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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 21, 2011

Seth Greenberg

COACH GREENBERG: Obviously it's exciting further. We played our fourth game in ten days and go to Wake Forest. Wake Forest is playing better. I really like Turrell and Derosiers's becoming a force inside.
I was a little disappointed this past weekend. We did some good things, we just didn't finish possessions. You got to give Virginia credit. It's a make and miss game. They made plays and make shots and put us in a hole. I like our kids fight. We've got a chance to get back in the game just didn't finish.
This week, Wake Forest is a team that can score the ball. They have four or five guys in double figures, and they drive the ball hard with a number of different players that can get in the lane. They're a different team than the last time with Tony Chennault adding them another ball handler that can make a play.
We've just got to make sure that we guard the basketball and finish possessions and play with a lot of confidence. Like I told our kids after the game, we're a good basketball team with a small margin of error. And we've got to continue to be confident, play hard, play together, and trust each other and finish the season as best we can.

Q. What kind of accomplishment is it for Malcolm to play 38 minutes a night in this league with all the demands you place on him?
COACH GREENBERG: I think it's -- well, he's not alone on our team right now, but he's like an Ironman. He's in unbelievable condition. He's fiercely competitive. He would never want it probably another way. He probably would like to get a little bit of a break, but it is demanding.
But I think going to the two-guard front has helped him a little bit, it's taken some pressure off him with Eric playing as well as he's played.
But he's done it now basically for three years. He's a superbly conditioned athlete. Again, he makes no excuses. We ask a lot of him on the offensive and defensive side of the ball, and he's answered the call.

Q. I was wondering if you could talk about how important it is for teams in this league -- nobody knows better than you do the importance the committee places on top 50 wins. There aren't as many ACC teams according to the RPI rankings in the top 50 this year. Can you talk about that and how important it is to win the games when you get a shot at them because you've got a couple coming up?
COACH GREENBERG: You want to win all your games, whether it's a top 50 game or not, you want to win as many games as possible. At the end of the season last year, we had top 50 wins on our resume.
Again, who knows. The committee looks for reasons to eliminate you, which is what they have to do because it's extremely difficult this year and probably in the future selecting a field because the culture of college basketball has really changed. Again, we just try to win as many games as possible and see what happens in three weeks.

Q. Are you optimistic because there are 68 rather than 65 this year? Is that a step in the right direction?
COACH GREENBERG: I'm not really thinking about it. I'm thinking how we're going to guard flat ball screens against Wake Forest, and how we're going to share the basketball and make better decisions than we did on Saturday.
I'm not concerning myself with it. It's going to happen over the next three weeks. For 50 schools, it's going to be torture for their fans and anyone associated with college basketball, listening to the changing landscape from game to game and week to week.
So if you use too much energy on that, you're probably using your energies in the wrong direction.

Q. How's the team morale doing after that tough loss to Virginia on Saturday?
COACH GREENBERG: Our guys are in good spirits. Disappointed we lost, but they understand that each game is a separate entity and just move on. You learn from it.
We did film yesterday afternoon after we had a special Olympics function for southwest Virginia. We hosted a special Olympics basketball tournament. Had all the kids involved with that. After that, we did film, and I think that brings another perspective a little bit for our guys. They understand. As soon as that game was over, the first thing I talked to them about was the next game.
You're going to lose games, and, again, anyone can lose to anyone in college basketball. It's just wait it is. It's the culture of our sport today. You've got to learn from it and move on. I think our guys are mature enough to do that.

Q. Can you comment on Jarell Eddie's status on the team right now?
COACH GREENBERG: No, if you want to talk about Wake Forest and Duke I'll be happy to.

Q. You talked about how much the guys on this team care about what's going to happen here. At the end, how much effort they put in. Do you sense at all part of what happened Saturday was that they put a little too much pressure on themselves to succeed?
COACH GREENBERG: I can't put my hand on that. That's something that's not real tangible. I can't put my hand on that. It's human nature. It's not just our team. It's 50-60 other teams. It's all the teams that are one and done. It's human nature and it is what college basketball is today.
Are they putting pressure on themselves? Again, I thought our kids played really hard on Saturday. I'm not sure we played as well as we've been playing. From their body language, I thought maybe it showed they were putting a little pressure on themselves.
Again, give Virginia credit. They made shots. We did a nice job of guarding four or five possessions right to the last second. Sammy makes one fall out of bounds on one side, then he makes them fall out of bounds on the other side. Evans makes the tough three. Give them credit.
I mean, again, we did some things, we got back in the game. We competed. If we are feeling the pressure, we've got a lot of company.

Q. When you look back on the last Wake Forest game, what parts of the game did you execute well but want to duplicate here tomorrow?
COACH GREENBERG: Made shots. I think we shot 58% in the first half. Thought we shared the ball, got out in transition, made the right pass and good decisions, and we made shots.
On the defensive end, I thought we were active in our defense. We kept the ball in front. We did a nice job of contesting shots and limit it to one shot.

Q. How do you feel you guys are handling key concerns you've had throughout the year? Jeff seemed like he was a little sick after the game, but there is only so much you can do with three games in seven days. But where do you think your guys are in that regard?
COACH GREENBERG: I've said all along. We're not going to build in excuses for anything that happens this season. When other people talk injuries, I'm not talking about injuries. We're not talking about freshmen and sophomores. We're not talking about any of that. If you want to build an excuse for your team. You can find 8000 excuses.
Yesterday we basically took off, and we'll go an hour and 15 minutes, hopefully we'll play with good energy and focus tomorrow. I'm not going to create reasons why not.
Again, I like my team. I think that they've played really well this year. I think we've played hard. It is what it is. You play the guys that you have, and you try to get them to play as well as they can. If you lose we're not going to make an excuse. And, if we win, we're not going to pump our chests we're just going to play the next game.
I'm not caught up in the fatigue factor. It makes a good story line, but it's not something I talk about. We're just trying to manage it.

End of FastScripts

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