Post Game Quotes
1/19/2020 8:29:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Boston College head coach Jim Christian
On what made this game different than the matchup early in the season...
"I mean, we had four of our top seven guys not playing the game. They played better, they shot the ball better, but we had one front-court player come in to the game. They pounded us on the glass, they pounded us inside. I thought we hung tough for a while and then we just really struggled to shoot the ball. We haven't shot it well in the last three games, it's hard if you can't score. They played well -- I give Wake Forest credit."
On the frustration of having top players out...
"I don't think it's any more frustrating [in this game]. I feel bad for the guys on our team that are out. We don't say 'I wish you weren't hurt for this game or that game' -- we don't want them to miss any games. It's not any more frustrating if you play the best team in the league or a team that hasn't won, it has nothing to do with that. We have to prepare ourselves to win. I thought we did a great job for 18:30 of the first half, we played great. Considering the makeshift line-ups I am trying to teach guys on the fly, we have no practice time. We didn't know that [Steffon] Mitchell wasn't going to play until this morning after shoot-around. It's not easy to do that but it's not any more frustrating than if we were playing anybody else."
On Steffon Mitchell...
"He was sick yesterday but was feeling better. He had a fever but it broke so he got an IV before the game but he just didn't feel like he could go.
Wake Forest head coach Danny Manning
Opening Statement...
"Tonight, I thought the lineup we had, which was the big line up with Ody and Olivier, were terrific. Our front court in general, with Ismael, played really well. For Ody to get 16 and 10 and Olivier with 14 and 13 and a double double, and Ish getting 14 and 6 was a big key for us today. Brandon shot the ball well and made some key plays with six assists and twenty points. We did some really good things with ball movement, making the hockey assist, and just a good overall effort from us. In terms of turnovers, we keep working on it and talking about it, they were able to put pressure on us and scored 21 points off our turnovers. If we cut numbers down we would have a better showing from us. But, we had a good presence from us, getting them in foul trouble with paint touches and that gives us chances at the free-throw line and also put us in a situation of getting deep into their bench early."
Was it in the plans to play Ody and Olivier more together before losing Sunday (Okeke) and Tariq (Ingraham)...
"It was always in the game plan to play more forward because you have Tariq, Sunday, and Ody. That would have been part of the normal rotation. It's not right now. Certain situations have happened. I don't know what Isaiah's availability is for Clemson. Clemson is a team that plays four guards and so we can change the lineup and go back to what we were doing to a certain extent and bring one of the other bigs off the bench."
Does a blowout win help with a turnaround of about fifty hours...
"It is what it is. If we had to play guys longer minutes, we would have played them longer minutes. We were able to get those guys out towards the end of the game and that will help us down the road. Tomorrow, there's not that much physically that we will do. Our guys have to recover and get their legs under them and we'll get on the bus and get a win against Clemson. That's the plan."
What kind of challenges does Clemson pose...
"Don't know. I'll look at them tonight. Boston College has been my focus. I'll start the book on them tonight. The scout coach has given me the book and I'll start looking at it tonight and we'll be prepared. I know they have a good center and they will do a good job of pressuring you,especially at home, and that's the extent of my knowledge because I was solely focused on Boston College."
Wake Forest Players
Brandon Childress
On having everything click offensively from tip-off…
"Whenever you get a win, especially during these long stretches, it's always a good feeling. Once again, we found our groove, but we just got to keep it going. This was a good win so we're going to be able to celebrate this one, but in 48 hours we got a quick turnaround playing a physical team, Clemson. But like I said before, it's a good feeling and we want to keep this feeling up, but we got to keep going."
On whether it's better to have a blowout win or a close win after a quick turnaround…
"I'll take a win. A win is a win, regardless if it's a back-to-back, two days later, a week later, a month later, or a year later. I'll take a win over everything."
On turnovers…
"Yeah, we had some careless turnovers, but we managed to have 16 assists. It's been a while since we had that, so that's definitely a good feeling. We weren't just dwelling on the bigs to get us going, so we kind of fed off each other today. Ish came in and had some points off the bench, Andrien (White) got going a little bit, and even Torry (Johnson) as well, so those guys stepped up today."
Ody Oguama
On how good it feels to win…
"It feels great. We played as a team and everything, everyone got their shots, and I feel that the ball was moving around well. And afterwards we were all just happy to win as a team."
On starting with Olivier Sarr…
"I like playing with all my teammates, but it was good starting with Olivier for the first time, something new Coach wanted to try because [Isaiah Mucius] wasn't going to get in the game. But it was good. Either he was going to be low, sealing, working for his buckets down low; I was going to be up, trying to get the ball to him, or he was trying to get the ball to me. But it was great. We just got the ball moving between the both of us, and we both got our shots."
