Post Game Quotes
3/2/2019 2:41:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Opening Statement...
"We came out today and the biggest stat to me that jumps out is the 23 turnovers. There were a lot of time we put ourselves in situations where we knew a trap was coming, but we didn't throw a good pass or we didn't go meet the pass, and when we did we had quite a few balls go through the middle of our hands. We have to do a better job of handling the ball and handling those types of situations. That's 23 times where we don't get an opportunity to shoot the basketball and score. Against a talented team like Syracuse, that's pretty tough to do. I thought we did a decent job of getting out and guarding them at the three-point line, but they were able to beat us off the bounce and rotate it over there and throw it up to a big guy. We have to do a better job of staying in front of the basketball defensively. Offensively, we just have to be able to move the basketball around and find open areas."
On the shooting struggles in the second half...
"Part of those were turnovers, we had opportunities to score, whether it's a fast break setting and we under throw a pass or we pitch it up and we don't catch the ball. That all factors in, those 23 turnovers. I'm sure we had some turnovers during that stretch."
On the cause of the turnovers
"It's a combination [of everything asked], it's all of the above. You can say it's [fatigue], you can say it's not going to meet the basketball, you can say it's not throwing the pass hard enough, you can say it's not catching the pass. All those things factor in at some point or another during those 23 turnovers. Going in to it, we knew they were going to run through the passing lanes, we thought we needed to go meet the basketball. A couple of times we were flat footed on passes and they would run through the passing lane. It was all of the above."
On the close game early in the second...
"I think we cut it to five at one point. When we cut it to five, it just didn't go well from that point. In that zone, they do a great job of matching up when you've hurt them in certain areas. I thought we did a decent job of getting the job to the high post, especially Isaiah caught it in there a few times, able to hit some turn-around jump shots and that's where we wanted to get the ball too. We also wanted to get it to the short corner because we knew that they were going to trap us. We thought that if we could get a good pass out of that then we'd be able to attack. That didn't work out as well as we wanted it to or hope for it to, to be honest."
Wake Forest players
Chaundee Brown
On the momentum slipping away in the second half...
"Yeah, I felt it. In the first couple of minutes, they went on a run and got a lot of rebounds. I felt like we did well in the first half but came out flat in the second. That's on us. We knew before the game that Syracuse was a good team. They run a zone and have a lot of length. We knew it was going to be difficult, and we didn't match their energy."
On if the team should know how to win these games...
"We should. Most games we compete and have a lot of energy, but we don't have the discipline. Other games we have the discipline, but we don't have the full effort. We have to put it all together."
Isaiah Mucius
On positive takeaways from Saturday's loss against Syracuse...
"It's tough playing against Syracuse 2-3 defense. They are really long, everyone in their starting lineup is above 6-5. We tried the best we could, but they played great defense."
On if that was the quickest he has every scored eight points...
"Probably. I think I had one game in high school where I scored 10 points in a span of five minutes. I was just feeling the rhythm today and my teammates kept feeding me the ball."
Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim
On the game:
"I thought our movement was better, we got some open lanes to get to the basket against their man defense, and when they went to the zone we still got good movement. We didn't shoot well from the 3-point line but I thought our defense overall was much better, more active than it's been. These games are always difficult, a game you are supposed to win, and it's not that easy and I thought today we played a really solid basketball game. Our ball movement was just better, it's been good the last couple of games and our offense is just getting better. I thought Paschal was really important we found him down low, and he finished a couple around the basket that we haven't been getting. So even though we didn't shoot it well from the perimeter, I thought that was something we haven't had in there. But overall it's a good win and I'm happy to get it."
On getting ready for the game:
"We just talk about getting ready and playing the game. Trying to get ready and focus on this game, and this team has been good, our teams have usually been good on just trying to focus on this game and obviously we were supposed to 'win this game' but we played well and that's what is important. In the league, we're certainly not as good as we'd like to be, but we've gone on the road and struggled in the past and we've lost games here, we've lost at Boston College, and Pittsburgh before and we've went to those places and we did what we needed to do. There's a lot of teams who have lost to Boston College, or Pitt and that's really key for us this year. We've made sure to win those kind of games, it's no that easy to win, I think this is our fifth road win in the league and it's not that easy to win on the road no matter who you're playing.
On taking advantage of Sarr's absence:
"They left Paschal a little bit because of that, but Sarr is a really good offensive player and he's a real factor in the game. But Paschal started out making those 3 or 4 jump shots where Sarr would be. Maybe if Sarr was there we would pay a little more attention to him, but they didn't and Paschal got a couple good alley-oops and a couple good plays down there which he hasn't been doing, which is a good sign."
