opportunities does that provide for you?
COACH GAUDIO: What we did coming into the tournament and we always do this, Coach Battle had the Texas scout, Coach Wojcik had the Kentucky scout, so when our name came up on the board and we saw it was in the other bracket, Coach LaRue had East Tennessee State in the event that that would have happened. So Coach Wojcik has been since day one Sunday night when we saw we were playing Texas, he's been preparing for Kentucky.
I have not seen one second of Kentucky tape. We'll see a lot of it between now and daybreak tomorrow. But, you know, John's a good friend. He was always close with Skip. Two Pittsburgh guys. You know, I have great respect for him. He's a smart guy. Because I think his daughter's in medical school at Wake Forest.
But it will be a challenge. You know, John we know real well. John Wall's a North Carolina kid. We saw him play eight gazillion times when he was in high school, and he was playing with D One Sports AAU team, which is a Carolina AAU team. They're just really, really good. They're very well coached. And it will be a challenge for us.
Q. Both on the last possession of regulation and the last couple of possessions of overtime you were kind of bringing the ball up in a hurry and you elected not to call timeout. What went into that decision?
COACH GAUDIO: We always want to attack the basket while they're in transition. When they went to the free throw line at the end, I told Ishmael, if we're up two or one, I just want you to attack the basket. I don't want to give them a chance to get set. Now if we had gone down three, I wanted him to cross the timeline, and we were going to try to run a play where we needed a three point shot.
But that was our mindset. It's always been that way. It's our philosophy. Attack them in transition while they're a little bit scrambled. And there's no one else I'd rather take that shot.
When you look at Ishmael's stats, look at his ACC three point shooting stats, oh, not very good. When you look at his free throws, not very good. But he makes that kid makes big shots. As a sophomore he hit a game winner against Virginia Tech. He hit a game winner against Miami. When we were in overtime against Xavier, he made three straight threes.
If I took that little guy out there right now, he wouldn't make three straight threes. If he shot 100 of them. But he makes big shots. Makes big free throws. He's a lion. This team is led by a tough son of a gun at the point guard. He plays hard. I mean, how many rebounds did he pull down tonight? A dozen. From the point guard spot? Big rebounds. Plays hard. Plays hard. Thanks very much.
MODERATOR: Coach Barnes, comments on the game.
COACH BARNES: It's a disappointing, tough, heartbreaking loss. But, you know, people will look at the free throws at the end for having the lead and not being able to close some of those out.
But we really got just pounded on the glass. I can never remember getting outrebounded 59 34. We could have just came with, you know, one or two of those rebounds at the end of the game. I think that that obviously would have been a big key.
But they're a good team in terms of Ishmael Smith creates a lot of stuff for his teammates. Because you have to give him so much attention with his penetration. And I did like it better at the end of the game when we got more aggressive instead of backing off of him and going after him that way. That's when we were able to turn him over a little bit and do some things.
But I am proud of our senior class. You go back to four years ago when they got here, we had gotten down to four players in the program, in the entire program. And what Damion and Dexter and Justin Mason have meant to this program over four years is something that we all truly appreciate. And love them for it. But it ends so quickly.
For those guys, it's very disappointing.
MODERATOR: Questions for the student athletes.
Q. Can you go through the motions of hitting the big shots to tie it, and then go ahead and letting it slip away at the end?
J'COVAN BROWN: Well, you know, I was just trying to help my teammate, you know. Help my team. It's just have confidence in each other, so I stepped up and tried to hit some big shots. Towards the end of the game, my first two free throws, you know, couldn't believe that I missed them. So I'm just frustrated right now.
Q. How do you guys kind of wrap your head around the way this season kind of ended? You know, just the way you guys started off fast and just kind of disappointing at the end? Can you wrap your head around how this season kind of ended up?
J'COVAN BROWN: Well, you know, we started off good, you know. Playing as a team, and moving the ball, you know. Once we got like later towards the season we started doing little things that made us a good team. And Coach was trying to keep that in our minds. And every game, you know, just play as a team. But we just got away from it.
DAMION JAMES: No comment.
Q. Did you ever think when you guys went up like you did and were making those threes that you could lose this game?
J'COVAN BROWN: No. No, we was getting good stops, you know. But when we gave up and we were making them shoot threes, you know, we turned around and try to put it by somebody, you know. And the big man came in, like two or three big rebounds for them.
Q. Do you feel that after now that the season's over, do you feel like you've learned enough about playing the point guard spot that when you guys start up next year you're going to be able to take control of the team?
J'COVAN BROWN: Well, you know, I learned a lot this year from Coach Barnes. I had my ups and downs, you know, but still he helped me fight through them. So I've just got to make sure I just have to bring, you know, just effort, you know, to practice and everything. Just take care of my teammates.
Q. Question?
MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Barnes.
Q. You're in overtime and you've got the freshmen in, and the guys people have been waiting for and they're making plays and stuff. Did you think at that point things have come around to what you were waiting for?
COACH BARNES: Well, yeah, they did. They showed some obviously great moments there. They really did. Yeah, yeah, you know. We wanted to see them do that, obviously.
