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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 17, 2011

Steve Donahue

THE MODERATOR: With us is Head Coach Steve Donahue. Coach, a few comments about your team. Then we'll open it up for questions.
COACH DONAHUE: Well, coming off a loss at Miami, which I thought both teams played extremely well. I was pleased with a lot of things that we did in the game.
And when it came down to it, Miami really executed in the last two minutes. Made the plays that they had to to win the basketball game.
THE MODERATOR: Questions?

Q. Coach, you had a chance to see NC State last week. I wondered what your first impressions were of Ryan Harrell were, obviously a kid who takes the court, looks little in flight, but yet has some potential to his game.
COACH DONAHUE: Certainly does. E got it going in our game. I think as he gets more familiar with the speed and the physicality of the college game, he's going to be a terrific player.
Extremely quick, crafty around the basket. And I'm sure his shot will get more consistent as he becomes a stronger basketball player.

Q. You've taken it all by sort of his fearless nature being how slight he can be size-wise?
COACH DONAHUE: It's funny, I think one of the things that's most overrated in college basketball is size of kids.
It just doesn't seem to matter to kids who have whatever it takes, heart, character, toughness. I don't think size is a disadvantage. If anything, he does a good job of getting it under people and by people and he's quick and athletic enough.
You see it with a lot of kids. I just don't think size is that much of a factor as much as people realize.

Q. It seems like people on the outside have been surprised that your team has gotten off to such a good start. Was there a point after taking over the program when you thought to yourself: I've got a little bit more here than people think, has led me to believe?
COACH DONAHUE: When we took it over in the spring, I was just not sure. We put some things in. We had a couple of workouts. Obviously had some departures, and we didn't bring anybody in. All for this reason, to take a step back and make sure that what do we have.
We were very encouraged in the fall and actually over the summer when guys started coming in, they lost weight, they looked better. Our strength and conditioning coach said they're more dedicated than they've ever been.
They're texting me with the amount of shots they're getting up and doing all those things. And there's an enormous difference in the team when they came back in the fall. And then when we started putting some offensive concepts in, there's a very good basketball IQ among these guys that people probably didn't realize. But they're good basketball players. Most importantly, they've been through over 100 college basketball games together.
And I think they have a pretty good feel for each other.

Q. How is the team responding after the tough loss against Miami over the weekend?
COACH DONAHUE: We'll find out more today, most likely. Obviously, you would've loved to have won that one. There's a couple of things that could've went our way and it didn't. That's the way it goes in college basketball and in particular the ACC and how you respond.
Teams are so good, so well coached. The talent level, in my opinion, is very similar on all these teams. And now you've got to figure out how to beat the next team that's ready to go for 40 minutes. And that's our job today and tomorrow.
But I sense these guys have been through a lot. And we know there's going to be some ups and downs in this game, and then we're going to be the team that responds well and look forward to the next opportunity.

Q. And is there anything that you plan on working on like fundamentals of communication when preparing for Virginia or Florida State this week?
COACH DONAHUE: Not looking ahead to Florida State. But Virginia, certainly. We've got to continue to do everything a little better. And it's funny, I thought we did some things offensively and defensively really good in the Miami game. And obviously they were prepared as well.
I think our defense is getting better. I think we're defending and rebounding, transition defense all has gotten better. There's a thing I say finishing plays. Not quitting on plays. In particular on the defensive end but offensive end as well. Those things when I watch it I see our team getting better. And that's the job here, getting the practice today and figuring out a way to get a little better, whether it's a personnel move, a fundamental thing that the team has to do better, something that makes us better at the end of the day.

Q. You mentioned earlier the players who transferred out. How much of a blow was that? How disappointing was it that they didn't give you a chance?
COACH DONAHUE: In all honesty, when guys have left my program, whether I was an assistant at Penn or head coach at Cornell, I never was very disappointed.
And I don't mean to be cold about that, but to me the success of my teams have been that everybody's bought into what we do. So they're almost doing us a real service by being honest and saying, no, this isn't for me. And I move and turn the page and find guys who are.
And my experience at Cornell, in particular, taught me that lesson. So I never gave it a second thought. I loved the guys that came into the office and were excited.
I looked around, said we have enough to build this program the right way and I'm going to do it with guys who are committed. So, if anything, I was excited about it.

Q. Can you just give us an update on Reggie, first report was just a rolled ankle and he should be okay? Can you fill us in on how that's going?
COACH DONAHUE: He's going to be fine. It was just a rolled ankle.
THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

End of FastScripts

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