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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 31, 2011

Steve Donahue

THE MODERATOR: We have with us now Boston College head coach Steve Donahue. If you could, a few comments about your team and we'll open for questions.
COACH DONAHUE: Well, I think we learned a little more about ourselves and a little more about the league in terms of playing two very good teams on the road in Florida State and Duke. In those games, I thought there was a lot of positives that we can build upon for when we, once again, play another game and more importantly, play another road game.
So we are going to try to do that, and obviously we have two great games this week at home in North Carolina and Virginia Tech.

Q. What do you see as the key for you guys having a good second half of the ACC season?
COACH DONAHUE: Well, I think for the most part we have to continue to do what we do well when we play well. That's make teams really guard us. And when we move the basketball and do a lot of good things, I think we have a lot of skill players at every position. I think that makes us hard to guard. In the same sense, obviously we have to do all of the little things on the defensive end to continue to find ways to stop people. It's been our Achilles heel most of the year, and if we don't do that, obviously it's very difficult to win basketball games.
When we play well, we usually play good offense, and we figure out ways to get some intangibles, whether it's loose balls, rebound well, and obviously make sure we are playing much better defense.

Q. Why do you think the defense has been an Achilles heel this year?
COACH DONAHUE: Well, I think there's a couple of things. Unfortunately coming in, this has been an issue with the team. I think the guys were excited to play this offense, but in reality, the offense wasn't the issue last year. We were second in the Conference in field goal percentage last year.
We were dead last in field goal percentage defense. That's unfortunately what we are dealing with right now, and we are trying to do it every single day and I'm trying to do things strategically to figure out ways to get better, trying to figure out personnel things and trying to do everything we can to improve that to make us a better basketball team.

Q. How did Reggie and the team respond to not starting Thursday, and is it too early to say whether they are going to be back in the starting lineup?
COACH DONAHUE: You know what I think? I think as I said, we are trying to get better each and every day and that's something that I've always done with my teams. I thought in my past years at Cornell, we have always been better in February and I've been trying to find ways to take another step. I think that's all you saw there, rewarding kids, and I think people try to make it bigger than it is.
I'm just trying to reward kids that do a great job in practice. I think it's something that helps each team, knowing that it's very meaningful what happens in this practice session and that you are going to be rewarded if you play well.
I think it is too early to tell who is going to start on Tuesday, but I've been very pleased with everyone's attitude, including Reggie. He's done a great job coming in and really working extremely hard, as the other guys have, as well.

Q. Switching gears for a second, I know you didn't really enjoy Saturday's game over at Harvard, but have you been following the Ivy's at all this year? And can you comment on the job Tommy has done as he tries to complete the Steve Donahue triple this week?
COACH DONAHUE: I've followed the league from afar, and I think in the office -- we talk about the league, it's obviously something that we have great interest in over the years being a part of it.
But emotionally, I think it's been easier for me here if I just did not follow that team and I said that to certain people Saturday night. I haven't gone on the website. I haven't followed each guy. I have had no contact with my former players, and I think it was just easier for both parties and it would not have been fair to Bill Courtney that I did stay in touch. I just thought for both of us; it made sense.
I'm extremely impressed with Harvard. I think they have really good pieces. Every kid gets it. They all play as a team. They have enough talent to win, and no one cares how it gets done, and that's a dangerous basketball team as you saw them play us, and they did a number -- they were up by 25 against Colorado. They are a very good basketball team.
Now, that being said, I think Princeton and Penn are hard to beat on their home court.

Q. Can you talk about the difference in recruiting from the Ivy League?
COACH DONAHUE: You know what, I don't know if I would address the difference in recruiting. I haven't been through it enough to sense what other schools philosophies are and things like that.
There's advantages and disadvantages at every school and every league. There's some great schools in the Ivy's that have advantages over other schools. I think we are all trying to get guys to fit what we do, and that's what I'm trying to do here. I don't really pay attention to rankings and what teams get what players. I just don't do that.
More importantly, maybe my assistants do but we try to find kids that are going to fit us, and now that I've been threw this level for a few months and knowing the five guys that we have committed, I feel strongly that we are going to be very good basketball players for Boston College.