But, again, they've shown all year their ability. We just couldn't get it consistent enough. You know, J'Covan and Jordan have shown signs of what they did tonight. We've seen other signs at times.
Avery I think has had a tremendous year. He probably there is no probably to it. He played way too many minutes early. That's why he went through some struggles. The minutes he played as a freshman were probably in some ways probably overwhelming, but he tried to fight through it.
But, yeah, they did some good things, they did. But they're disappointed. I told them you've got to remember this feeling. The seniors, they've been here and they've done some good things, but it can end real quickly. It is disappointing.
The one thing we kept trying to do when we did have the lead was to keep them into the game, because, you know, so much time left when you take a lead. We knew we were going to have to make some free throws. But it goes back. We needed to get some stops. Even though we forced some of the shots that we'd like them to take or they took some of the shots we wanted them to take, we just needed to rebound.
We just got pounded on the glass. There were two things coming in that we wanted to accomplish. One was transition defense and the other was rebounding the ball. And we didn't do a great job of either one of those throughout the entire night.
Q. Can I ask you more or less the same thing I asked J'Covan about? Obviously you guys had a hole at point guard a lot of this it year. Do you think when you guys come back for next year that he's the guy to fill it?
COACH BARNES: No, I don't know if I'd say that. I'm not going to say anybody's going to fill anything, because we're definitely not through recruiting either. And we would like to sign another guard, and we're going to sign another guard, because you look at we lost two players that in terms of leadership and toughness with Varez and Dogus.
But I don't know. We'll do what we do every year. We'll put it up for competition and see who wins it. But I'm not going to anoint anybody any position. I tell the players every year that who plays and will be the guys that they determine it every day in practice.
I think that's what he was alluding to; that he's learned this year that you can't be good one day and take a couple days where you're not putting the energy and effort into it.
So I do think that J'Covan learned a lot. But the same with Jordan and Avery. But, again, once we get back and start going, based on the off season and summer, the players will work that out.
Q. I was wondering if that sequence where you inbounded the ball to Brown and two Wake Forest players went to him and didn't foul him as time was ticking away and they gave up the ball and fouled the next guy, did that strike you as odd? Did you wish that Brown had held on to the ball there?
COACH BARNES: Yeah, again, I think actually right when he got ready to get rid of it, they were yelling to foul. And I was watching the 10 second clock because he should have kept the ball. We wanted him to keep the ball. I told him that. What he should have done is dribbled it, and see if they would have because they would have fouled him, because they were yelling for the foul. And even in that situation, that's where he's got to throw it and run get it back. He had time to do that. But that's being young.
But the one thing we did tell him is you've got to go get the ball. You've got to make them foul you. And Gary Johnson's been shooting the ball well from the free throw line. Again, people will look at the free throws at the end, and I understand that. But still it goes back. I mean, when you get beat like we did on the glass.
The difference, and the reason we were able to overcome that, you look at the turnovers. Tonight the one thing we did do is take care of the ball. And I liked what we did at the end of the game. I thought one of the key plays was when we turned the game around we got more aggressive, which we knew we were going to do. And Avery Bradley did a good job on Smith. He got up into him, and I don't think he liked it.
It's hard to do that for 40 minutes. But, again, there were some good things. There really were. Like I said, I'm just disappointed for the seniors. Because it's been a tough run here lately, but overall they've got to look back. Like I told them, you never take for granted getting to this tournament, but it ends quickly. It can end so quick.
Q. Did you feel like this game sort of represented the entire season and that something good happens and then something bad?
COACH BARNES: Pretty close, yeah. Pretty close. You go back, I mean, we lost a lot of games this year because of the free throw line. We can say whatever. You look at it, we had some nights where we just really struggled. And Wake would tell you the same thing from their season I think. When you go back and really look into their stats, they lost some games because of some poor nights at the free throw line. We had gotten so much better there.
I don't remember us getting outrebounded ever like this. I really don't. Some of that was because of helping. At the end when we were trying to double team the ball, they kicked out and we had to scramble out, you know, the guards and everybody's got to come down and try to put a body on somebody. And that's a tough thing. Wake, obviously, they rebound the ball very well.
But, yeah, in some ways you look at, you know, we would get down.
But the one thing we did tonight that we hadn't done a lot lately, when we got down, I thought our guys stayed poised and they worked their way back in it. So, yeah, in some ways you could say that.
Q. Another thing that seems like that's gone on this season is Hamilton hit a bunch of shots in the first half and then he only took three in the second. Were they just not getting him the ball when they should have?
COACH BARNES: They got a little emotional. You know, he just broke down a little bit mentally. We had to get him calmed back down where, you know, yeah. You've got to give Wake some credit, too. They're going to adjust their defense. But at that point in time is where you've got to keep executing and working.
But, again, Jordan has grown a lot. He really has. I know he cares deeply, I do know that. But he'll continue to, I think, understand when people do adjust and do some of those things, that he's going to have to also adjust.
Again, I can only tell you that those guys have really grown in a lot of ways that people could never understand unless they were with us every day. Thank you.
