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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 18, 2013Brian GregoryCOACH GREGORY: Pleased with our effort on Saturday at Wake Forest. They have shown a lot of toughness in being able to bounce back from a disappointing game in that loss against Clemson. There's a lot of freshmen out there playing that game on Saturday, and we just made some plays down the stretch. In this league, with all the close games that you're going to have, being able to execute, it's a defensive stop and we'll get some wins. That was a big road win for us, our guys were really excited about that; the effort that they gave and the quick turnaround for that game and hopefully we'll continue to work and continue to get better. Q. Over the last month, you guys have alternated wins and losses. Has the performance been more consistent than the record? COACH GREGORY: Well, the performance, at times we have not played as well as I would like, but if you look at some of the scores of those games, the last possession against Clemson, last possession against Florida State, last possession against Clemson; those are our three losses in the last seven games. So we are playing better, there's no question about it. We are playing a little more consistent in terms of some execution. In those seven games, we won two close ones, Virginia and then obviously Wake Forest. And we lost three close ones in the two Clemson games and then the Florida State game. So you know, I don't think a lot separates, maybe the teams four through 12 or whatever the case might be. And so now you need to be able to, as I said earlier, get some key defensive stops, which we did in those wins, and then execute in crucial times, which again we did in those wins and didn't do it as well in some of the losses. So we were definitely a better team and we're playing better. The freshmen have done a good job of growing up on the court just as players and understanding the urgency that you have to play with every possession in this league. And we are still at our best when our upper classmen play well for us. So kind of a combination. We need freshmen to keep growing up and we need our upper classmen to stay consistent in their roles and what they do, and when we do that, we can be a pretty good team. Q. And with the matchup in North Carolina, they have been very successful lately with a smaller lineup that maybe has P.J. Hairston, quote, the power forward, unquote. You guys play a big lineup and you always have two big guys in there. How do you see that matchup? Is it something that you can exploit or is it going to be difficult for you to matchup with a smaller team when it goes that way? COACH GREGORY: They have played extremely well the last few games that they have gone to that smaller lineup. Yeah, it's a difficult matchup, and it is for just about anybody. No.1, even if you put a guard on P.J. or Bullock. Those are two of the best offensive rebounders around, so they can just bully guys off. We have to play Georgia Tech basketball. We have to do what we do and we have to challenge our guys to be able to start on the perimeter. And if you can do that, then you hope on the other end that you can take advantage of it. But we are still talking about Reggie Bullock, P.J. Hairston and Leslie McDonald; it's not like those guys are 6‑2, 180 pounds. Those are big, strong, North Carolina‑type wings and have always had great size and strength. So you have to be able to defend on the perimeter, and that means you're going to have to have your big guys stay active and make sure that they don't‑‑ big guys have a tendency to keep getting stuck towards the rim when they are off the ball and if you do that, you're going to give a wide open shot. Q. The trouble the other day‑‑ what was happening there and how much of that was Wake Forest defense? COACH GREGORY: In the second half when we went through that drought a little bit, is that what you're talking about? Q. Yeah. COACH GREGORY: Unfortunately it's part of our portfolio offensively. We usually have a stretch in the game where we don't really score a little bit. And give Wake Forest credit, I think they are an improving defensive team. I think with McKie and Harris, they have veterans that understand how you have defensively in this league. But Thomas is emerging as a very good low‑post defender, a guy who can block shots. Miller‑McIntyre has great size and he is going to be a tremendous defender in this league, as well. So we got out of rhythm a little bit and missed some shots around the basket that we just have to make. You know, we are at a point right now in the process in rebuilding where we execute something well, you know, we really need to‑‑ a high finish rate and we didn't have that during that stretch. Now all of a sudden, without changing anything that we do, I think we scored on eight of our last ten possessions. I think our freshmen scored our last 13 points. So what we have to do is continue to defend extremely well, and that puts a lot of pressure on our defense during those stretches. But in the gamesthat we have been successful on our defense has been able to hang in there and keep us in the games; and then if our offense does start clicking, we have been to overcome a four‑ or five‑ or six‑point lead, as opposed to if our defense wasn't good enough, now it would be ten or 12 or 14 points. We have been able to do that in a few games and what we need to do is offensively have those lapses, those scoring droughts, be three or four possessions, as opposed to six, seven or eight, which it was on Saturday. Q. In that stretch and tell me I'm saying it wrong watching the game, it looked like y'all were consciously going to Hunt. Was that true? And can you talk about him? It seems like after maybe struggling for a few games, he's coming back strong again. Am I saying that right? COACH GREGORY: And maybe it's the six‑minute mark or five‑minute mark, we made the decision, let's try to get the ball to Robert and Marcus, and I think Robert hit two post shots and we went Marcus on some actions, as well. You know, I thought Mfon ran the team extremely well, but we went to Marcus on a couple of those plays and he made some big plays for us and finished. I think it's one thing he's pretty good at around the basket and so forth is finishing. I thought maybe the play of the game, and it goes in as an assist, but only an assist, was we got an offensive rebound, kick the ball out to Brandon Reed, and he had a pretty good look at the 3 and he made the extra pass to Marcus who hit the 3. We have been preaching that, especially kind of reference the last question. Our guys are good guys and they want to be successful but sometimes when we go on those scoring droughts, the mentality is, I'm going to get us out of this drought. So sometimes we've got to do it maybe one‑on‑one, as opposed to maybe trying to find a way to give someone else a shot. And that was a big step. We showed our guys that clip yesterday before practice with Brandon throwing the extra pass and getting Marcus a wide open three. A couple free throws and we just figured down the stretch, we put the ball in his hands and he made good decisions. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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