Q. Since you played Saturday, is it logistically possible for Corey to get to the Super Bowl or will he have to watch it with the rest of you guys?
COACH DONAHUE: That's a good question. I don't know. Obviously it's a once-in-a-lifetime and I haven't approached him about that now, so if he can, I mean, we're probably going to be off Sunday, so I think it would be -- if he can do it, I think it would be a great experience. But I have not touched base with him.

Q. With your style, to make an adjustment, in that he can go out to the perimeter now as well as be an interior player, and also defensively, how is he coming long offensively and defensively -- inaudible.
COACH DONAHUE: Offensively I think the basic difference is that we moved him to the four-spot for us in our offense. I think that's given him a great advantage on the offensive end. His ability to play against bigger guys, away from the basket, drive it to the hoop; he's such a good passer. He has great poise with the basketball and he's a hard matchup, and he still has offensive rebounds from the four-spot.
Obviously the give and take is that we have to figure out what he's in at the four to guard. We are probably at a little disadvantage size-wise. We have to make sure we guard more as a team and rebound. Defensively as a team, I think that's the thing and Corey has done a very good job for the most part in all those aspects.
Unfortunately Corey is not the only guy. We just have to figure out ways to improve our defense, and I go back to the original statement; it's not just the players, it's me figuring out a way to put guys in certain positions strategically, different personnel and Corey is a part of that. We have to figure out ways to help him defensively.

Q. You have several seniors on your roster, but what do you look for from Corey, for him, for the balance of the season that can really help you?
COACH DONAHUE: I think Corey has been very consistent in his effort. That's the thing I love about him is that there are certain games that he's just a handful for the other team and I think him playing that consistent basketball is just, as a coach, that's what you're asking for, so I kind of know what I'm going to get out of Corey every game offensively and defensively.
If he continues that, then I think we'll be in good shape the rest of the way, because I think other guys, older players have played pretty consistent as well. The issue is that we have got to figure out ways to make us all better, but Corey has done a great job coming in and I suspect him to continue.

Q. I'm working on a storey on Danny Rubin and I know he didn't play much in the Duke game, but how does a player like him go about impressing a coach like you enough to get the amount of minutes he's gotten over the course of the year? Have you done anything specific?
COACH DONAHUE: Well, I think there are quite a few things, and he's opened my eyes. I go back to that statement. I know what kind of player can be good for Boston College. I knew Danny in high school and wasn't sure if he was physically ready for Division I basketball on any level. I think what Danny did when he committed to come as a walk-on, as he got here and he got here early and worked with our strength and conditioning and made a huge advancement in his body; so he was more ready to play college basketball. So he put in the time.
He is a gym rat, so he really wants to get better. And probably took a couple months into practice and regular season for me to figure out that he's someone we could use utilize, and he's shown that every day in practice.
And finally we put him in there, and you never know how a kid is going to responds and he responds to game situations with great poise and stay there is and finishes shots when guys are flying at him and he's got enough toughness to compete. And those are the things that he did.
Now he's probably ran into a little bit of a wall here the last two weeks, but the last couple of days, seeing him coming back and playing with that confidence again and I'm hoping that he has another really good month left in him.

Q. Did you ever have this at Cornell where a guy you basically overlooked came in and surprised you and earned playing time right away?
COACH DONAHUE: To be quite honest, yeah, I think that's what has hopefully made me open-minded about recruiting at this level. We have had -- my guys that got scholarship offers at Cornell, and I watched them improve over the years, so I wasn't sure at this level that the guy could do that. Now Danny benefits from playing with really good older players. You don't know how he would have had to react if he was in the Ivy League and he would have had to do a lot.
I said this before, John Jakes was a kid that I didn't play for three years last year at Cornell in his senior year, I thought he changed us from a good Ivy League team to a Sweet 16 team, and I don't know why I waited that long, but I just kept an open mind and put him in there and he did a great job. And ever since then, I'm trying to be open-minded with all scenarios and kids. Just because Danny was a walk-on and all of the other guys played for three years and I'm watching him in practice and he knows our system and he's smart enough to know what he can do and he's helped our basketball team.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks for taking time being with us today. We'll hear from you the same time again next week.

End of FastScripts

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