Wake Forest Athletics
Postgame Quotes
3/7/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2010
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Wake Forest Head Coach Dino Gaudio
Opening statement...
"I'm really happy for our seniors. They have invested so much in this program in four years and obviously been through a lot. We had the seniors, as is our tradition, talk this week before practices and they were really emotional talking about Skip and when they came here. It was really an emotional week for us. I'm really happy for those guys. I'm really proud of them. I thought we did a lot of things well tonight. I thought we guarded very well tonight. I thought we rebounded the ball very well with 17 offensive rebounds and we shot free throws really well tonight. I'm a little bit disappointed with our turnovers. Much of that credit goes to Clemson with how they play, being in passing lanes and pressing. It was a really good win for us. We had our backs to the wall a little bit, coming off those losses. When we had won four straight, three of them were at home and we were able to win an overtime game at Virginia. When we lost four straight, three of them were on the road and we lost to North Carolina at home last Saturday. There was no panic. They've been working hard all year. I'm just really happy for those guys."
On if this win locks up an NCAA Tournament bid for Wake Forest...
"I hope so. I don't know. We just have to try to win our next game, which is against Miami. Our non-conference schedule was very difficult. I don't know if the word is highly rated, but the degree of difficulty was way up there. We had some really good wins against some really good teams. There's a lot of basketball to be played yet."
On this win giving the team confidence entering the ACC Tournament...
"I think it does. I think it gives us some confidence going into the tournament. We did a lot of things well today. I think it's always going into that tournament off a win or the next game off of a win. I think it's good to go in with some momentum."
On Clemson not playing zone...
"When we played at Virginia Tech, we saw nine possessions of zone and scored seven of the nine. We're playing well against it. We did not play well against it at Tallahassee. We worked three hard days against it in case it reared its head again today. I'm just happy for the win."
On the team's play against Trevor Booker...
"I thought Chas was excellent. Trevor's not a good player, he's a great player. He plays him pretty well when he plays him. I think it was a lot of our big guys that did a pretty good defensive job on their big guys. I'm pleased for him. When you hold Trevor, who is an All-ACC player, to six points and four rebounds and (Jerai) Grant to eight points, our big guys came to play today."
Clemson Head Coach Oliver Purnell
Opening statement...
"We gave up too much on the offensive glass and we didn't shoot the ball well enough from the outside to get a little more offense. They packed the inside against Booker and I thought we got good looks. I'm very interested to see the tape. We took 25 3-pointers, and I think there were only one or two that weren't good looks, but we couldn't knock them down tonight. When you couple that with the fact that we weren't great from the free throw line and you're in a close ball game on the road on Senior Night - and Aminu was a handful, he played like the player he is tonight - that makes it difficult. Our scouting emphasis was on keeping them off the offensive glass and we just didn't do well enough. I'm disappointed that we didn't get it because we wanted to get that bye (in the ACC Tournament), but Wake's a good team and they took care of business on their home court on Senior Night."
On the difficulty getting the ball inside to Booker...
"I thought we got it inside a few times and he threw it right back out. He's going to throw that, that's why you have 25 (3-point attempts) because (Booker) is going to hit the open guy. If they were as good of looks as I think they were then you have to knock some of those down. We've done that before, Booker's had seven, eight or nine assists in a game, but you don't get an assist if you don't make those. Our inside-out offense is predicated on the team shooting with poise, and we're Division I basketball players so we ought to make a high percentage of those."
On Wake's fast start in the second half...
"I thought that they got out in transition some. That's something that we talked about, particularly with Ish (Smith). They got some easy layups to get that working margin. I thought our guys did a good job getting back in it. We got some stuff out of our press. Right around a TV timeout I remember taking (Booker) out to get some fresh guys in there, and we got some stuff to get back in it, but I thought they got out in transition and that's something that they do very well unless you identify people. Grab the basket and the ball and identify those dangerous guys. I thought transition really hurt us coming out of the gate in the second half."
