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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 30, 2012Steve DonahueSTEVE DONAHUE: We had two very interesting games this week, one on the road at Virginia and then the other one at home with Miami. Very similar tales in that games were tied with seven, eight minutes to go at Virginia and then six minutes and change to go yesterday versus Miami where I think we're playing pretty good basketball for 30, 35 minutes and we just run out of gas. Give both those teams credit, older, more mature teams that really took advantage of us at that time. But been very pleased with our development of our young guys, doing a lot of good things for long stretches, and if we keep doing that, I know we'll keep getting better. Q. Can you just talk about‑‑ you talked about the good things you're seeing out of these guys. What's the biggest improvement? Where has it come since the start of practice to now? STEVE DONAHUE: You know, there's a lot of things. I think the one overall thing is that kids learning to compete with this intensity for longer stretches. Earlier in the season I think they were just overwhelmed at how hard you have to play for how long you have to play, and it's not there yet, nor I can't expect it to be since we just don't have any upperclassmen that have been through it. But the guys have really done a much better job of competing and preparation now is more of understanding how hard it's going to be in the games. I think you see that for longer stretches, and the guys really are understanding, gosh, if you go back to November where we were at to now, it's dramatically different. Q. The other thing I wondered, you mentioned that you played a very similar game at Virginia and at home Sunday. Usually with young teams, though, the road is really tough on them. Have you seen much difference in how they play on the road in tough environments as opposed to how they play at home? STEVE DONAHUE: You know what, I think this team is so young that they don't know how to handle home, either, so it's not like they have a comfort zone of saying, you know what, we've had great success here, we really feel good about ourselves. It's not at that stage. We're at the infantile state of most of these guys' career and they don't have that comfort zone at home. Sometimes on the road you get them alone, you get them in a hotel, you get some prep and you get some focus and you go in and you play a really good basketball game, you start feeling good about yourselves. That's an issue both ways. It's a positive in the sense that we play just the same as we do at home. Unfortunately you'd love for them to come out with an attitude about having some pedigree of success at home and feeling good about yourself and doing a great job. We just don't do that right now. Q. Is it just a function of youth that a team like yours will run out of gas and that they just don't know how to maybe pace themselves during a game, or what is it about that, that younger teams sometimes‑‑ STEVE DONAHUE: Yeah, you know what, I don't think it's as simple as that. I think we‑‑ unfortunately, in both those games, I think Miami and Virginia probably were outplaying us. We weren't great with the ball. We were defending really hard, but we're fighting ourselves still because we're just not‑‑ for our teams to be successful, we've got to be great with the basketball. So it's probably more of a tale of your mistakes finally catch up with you. And then obviously the mental and physical fatigue part of it really sets in. Yesterday in the second half we did a pretty good job. We were fighting it and doing a great job. We were shooting about 43 percent with six minutes to go in the game, they're shooting 27 percent. We have every right to take another step there, but we just didn't. And I think it's a combination of the mental fatigue‑‑ I really think the physical fatigue sets in first, and with younger kids, they just don't have the bounceback where some guys may take 20 seconds to catch their breath and they're clean‑minded and ready to go where our guys might take a minute and a half. By that time, three or four possessions, Miami feels great about themselves and they hurt us. I don't think it's real simple like that, and I don't want to just use an excuse that we're young. We're not executing like we need to for the majority of the game, and I'm afraid that the mistakes catch up to us. That's part of my job and our job is to get better. But I do appreciate the guys are just fighting as hard as they can at this point, and I'm very happy with it. Q. From a coach's perspective, do you have to perhaps fight a tendency to lose patience and not get frustrated, or with a veteran team you would probably have reason to do that, but with this team do you find‑‑ do you catch yourself before you‑‑ STEVE DONAHUE: Yeah, I do. You know, I go in each and every day, come to practice or a game and I prepare myself that there's going to be mistakes and slippages, and I'm going to try to use them all as teaching moments. But we're all competitive when we get in a game. I've got to check myself a few times, there's no doubt. But I don't think I'm human if I'm not like that. I think the key thing is that I can't have any lingering effect to bad plays, bad games. I've got to go on to the next play and really use it as a teaching tool and make us better. But yeah, there's no doubt I've got to catch myself. It can be very frustrating, and I'm just not going to allow myself to go there for very long. Q. I saw where Patrick missed yesterday's game, at least the wire story I read said it was just due to an illness. How is he and what's his prognosis for this week? STEVE DONAHUE: Yeah, it's not good. Unfortunately Patrick has mono, and it's an acute mono, so it's probably in the start of it. We're unfortunately probably going to miss him for the whole month of February. Q. What does that do to your rotation? STEVE DONAHUE: You know, I never‑‑ I've done this my whole life. I'm on to the next person, the next play, as I said to you, and there's nothing we can do about it. It's going to give other guys opportunities, and we're going to‑‑ I'm going to hope it's going to make us better in the long run, that somebody else has to come in there and get some experience and try to help us win basketball games. In the meantime Patrick takes care of himself, he sits back and we try to teach him, and this is a great opportunity to teach him what we're asking him to do without doing it. That's a benefit to Patrick. He's had his up, down years. Anybody we've had, he's had great moments and he's had really moments that he'd like to have back. I think this is a great chance for him to watch film and see what we're talking about without having to get emotionally involved in himself. Q. Last week you all played at Virginia. Can you talk about the role Mike Scott is playing for them? Without him they're a fairly offensively challenged team, too, and he seems to be really playing a large role for a team. His numbers might not be as big because of the tempo they play, but can you talk about the impact he has on that team? STEVE DONAHUE: Yeah, I don't think there's a player in our league that is more important to one team than he is. And it's interesting because he's‑‑ he takes jump shots, so your big kid who takes jump shots, you say, maybe you can live with seven, eight two‑pointers, and that's what he ends up making, so you've got to adjust. I thought we did a very good job on him. He makes six contested shots, and he ends up getting seven field goals total on 11 shots. They kept him off the foul line. But for their offense the percentage of baskets that he receives over the points they score, it's really a huge part of what they do, and as I said, he's not your typical guy. You know, you usually want your bigs, you don't want to settle for 17‑, 18‑foot jump shots, but that's what Mike does so well. They play with such great confidence. They know who they are. They have a purpose on both sides of the ball. It's five guys playing in unison on both sides of the basketball. No one cares how it gets done. I admire what Tony has done there, and he's really doing it with what he has and using it‑‑ both sides of the ball they play to their strengths. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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