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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 23, 2012Jeff BzdelikQ. Watching the Duke game it looked like down the stretch Tony Chennault really asserted himself, and that seemed to carry over in the Boston College game. Am I reading it right? COACH BZDELIK: Well, we need to stay aggressive offensively. The way Duke was playing the ball screens, Tony was able to get the driving lanes and put his head down and get himself to the basket. I want him to be aggressive, it just needs to be within the team concept. He's always been aggressive. He needs to continue to work on his decision making once he gets to the rim. He was able to get to the rim. But in the past he was able to get to the rim, but he's had two or three people on him. That's where he needs to not get himself so deep, play off two feet and find open teammates. Not that he's selfish, it's just it's a different game than in high school. Of course last year he had limited experience because of that foot injury. In many ways, he's still a work in progress as a young player learning the point guard position. Q. Since Ty Walker has been back and part of your starting lineup now, he seems to have a significant impact on games, particularly on the defensive end of the floor. How has that helped him change things? COACH BZDELIK: Well, he does a great job of protecting the rim. He's very long. Again, if you look at his career, he's had very little experience to draw upon, even though he's a senior. He virtually never played, to be honest with you. He's really starting to get comfortable and confident out there but, yeah, he affects the game in a positive way around the rim.  Coupled with the fact that he's been able to help us a little bit offensively, both he and Carson have really given us some quality positive effective minutes there at the center position. Last game against Boston College they combined for 19 rebounds and 7 blocks, something like that. So we've had some games where they've given us a double‑double over the last several games. That's been a position that's been strong for us. Again, Ty is someone who has a lot of potential, a lot of ability with his athleticism and length, and his ability to block shots, and we're going to need that if we continue through the ACC season. Q. When you've got a shot blocking presence and threat back there, how does that help the other guys? Do they feel like they can maybe be a little bit more aggressive in the way they're playing defense? COACH BZDELIK: Well, we've had some issues guarding the ball. So for Ty to be back there, obviously to erase defensive mistakes, that's a big plus for us. But, yeah, I think obviously it gives his teammates much more confidence to know that, hey, I'm going to work really hard defending the ball. But if for some reason, my man might get beat and help isn't where it should be, obviously we've got somebody protecting the rim. We've done a decent job with our defensive field goal percentage. But in the Duke game they just hit so many tough threes that obviously Ty's defensive presence had no effect. But it did have a big effect in the Boston College game because they were trying to go inside. We took away their three‑point game. And when they were driving to the rim, Ty did a good job of really making them either take tough shots, think about him, kick it out, or if they did try to shoot it over, they were getting it blocked. So he had a huge impact on Saturday. Q. When you look at Florida State on tape, what's changed with them from November, December, when they were really struggling to score ten points in a half against Princeton, to Saturday when they scored 15 in the second half at Duke? What's clicked for them? COACH BZDELIK: Well, I think Miller helps them. His addition. He wasn't there early on in the year. I just think that they're very confident right now. Confidence is such a fine line, and Miller gives them another added threat. This is a long, athletic team of grown men. They're really feeling great about themselves right now. I get the impression that‑‑ I think there's a lot of teams that their energy throughout the course of the game with their defense and their rebounding is unfortunately predicated on whether or not they're making shots. And immature teams, teams that are inexperienced or immature, if they're not making shots, it affects the other areas of their game. I think Coach Hamilton has done a great job of making these players understand if you're not making shots, you still have to defend with the great intensity that he wants or that we want as coaches. Because they're defending, you can get out. And if you're rebounding properly in the right way, you can get out and get easy baskets in transition. They're getting some of those transition baskets because they haven't lost their defensive energy. So I just think that they're defending at such a high level, they're rebounding right now at a high level, and they're getting out to get some easy baskets to compliment their half court game which they're feeling really good about, coupled with the fact that Miller has now joined them as well. I think it's all those kinds of factors. But we've also seen them go against Clemson just the other day and not score for eight minutes. I'm not sure how else to finish this question, but I just think that right now they're very confident. They're shooting the ball pretty well. They're defending and rebounding really well, so they're feeling really good about themselves. But they're like everybody else, they're prone to long stretches of coming up empty offensively. Q. Piggybacking on that question, how's your team's confidence after a different array of results over the past ten days or so? COACH BZDELIK: I think we're in a good place. I mean, we really had just one clunker, and that was NorthCarolina State where we just allowed the fact that we couldn't score to affect all areas of our game ask we had zero energy and just wasn't very good. I think Maryland we played well for good portions of the game. I thought Boston College we obviously played well on the road there. Duke made a lot of tough shots, but we competed and we scored. We just couldn't stop their barrage of threes. So we're feeling good about ourselves and we're anxious to compete against Florida State who we know is playing an extremely high level, and we're looking forward to that challenge. But we're in a good place. Yes, we are. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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