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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 5, 2012Jim LarranagaCOACH LARRANAGA: Our team is excited about playing in the ACC Tournament this week, first time for my coaches and I to bring our team to the ACC Tournament. We realize we have got a very, very tough opponent in the first round. It's the home team, Georgia Tech, and Brian Gregory has that team playing very, very well right now. Q. Miami is portrayed as a bubble team; what do you have to do? COACH LARRANAGA: You have to win. Basically there's your resumé and body of work throughout the season and the more wins you can get, the more wins you can get against the Top‑100 teams; anything that you can add to your resumé, I think enhances your chances. And so this tournament for us is very, very important. Q. Does your approach change to a conference tournament when you're secure being in the NCAA or you have to win it or somewhere in the middle? COACH LARRANAGA: I think because, you know, in my experience, you never really know for sure whether you are in or not. I mean, I'd have to go back to my Virginia days with Ralph Sampson when we were one of the top five teams in the country to know that we were secure in a bid. But beyond that, in the last, oh, 25 years, you mostly know that you had to end the season very, very well, win your tournament, or be going in with a very, very strong RPI. And you don't know how deep the selection committee will go. So if you can get yourself in the top 40 RPI teams, you have a heck of a lot better chance than someone who is 50, but 50 has a better chance than the ones who are 60. 60 still has a shot. I don't know if they have ever taken anybody with an RPI in the 70s. So you want to earn your way in and I think the only way to get in is by earning your way in and the only way to do that is, you know, to play well, win games, and the ACC Tournament is an opportunity for our Miami team to try to improve its resumé. Q. (Inaudible). COACH LARRANAGA: Well, I don't know what it has to do with but they are playing terrific right now. Their performance against Maryland, the way they shoot the ball, the way they play defense is very, very impressive to me. They are playing better now. And I heard Brian say that his players are improving during the season and I think that's true. I can see guys that shoot the ball with a little more confidence and more focus, and sharing the ball, which is always a good sign for a coach when his team is playing hard and playing well. Q. How is Shane Larkin holding up at this point of the year? Do you see any signs of him sort of hitting a freshman wall at all? COACH LARRANAGA: I think he's done a great jobsince he's been added to the starting lineup. He helps us in many, many different ways. He's our primary ball handler to begin the game and to begin the second half. He's also someone that's made some terrific defensive plays. He made a fantastic steel at NC State last week to give us a chance to win that. So I just think he's had a very, very solid freshman year and we're real happy we have him. Q. Health‑wise you had to problems at the beginning of the season. Team‑wise are you in pretty good physical shape right now? COACH LARRANAGA: Yeah, I say probably the best we have been all season. We did go throw a long period where at least one, two or three guys were out, and right now everybody has been practicing and everybody has been practicing hard and well and I think it certainly helps us to have that. Q. I asked Coach Turgeon this: Does the location of the tournament matter from a guy that's coached outside North Carolina? Does it help to get it out of Greensboro? COACH LARRANAGA: Well, it depends on your point of view. Like right now, we are playing Georgia Tech, and I think it's a great advantage for a team to be able to play in its home city and not have to travel and play in its home arena; so that it's very, very familiar with its surroundings. And it even makes the fan base larger, because the fans don't have to travel. So I think there is certainly some advantages to staying at home and playing in your home arena. Q. If you were playing Duke or North Carolina, would you be better off playing in Atlanta than Greensboro? COACH LARRANAGA: Playing Duke or Carolina, anywhere, is difficult. And it's not because of the arena. They have terrific teams, terrific players, terrific coaches. So no matter where you play teams like that, you have a major challenge on your hands. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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